My philosophy on dressing up for Halloween...

Just a pig and a mushroom

​Halloween is and always has been my favorite holiday. Whenever the sweet scent of fallen, decomposing leaves starts filling the air, I immediately recall that teenage thrill of being allowed to galavant unsupervised around the neighborhood just for one night. Walking from house to house in the crisp air after the sun went down, it felt like anything could happen.

Now that I'm older, I spend my Halloweens a little differently. My friends and I have walked in the NYC Village Halloween Parade every year since 2011, including this past year, which was the parade’s 50th anniversary! Anyone is allowed to walk in the parade, as long as you wear a costume. I like to think of it as “trick or treating for adults” because even though we're too old now to go door to door asking for candy, we can still venture out to get a taste of that spooky, All Hallows’ Eve energy. One thing I especially love about Halloween is that you can strike up a conversation with just about any costumed stranger you encounter. There’s a community to it; a sense that we’re all taking part in this tradition together, and that means a lot in New York City, where we spend most of our days trying very hard to ignore each other. 

Putting together a costume for Halloween has become something of a passion of mine, but I wasn’t always good at it. I’ll never forget that fateful year when I hastily grabbed a leopard bathrobe off the Salvation Army rack at the last second, attached some ears to a headband, and walked in the parade as “a cat.” My friend, who went dressed as a baby (complete with a diaper, belly shirt, pacifier, and bald cap) effortlessly worked the crowd of spectators and was a huge hit. I felt ashamed that I had the gall to walk in this historic parade, surrounded by giant puppets, live musicians and impeccably decorated floats, donned in such woefully inadequate attire. I decided then and there that I would never again let my fellow parade-goers down with such an embarrassingly lackluster effort. And over the years, after much trial and error, I have formed strong opinions around the art of dressing for this occasion. I share these with you below to spread the gospel of well-planned costuming, in the hopes that you may find it useful.

Your costume should have personal meaning to you.

What you choose to dress up as says something about who you are and what you like. If the costume you choose is special or nostalgic for you, you will have more fun embodying that persona, not to mention it will probably delight those around you as well. I like to dress up as my favorite characters from movies or TV shows (Xena Warrior Princess and Tails from Sonic the Hedgehog are two that are close to my heart). That said, try not to choose something so esoteric that very few people will understand the reference, unless you’re prepared to explain it all night. This leads me to my second point…

Your costume should be easily recognizable.

Nobody likes being asked what they’re supposed to be. Most people just want everyone to look at them and say, “Wow, great costume!” and mean it. Your costume should not require a name tag (unless the character normally wears one) and should not rely on having to repeat a catch phrase in order for others to get it. Choose something that has a visual giveaway, like an unmistakable hairstyle, outfit, or prop that makes it obvious. Generally I find that characters make for better costumes than actors, since actors tend to look like normal people when they’re not on screen. Specific tends to be better than generic. For example, I had a lot more fans at the Halloween Parade when I was Christina Aguilera from the Lady Marmalade music video than when I was “a flapper.”

Christina Aguilera in the "Lady Marmalade" music video

​Give yourself plenty of time.

This is the most important piece of advice I can give you: decide on a costume early and commit to it. I truly believe that choosing what to be is the most difficult part for most people. A lot of my friends will put off making this decision until the very last minute, so by the time they finally pick something, they have no choice but to throw a costume together with whatever they happen to have lying around in their closet, which often isn’t much. In the time it took them to make up their minds, they could have already been hard at work assembling the costume of their dreams!

Don't make this mistake. I would even go as far as to say that what you choose to be is much less important than how you choose to do it. I recommend making your decision no later than the 1st of October, but if you can get things started in September, even better. This should give you ample time to gather all the materials you need without feeling too rushed. This also allows you to order custom or handmade pieces that may take a little longer to ship (e.g. from eBay or Etsy). It also gives you enough time to order something, try it on, and still have time to exchange it for a different size if it doesn’t fit.

Scour the internet for inspiration.

I know figuring out what to be for Halloween can be tricky, but the Internet makes it much easier. You know how when you first sit down in a karaoke booth, it can feel like you have no clue what to sing, but later, after looking through the book of songs and hearing other people’s song choices, you suddenly have a plethora of songs in mind, and the remote needs to be forcibly wrested away from you because you’re hogging the microphone and refusing to let anyone else take a turn? It’s the same way with costume ideas. Try Googling terms like “cute Halloween costume for women” and see what images show up. Even if you don’t choose any of those particular costumes, they might spark another great idea and then the hard part is over. Also, feel free to copy someone else’s awesome costume if you see one that you like! Nobody will know, and it can lay the groundwork for what you need to get.

