Name: Kasey Levin
Year: Sophomore
Major: Occupational Therapy
Hometown: White Plains, NY
Costume: Ms. Frizzle
Name: Meghan O’Brien
Year: Sophomore
Major: Occupational Therapy
Hometown: Reading, Massachusetts
Costume: The Magic School Bus
Her Campus Ithaca College: What inspired you to create this costume?
Meghan O’Brien: I was in South Carolina on a Habitat for Humanity trip last January and my group and I went thrift shopping one afternoon with the intention to purchase the absolute craziest outfits we could find. I scored the sunflower jacket Kasey is wearing and since then, I’ve been waiting for a chance to put it to use. Halloween seemed like the perfect time!
Kasey Levin: The Magic School Bus was one of my favorite shows as a kid and recreating these characters seemed like a great opportunity to get creative and have the perfect throwback Halloween costume.
HCIC: How many compliments did you get throughout the night?
MO: So many people would tell us how cool they thought the costume was and how they’d never seen anyone do it before, so that was pretty cool.
KL: Yeah, the best was when people would come up to us and start singing the theme song! That was definitely the best reaction we could have gotten.
HCIC: What is your favorite thing about the Magic School Bus?
KL: Just the nostalgia that it brings! In elementary school, you knew that when your teacher rolled in that big TV and popped Magic School Bus into the VHS it was going to be a great day. And you really can’t beat the catchy theme song.
HCIC: How long did it take you to put everything together?
MO: Actually making the costumes only took a couple of hours, but brainstorming the execution and figuring out how we were actually going to design the costumes was quite a process. We spent like an hour in Hobby Lobby trying to find all of the right materials and then we sacrificed a Friday night in to sew and hot glue all of our pieces together so we could make the costumes without all of our friends seeing; we wanted it to be a surprise!
HCIC: I know it might be hard to top this one, but what is your favorite Halloween Costume you’ve ever wore?
KL: Well, I was a cat for like 5 years as a kid so this costume pretty much takes the cake for me. It’s the most creative I’ve ever been, and Ms. Frizzle is basically my childhood hero so getting to be her for a night was awesome!
MO: Senior year, girls from my soccer team and I made our own Chinese New Year dragon! We wore it to Chipotle and got some strange looks, but the highlight of our night was when we charged the field during half time at our high school’s football game and danced around in front of hundreds of people!
HCIC: This is a really creative costume; do you have any advice for avoiding the Basic Halloween Costume trap?
KL: Every idea is a good idea, so don’t be afraid to be different!
MO: I feel like most costumes today are centered on trying to be as sexy as possible, and the innocence that Halloween has to offer is lost. Some of the best costumes come from finding inspiration from your childhood and just rolling with it!