The biggest weekend of the year for the fashion girlies has just passed, and everyone was out in full force, dressed to the nines. There were the classics, of course; many ladybugs, devils, black cats and leopards, and prisoners to name a few, but it’s the layered costumes that really hit each time. I love a reference! Here’s a look at my favourite things I’ve seen this year!
‘I hate gay Halloween…’
Twitter is the place to find the most outrageous costumes of course, and this year it did not disappoint. When I say outrageous, I mean it in the gay sense, so, costumes that made me jealous I didn’t think of them.
There is an epidemic of people calling things ‘niche’ when really, it’s just not. For example, going as Glinda and Elphaba is not niche, at least not this year after Wicked. Even going as any press tour clip, see: ‘holding space’, wouldn’t really be niche. However, one Twitter user recognised this and took the Wicked trend just one step further, going as Cynthia Erivo’s nail! We’ve all seen the reaction pictures when Ariana holds her finger or she’s tapping her head to understand the concept, and someone ran with that! Everybody’s so creative!
Good, old-fashioned crime is back, and people are going crazy for it! In a modern world rife with pyramid schemes, phishing scams, and cybercrime, the world feels a new hope at witnessing a real heist, Oceans 8 style, and that is being channelled into Halloween this year. I have seen people dressed as the robbers, the jewels, and even the ladder! The people love real inspiration!
Quen Blackwell did the ‘woman in headphones with butterflies’ meme extraordinarily well. I’ve seen a few ‘old man eats paint’ costumes, some hyperpigmentation looks, and my favourite, Olivia Wilde nodding in the style of Mic’s Mike. Every year, people go all out for the meme costumes, but I think everyone blew it out of the park this year, and we’re all going to struggle to top it next Halloween!
It’s always brilliant when a group comes together and really commits, which I’ve seen through people learning the Boss Ladies dance from Dance Moms, Challengers trios getting up close and personal with a churro, and my favourite, a group of people dressed and acting as every Timothee Chalamet character! Willy Wonka stole the show of course! A deep cut I saw a few times was the Lesbian Tumblr Spectrum, and I just think that’s beautiful.
At house parties the film bros were inescapable, as usual. Many Sinners (who kind of just looked like Peaky Blinders…), some Leos in the new PTA (they were the most insufferable ones), the classic Patrick Bateman was a hit again, and even a few Brokeback Mountains for the guys without fragile masculinity!
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I love Halloween because everyone really channels their identities into their costumes in some way, and I just love to see it! It also brings out so much creativity and an outlet we are often missing in our busy lives, which is so important. I was whittling a stick in my back garden for my House costume, my friends were crafting pitch pipes for their Barden Bella’s outfit, it’s just fun! And we need more fun these days. I propose frequent fancy dress parties as the solution; give any function a theme and make some sort of costume mandatory, and the party is instantly better. And think of the pics after! We’ve got a Twilight birthday party next weekend, so I’ve gotta sort my Charlie Swann costume!