Crafting the perfect Halloween costume is an art form not to be taken lightly. It takes hours of doom scrolling online, searching hundreds of different shops for separate little pieces, and trying not to turn to Jeff Bezos or fast fashion. Each year creating the perfect balance between a unique/niche and a cool/recognizable costume becomes a bit harder. Before I jump into costumes I want to see this year I’ll give some inspo for where people are getting their inspiration.. If you have a Letterboxd or Goodreads account, I think those are great places to start for finding a costume personalized to you by choosing a movie you’ve watched recently or your favorite book. Pinterest can also never fail a girl, but you might grow tired of seeing the same couples as fantastic Mr. Fox after a while. TikTok is pretty repetitive if you’re looking at those It-Girl costume slideshows, but once you start seeing random people’s videos those get pretty creative and unique. So without further ado let me jump into some costume recommendations that you’ve probably seen before, but I’m not a magician, so I can’t pull a bunch of never-before-before-done costumes out of a hat, although trust me I wish I could. Â
So I’ve been seeing a lot of costume inspiration videos and there’s a trend of going as pop princesses or icons like Charli XCX, Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter, and Billie Eilish, but my idea for you is to take this a step further. My first thought that came to mind was Lady Gaga because she has countless iconic looks, from the meat dress to the cigarette sunglasses. I would say you could recreate Lady Gaga’s new Harley Quinn look, but I’d avoid that as the movie did not match most people’s expectations, mine included. Stepping away from pop icons, look at your Receiptify or most listened-to artists and make a fit. Just for going to class, I might be Noah Kahan because I have overalls, can French braid, and can make some stubble with an eyebrow pencil. Recreating music video looks will never fail to amaze and will help you find some true finds of your favorite artist.Â
Moving away from just singers, not enough of you are tapping into the celebrity market. They are giving us so much to work with with the amount of awards shows, red carpets, and even their Halloween parties. Just looking at the 2019 Camp Met Gala Theme you could recreate a lot of those looks on a budget. Zendaya’s light-up Cinderella dress would make an iconic look, maybe I’m getting too niche, but like scrolling through all the outfits there are lots of untapped outfits to take advantage of. I’ve seen the Kylie and Kendall 2019 look be recreated and it was iconic, so don’t be afraid to recreate other Met looks, but this would become trickier to purchase and fully form, but that’s your problem to figure out, not mine.Â
Here me out, but for a group costume that I haven’t seen done before is all the Greek gods. I think all the classics majors aren’t seeing all the possibilities they have. Put some wings on your shoes and weave a leaf crown and you could be Patroclus and Achilles.Â
Another costume that I do have to credit to Pinterest is different period clowns. Look up Pierrot or Auguste or Harlequin clown and the options for costumes are endless – it’s very easy to incorporate a corset into the look if you want to lean more into that vibe. Maybe I’m just a clown, but to me, this is a very affordable option because it basically includes layering a lot of bright colors and then cutting some buttons and a hat out of paper, and putting on a pair of Converse. Also, I personally love it when people recreate a classic Halloween costume with a modern twist, and I think a clown costume is the perfect thing to do this with.Â
My last costume recommendation is when you take something literal or at face value and turn it into a costume. The example my friend gave me was from the song “Stick Season,” where one person was a stick and the other seasoning. The saying “when pigs fly” is a classic example of this and I would love to see more based on your favorite lyric or expression.Â
Honestly, Halloween is the perfect time to get weird and show off your niche interests, so I’m sorry to say, that I can’t really tell you what to do for Halloween because the best costumes are usually the ones you are really invested in and put thought and effort into. Realistically, your costume might have been done before, and this is me holding your hand and telling you that that is also okay. No matter how many times I see the Joker or Patrick Bateman I’ll never get tired of them, because a good costume is a good costume(an angel and devil is a classic for a reason). So have fun with it and dress up as whatever you want, and if you can’t think of what you want to be, think of what 10-year-old you wanted to be, but your mom wouldn’t let you. If you want to lean into the nostalgic costume ideas, my friend and I were talking about how healing and full circle it would be to recreate some of our childhood costumes. So if you see me walking around as a Twister board this Halloween mind your business, because 8-year-old me was ahead of my time.Â