5 Tips for Finding a Halloween Costume
By Charla on Oct 27 Filed In Austin, Texas, Events, Uncategorized, arts & crafts 5 Comments
I’ll be honest here. When it comes to Halloween, I am the ultimate costume procrastinator. Every year, post the mad rush around town to put together some pathetic excuse for a costume, I’ll tell myself and my husband, “Next year we’ve got to start thinking about costumes before the week or day of Halloween.” I’m sure you can imagine how effective that tactic is. I could make it my New Year’s resolution and still come up with the same result.
Here’s a quick example of one of our most infamous last minute costumes, please note, my husband usually ends up being the brunt of the joke because I’m usually tasked with finding something and he’s not up for the chaos that takes place. About four years ago, day of Halloween, we still have no costume and yet we have a party to go to. I run around to Target, Goodwill, Spirit Halloween store, etc. etc. and each one looks like a tornado hit it. Tired and running out of time, I decide to get “crafty”. (I use that term lightly.) I left Target with a gray sweat suit, felt (black, gray, pink), one face painting kit, headbands, pipe cleaners, white fur and black fishnets. Do you have any guesses on the end result?
I was a kitty and my husband a rat (aka “el raton”). The moral of the story is that husbands should not leave the last minute Halloween costume debacle solely with their wives, or they can end up as the dirty rat.
So moving forward, I provide these handy tips…
1. Know your competition. Looking at trends for 2009 Halloween costumes is a great start. If you are a true procrastinator, nothing is worse than showing up to a party in your last-minute costume to find that you have a twin. Only your twin actually put thought and time into developing a spot-on costume and has no need for a name tag.
According to HalloweenMart the Top Five Adult Halloween Costume Trends for 2009 include the Vampire (due to hits like Twilight’s Bella and Edward, True Blood’s Bill and Sookie and The Vampire Diaries), the King of Pop Michael Jackson in all his many looks, Reality Stars like Hugh Hefner and Kate Gosselin, and Zombies (whether inspired by Thriller or the new film Zombieland).
2. Don’t be scared to get crafty. However, I’m pretty sure Swine Flu will be more than covered this year. If you’re going to get crafty and create something on your own, avoid these common costume puns and give us something more original than the Cereal Killer, Black Eyed Pea, or One Night Stand.
Watch out for the Swine Flu!
3. Hit up a truly original and fun costume shop like Lucy in Disguise with Diamonds on South Congress in Austin, TX. This costume shop is open all year long and has a plethora of ideas to get the creative cogs rolling or at least to make sure you don’t show up as yourself…or El Raton.
4. What was your favorite cartoon character or movie star as a kid? Make a list and figure out how to make one of these ideas happen. If you need help, google tv shows and cartoons of that time period. Tapping into favorite memories not only will help you get more excited about developing a great costume, but even if it turns out sub-par, you’re likely to win brownie points for striking a positive memory with some of your friends.
5. Start calling around. More than likely you have a friend or two who has a costume idea that could benefit from having more people involved. Just think of all the Village people, Thriller zombies, Smurfs, Wizard of Oz, Addams Family, Scooby Doo, or other such famous group costumes that benefit from another friend doing their part. If nothing else, they might have a costume from last year or the year before that you can borrow.
As usual, I’m still working on putting together my costume and yes, that of my husband. I’m certain we’ll come up with something, we always do. If you see us out and about on Halloween, just try not to laugh at us, but with us instead.
What are you going to be this year? I’m dying to know.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by April Riggs, SweetLeafCharla. SweetLeafCharla said: Trying to figure out a killer Halloween costume? Check out these 5 tips from yours truly: http://bit.ly/1C9Br1 Please share your ideas too! [...]
I will be Uhura from the new Star Trek. My boyfriend is going to Spock. His sister made my costume out of a giant red t-shirt from Wal-Mart and a bit of gold ribbon. This is literally the best costume I’ve ever had and it cost about $10. Yay!
Hi Bevin, that sounds awesome! Stay tuned tomorrow for a new Sweet Leaf Tea contest…you should definitely enter!
Hey, Charla! My office group is doing a group dress-up…president Obama & secret service agents. We have an entrance with “Hail to the Chief” and everything for our office Halloween party. Have a wonderful Halloween and tell Micah…HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
[...] be Halloween if I didn’t rock some crazy outfit! Still looking for costume ideas? @SweetLeafCharla wrote a cool post last year where she shared some good ideas. Consult and get creative! Scary [...]