Remember to choose a costume that is realistically doable for you. For example, don't pick something that would require a great deal of artistic skill if you're not especially strong in that department. As you consider each possible costume, think about all the things you would need in order to pull it off, and use that to inform your decision.

Sonic & Tails

​Assemble your costume yourself.

Once you've gotten over the hump and you know what you want to be, the next step is identifying all the components that will help you get there. Rather than wasting your money on an overpriced, mass-produced costume from a Halloween store, embrace your creativity by doing it yourself. That does NOT mean you have to cobble something together using only the random items you already have at home. In order to really look the part, you'll likely have to borrow or purchase a few things.

Assembling a great costume doesn’t mean you have to spend a lot of money, but it does mean you have to spend ​some money and a fair amount of effort. I promise it’s worth it, because a well-done DIY costume always looks better. If you’re crafty, you can sew, paper mache, or hot-glue your own stuff, and quite frankly if that's the case, you probably don't need the advice in this blog. If not, there’s a good chance somebody else has already made the thing you’re looking for, and you can just buy it online, like this handmade felt hat specifically designed for anyone dressing as Mary Poppins.

You can also check out local thrift stores to find inexpensive, high quality pieces that were made to last, especially if your costume requires you to harken back to a bygone era. Even if you order everything through Amazon, taking the time to hand select each individual piece yourself will amount to a much more impressive-looking finished product than any paper-thin, wrinkly costume-in-a-bag you might find. Plus, you can take pride in the fact that you built the whole thing from scratch!

A good costume takes into account every detail, from hair and makeup to jewelry and shoes. Pay attention to little things like the particular belt or necklace a character wears. It doesn’t have to be an exact match, but the whole thing should come together to capture the overall essence. Even if you don't look exactly like the character you're dressing up as, if you include enough key elements, it will be a lot easier for others to tell who or what you are.​

Mary Poppins and Bert

​Be thoughtful about which pieces you splurge on.

Consider ways you can reduce waste by buying pieces for the long term. If your character wears a leather jacket, rather than spending money on a cheaply-made jacket that you’ll never want to wear again, might it make sense to take this opportunity to purchase a quality leather jacket you can get use out of even when it’s not Halloween? For my Mary Poppins outfit, I bought this carpet bag to complete the look, and it’s still my go-to weekend bag all these years later.

​I also recently visited Screaming Mimi’s vintage costume store in New York to buy a 1920’s style dress (they have an entire 1920’s section!). I have to say, it was SO MUCH FUN shopping there. I could have bought the whole store. Their costumes are on the pricier side, but now I have a flapper dress for any jazz-age lawn party I attend for the rest of my life!

Be prepared for various weather conditions.

After spending so much time and effort putting together the perfect costume, the last thing you want to do is cover it all up with a coat if it happens to be cold or rainy that night. Check the forecast and plan ahead for different weather possibilities. Be ready to double up on tights to keep your legs warm, or have an optional outer layer ready that matches your character’s aesthetic. For instance, when dressing as a flapper on one chilly Halloween, I managed to stay warm and toasty by adding opera gloves and a furry shawl that didn’t interfere with the rest of my costume.

Me as Xena Warrior Princess and my friend as a Piñata

​Wigs complete the look.

Over the years, I’ve come to believe that you’re never fully dressed (for Halloween) without a wig. Maybe it has something to do with my lack of talent when it comes to styling my own hair, but I think wigs are the icing on the cake and make such a big difference when it comes to transforming your appearance. After all, isn’t the real goal of Halloween to make sure you’re disguised enough that the murderous evil spirits won’t recognize you?

​If you can't find the exact wig you’re looking for, try getting something that’s close enough and using a brush or bobby pins to style it to your liking. The year I went as Sandy from Grease, I bought this curly blonde wig. Out of the box, the wig’s tight coils didn’t evoke Sandy at all, but after asking my hair stylist to help me tease it and pin it just so, it started looking a lot more “Tell me about it, stud.”

Hang on to your costume.

Even if you never repeat costumes from one year to the next, it's a good idea to save costume pieces like wigs and random accessories because they might come in handy for a different costume later. Over time, as your collection expands, you may find yourself having to buy less and less.

Tell me about it, stud!

​That’s it! Those are all the words of wisdom I've got. I think putting together a Halloween costume offers a wonderful creative outlet that allows you to have fun and express a piece of yourself to the world. There’s a certain magic in that childlike excitement we get as Halloween approaches, and I plan to fully embrace it for as long as I can.