Here it comes again, the best vacation of the year. Oh yeah, Halloween is your favourite, even above Christmas. The biggest and best parties of the year happen on Halloween and you get to dress up and be someone else for a while. You can’t do that on Christmas. As summer begins to wind down, you know it’s time to start planning Halloween – big parties and costumes to match. It only appears once a year, so make sure you don’t mess it up. Follow these seven costume tips and you can avoid the common Halloween costume mistakes that people make every year and instead have a costume that’s great.
Bullseye: Before you choose your costume, you need to know what kind of Halloween party you’re heading to and what your goals are. You could wear a super sexy or raunchy and fun costume to the party of the year with your friends, but you wouldn’t dare show up to a work party like that. Next, you need to know what you are looking for with your costume. What is your goal? Do you want to make them laugh? Or are you looking to make someone love you? Maybe you just have to dance the night away. Or maybe you want a costume that makes you live out our fantasies. These are all good and fine. It is important that you know what you are looking for and choose the costume that works.
Keep it FUNCTIONAL – The two big questions here are: what kind of party is it and what kind of party animal are you? Are you going to want to eat or drink a lot? Forget any costume that requires a full face mask. If you’re eating or drinking, you’ll want your mouth available for easy access. Waiting to come into close body contact with someone? Then you have to forget about big boxy, bulky costume ideas (like anything where you’re inside a cardboard box or anything that has sharp points or corners). If human contact is what you want, make your costume easy to hug. Do you already have someone? Coordinate your costumes and look like a couple. Looking to score? Get sexy. Do you intend to have a lot of fun and completely fade away? If so, do you remember that you could end up passed out on some grass or floor? Think ahead: how will this costume hold up to spills, vomiting, and lying in wet grass for hours? And most importantly, how will it look in photos, because you know a friend of yours will use their cell phone to take a photo of you passed out, or maybe your photo will end up on the front page, or there’s always the mugshot that to think.
Have a fit – the desired size just doesn’t work. Don’t buy a costume that is the size you “wish you were.” If taking a deep breath is going to break your seams, that’s a sign: get the next size up. If you have to hold your breath, lie on your back, or have your friends squeeze and squash you to get into an outfit, accept it, it just doesn’t fit. A costume that fits you well will make you look great. Then you will have people looking at you for all the right reasons. You want that “Oh yeah” look, not the “What the hell was I thinking?” look.
No encores: Don’t show up to the big party in the same outfit as last year, no matter how big of a hit it was. Go ahead and reuse some of the costume pieces, if you like, but create a unique and fun look for each year. If you’ll be attending multiple Halloween parties over a few days, you don’t want to show up in the same outfit night after night. You have two options here: have multiple costumes, or at least change your costume for each party by adding a twist or variation each time.
All eyes here: Everyone has some attribute that really works for them, whether it’s hair, eyes, legs, arms, chest, or abs. Think about it for a second. What is its best feature? Wear a costume that puts the focus on that area. Use your costume to draw attention to your strengths and play down areas you’d rather people didn’t take as much notice of. So, if you have nice legs but a bit like a muffin, don’t go for a costume that covers your legs and lets your belly hang out. Go with the short skirt or something that shows off those sexy legs, and choose a top that covers the dog.
sexy vs slut It seems to me that many people today are not very clear about the difference between skanky and sexy. Don’t turn Halloween into National Slut Day. Showing a little skin is good and fun: tease and tease a little, make them wonder, even provoke a little fantasy is fine. You can be a little revealing without coming across as a total slut. If you have all kinds of T&A exposed everywhere, you’re not sexy, you’re skanky. The buttocks spread out for all to see, the buttocks stick out or whatever nipple shows and you’re walking into skankville, for sure. We could go on and on about this point, but here’s a good rule of thumb to follow: If Brittany Spears wore it, she’d probably be skanky, not sexy.
Attack of the Clones: A cool new costume is out, so you buy one and get all excited, only to walk into the party and find out you’re one of 50 people wearing the exact same outfit. Not exactly how you wanted it to be, huh? It’s just not cool to be one of the zillion Batmans at the party. Add a personal touch to the costume or modify it and make it totally unique. The way you accessorize makes all the difference in the world. Think about wigs, shoes, boots, boas, glasses, and socks to start with. Get creative and put together an outfit that is totally yours and yours alone.
There you have it, seven simple tips that can save you all kinds of pain, frustration, and embarrassment. Seven simple tips that will get you ready for a great Halloween, at least when it comes to costume. The rest, all that stuff about how to act and what to do, is up to you. We have done our part.