After UVA students release a collective post-midterms sigh, they can start preparing for every college student’s favorite holiday: Halloween! This year, Halloween falls on a Wednesday, leaving the weekend of celebration up for debate. Will it be the last weekend of October, or the first weekend of November? (I believe general consensus is on November). Either way, the date is coming up, leading to the more important question: What will you dress up as? In previous years, I have planned my costumes embarrassingly early in advance (I came up with the idea for one of my costume last year in the summer…), but this year, I’ve been slacking! So, naturally, I’ve been perusing the Internet for great ideas and trying to remember some great costumes of the past. Here are some of the resources and ideas I’ve found:
1. Check out Pinterest – There are a bunch of boards on Pinterest for any kind of Halloween need – couple’s costumes, funny costumes, group costumes, etc! This board boasts 626 costume ideas–Sure, some of them are for kids, but they are easily updated for college students.
2. Base a costume off a current event-– http://socialtimes.com/halloween-costume-ideas_b80850 This article suggests some great costumes ideas based on memes of 2011. For 2012, what about Binders Full of Women? You can really run wild with that one
3. Come up with a creative group costume—Group costumes are always a good way to have a fun and creative costume. Try dressing up as the members of a TV show or band (Spice Girls?) or really any group of anything! This site lists some ideas to get you started: http://www.squidoo.com/group-costume-ideas-halloween
4. Use one interesting piece and work off it – for instance, if you have one great outfit piece, like a blonde Barbie wig or a 1980s blazer, work off that to create a great costume! You’ll save money that way. You could even compile your costume pieces with your friends to create a great costume for free. Or, go to Goodwill and look for the goofiest item and create a costume around it!
5. Remember rejected date function costume ideas—If you are in a sorority or involved in Greek life, you’re probably used to dressing up on a much more regular basis than the average person. Think back to your last costumed date function and remember some of the ideas that you came up with in your quest for the perfect costume. For instance, my sorority once had the theme “True Life: I’m a…,” where you had to dress up as an episode of the MTV show True Life. As you can imagine, this generated some pretty hilarious costumes, and would be a great place to start generating new ideas.
Hopefully with these tips you (and I) will be able to come up with some great costumes for this Halloweekend. This Halloween, remember the two rules of costume choosing: avoid at all costs store bought costumes and never violate the UVA Honor Code we hold to such esteem by stealing a friend’s idea.