If you are anything like me, you feel that buying Halloween costumes you’ll only wear once feels useless and wasteful. They end up buried in the back of your closet, in the trash bag for your next Goodwill donation, or worse, straight in the trash. It always feels like Halloween comes with so much pressure. I want to love Halloween; I almost have FOMO about not loving Halloween. I just feel like I can never get it right. You need the perfect plans; you need to be invited to cool parties or go out to bars with your friends, but every time I go to bars on Halloween, I feel like a sardine because of how packed people are in, like I can’t move or go get a drink, and worst of all, it reeks of BO.
You need the perfect costume; unique, but not so niche that no one knows what it is- just unique enough that everyone wishes they’d thought of it first.
Maybe there isn’t a way to do Halloween perfectly, but to quote Olivia Dean, “It isn’t perfect, but it might be.” Perhaps letting Halloween have its imperfections will, in a way, be enough. Maybe it feels like too much pressure to begin with because I am the one putting it there. If I wasn’t so busy playing the comparison game, maybe I wouldn’t feel like we’ve lost the plot of Halloween. The question is: how can Halloween feel fun, sustainable, and niche without feeling high-pressure and adding to mass overconsumption?
Shop A closet
Shop your own closet. Shop your mom’s closet. Shop your sister’s closet. Shop your friends’ closet. Shop your friend’s sister’s closet. It doesn’t matter whose closet it is; ask to borrow something. I guarantee you, people are more giving than you think. Someone definitely has a brown mini skirt you can borrow to be sexy Chewbacca.
Shop Second-Hand
Shop second-hand. If your boyfriend’s sister’s cousin doesn’t have a brown mini skirt, Goodwill, Vinted, Depop, or Facebook Marketplace definitely does. Don’t add to overconsumption for a costume you’ll only wear once.
Niche Inspo
Easy, niche costume ideas you can find in your own closet, a friend’s closet, or, worst case, buy secondhand. But also, someone’s gotta hold it down and keep the classics alive.
These are all concepts I have done my best to apply this year, and I might have come up with some of my favorite costumes yet. Although, I may still be on the fence about how I really feel about Halloween, taking the pressure off of the aspect of perfection has already made me feel more light as a feather and less stiff as a board. Let’s make Halloween casual again!