A Halloween Costume Recap

We’re officially one week out from Halloween, and if you haven’t decided on your costume yet, well, you’re not the only one.

There have been countless Halloweens where I threw something together at the last minute, almost always regretting not starting on my costume two weeks earlier, but that’s just the way these things go.

Today, I’m going to walk down memory lane and do a little recap of some of my past Halloween costumes. Hopefully, you’ll get an idea or two.

Normally, my plan of attack when deciding on a costume is to think about what I already have and work around that. That’s exactly what I did last year. I have round glasses and a pair of red Converse, so I decided to be Arthur. It helped that Arthur was my favourite show growing up, so I liked the idea too. The rest sort of fell into place: I already owned a pair of light-wash baggy jeans and a white button-up shirt. All I had to get was a yellow sweater. I was in a pinch for the ears, leaving them to the last minute, so I ended up just styling my hair in two small buns on the top of my head. Makeshift, but they did the trick.

Two Halloweens ago, I dressed up as Fleabag, my favourite show and character of all time. Again, this costume was pretty straightforward. I borrowed my mom’s old black trench coat, picked up a stuffed guinea pig and a pack of cigarettes, ordered a red dress with white flower detailing (finale episode), and dug out an old red lipstick from the bottom of my makeup bag. This is still one of my favourite costumes, though I have to admit not many people at the Halloween party that year got it. That said, the people who got it really GOT it. It was one of those ‘if you know you know” costumes, you know? And if you haven’t seen Fleabag, you need to watch it.

While I was still at university, I decided to dress up as Spinelli from Disney’s Recess. This was probably the peak of my Halloween costume ventures. I put a lot of thought and effort into this one. I looked enough like her and had short hair at the time, so it only made sense. For this costume, I wanted to recreate the reference picture to a T. I already had the orange hat (score) and Doc Martens (even bigger score). What I needed were orange and black striped tights, a red dress, a leather bomber jacket, and red hair ties. It’s all about the small details. The great thing about Halloween in university is that you live within a 5 km radius of all your friends and can usually borrow their clothes. I borrowed a short leather jacket and a red dress from friends. All I had to buy myself were the tights and the hair ties. As a broke university student, it really worked out perfectly. Maybe I should bring this costume back next year.

Last and probably least, you can rarely go wrong with being a cat for Halloween. I had moved to Vancouver in October of 2022, and when Halloween rolled around, I hadn’t even finished unpacking my suitcases. I was already stressing about finding my next job, and a costume was at the bottom of my list. Enter black pants, a black T-shirt, and cat ears from the dollar store. Sometimes simple and stress-free is the way to go. I got just as drunk and ate as much candy as I would have in an elaborate, well-thought-out number.

Moral of this story is: try to buy as little as possible when planning your Halloween costume, and when in doubt, you can ALWAYS throw on a pair of ears.

Happy Halloween!