Boring is not an acceptable Halloween costume

Halloween: it’s the annual costume-themed party everyone is invited to! The difficulty with choosing a Halloween disguise is its infinite possibilities, so my goal here is to find and share some entertainingly worthy ideas.

Last weekend, I went to a rainy New York City for no reason other than to fulfill my insatiable craving for a city. While walking around, I realized how many costume shops suddenly appeared out of nowhere for the upcoming holiday. I walked into as many as I could, asking people in the stores and on the streets for their most outrageously clever ideas. While many New Yorkers dismissed my presence and most store managers denied me permission to pick the minds of their employees, my curiosity was only heightened.

As I was exiting a vintage costume shop in the Lower East Side, a homeless man sitting against the exterior brick wall confronted me, asking me what I was thinking of being for Halloween. I jokingly told him I wanted to be a “fly on the wall, but nobody will help me find that costume.”
When I reversed the question, he said with a glorious howl of laughter, “Nothin’. I already scare all the kids!”

After my weekend of findings in NYC, I asked my friends on Facebook for their “wicked” Halloween ideas. Taking the best of both results, combined with my own collection, I’m pleased to share with you the costume ideas that will draw attention, laughter, horror and pure envy.

New York University student Leila Gleich wants to be her favorite storybook character, Alice from Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” with an exciting approach. Gleich plans to buy a blonde wig, borrow her friend’s stilts and bake some cookies that read “EAT ME” on them.

“I’ll put the cookies in my trick-or-treat basket, but I’ll need to practice with the stilts sooner rather than later,” Gleich said. I hope she sends me pictures, but she may need a panorama option.

Last year, vampires and drooling blood were all the rage. But this year, according to a Spirit Halloween Superstore employee in Manchester, most of the adult customers who have visited the store so far want to be brain-obsessed zombies.

I can definitely work with this– if your goal is to scare, get some all-white contact lenses, smother some fake blood all over your face and use lots of black eye makeup. You could get really into it and actually chase people around demanding their brains, but that may quickly turn your zombie coolness into an orange jumpsuit failure, which is not nearly as fabulous. If you’re a girl and your Halloween goal is to seduce or at least torture some boys, I think a zombie persona could do it. Dress in tall dark heels, lots of lace and lingerie, and use lots of red stuff that looks like blood. If you can spare some lace, rip it up—who said looking like an evil mess couldn’t be hot?
When I asked my friends on Facebook, they gave me some great ideas:
“I’m going to be a tampon!”

“Tetris blocks…I hope you’re ready.”
“I’m going to rock ‘Sexy Spock’.”
“Reggie Rocket from ‘Rocket Power!’”

Halloween is celebrated and loved because it allows us to be whatever we want. Can’t think of something to be? Don’t want to pay for a costume? Look around, use anything you see and maximize your creativity– making your own costume is cheaper and more fun! And for Halloween’s sake, don’t be boring. If you’re going out to party with your friends, collaborate! Each person in the group could dress up as a fast food characters (Ronald McDonald, the Jack in the Box, the Colonel). If you can play the game “Categories” with a group of friends, you can put together a group costume theme. I’m just trying to figure out how I’ll pull off my lifelong Halloween dream: a sumo wrestler.