This costume that makes it look like you are on a real hoverboard is AWESOME!
Of course, it only looks good from one angle and only if you’re standing in front of a black screen.
Via: Your Halloween Costume Next Year Should Be This Great Hoverboard Getup
Pop Sugar has a great collection of costumes for women:
I particularly liked Katy Perry dressed up and Jane from the cartoon, Daria:
I liked this costume for sadness
I always love to see creative costumes for girls that don’t involve princesses or perfect people. Girls can be anti-heroes, too.
This costume that I found on IKEA Hackers is brilliant!
Ingredients:
Directions:
What would be really cool is if you do this with a group of friends, so you all show up at the party with giant eyeball heads.
I love this video showing you how to do some easy costume ideas.
Here is a video from Two Broke Geeks giving tips for creating costumes for $10.
All of these costumes are super geeky and not all that easy.
Hope these help you folks who aren’t obsessed with Halloween and need a last minute costume.
I love this photo from Retronaut of an actor dressed up as the Mad Hatter.
I love how calm he looks in the photograph. He doesn’t look “mad” at all. How could an insane man sit so still and serenely? I much prefer Mike’s take on the costume.
I love the look of this mask for a Halloween costume from kongorilla. A black turtleneck and jeans with this mask printed up on black cardstock would be perfect.
In fact, they have made a version with that black cardstock and some glow-in-the-dark tape.
So cool!
Via DIY low-poly mask, now with glowing edges! – Boing Boing
I love the REALLY scary costumes that The Joy of Tech came up with last year. They always make me laugh and I love the inside jokes they make (like the one with the Chinese chips with a HUGE back door).
I love this one, Trans Fat Molecule, but if you want to see a REALLY good (and scary) costume, click on over and look at the costume called Sedentary Lifestyle. THAT would be a funny AND scary costume. Of course, it would be one of those costumes where people are asking all night, “What are you supposed to be?”
If you’re racking your brain, trying to figure out what to be for Halloween, here is a big list of funny and scary costumes.
Happy Haunting!
If you’re trying to think of some easy and silly ideas for your Halloween costume, Troye Sivan had some good ones last year.
Some of the ideas are kind of dorky, but they gave me a chuckle.
Last year, my sister, Stacey, came as Effie Trinket from The Hunger Games. She won for Beast of Show, meaning that she got 3-4 votes in EVERY category, giving her the most votes anyone received last year. It’s not surprising, because her costume was PERFECT!
We worked long and hard on her clothes, turning a horrendous pantsuit from the 80s into the jacket. A overly frilly t-shirt from the 90s became her skirt. She went to extra effort on her flowery headpiece and choker as well.
And her HAIR!! That is HER hair (not a wig), curled, backcombed and sprayed white and pink! She said she had to take a TWO hour shower to get all the coloring out of her hair.
You can barely see it, but we even were completely authentic with her finger nails.
After gluing on artificial nails that were the proper length, I used Sally Hansen’s Gem Crush in Lady Luck for the base.
Using a makeup sponge, I dabbed on China Glaze’s Cleopatra glitter polish on the tips.
I followed this YouTube tutorial:
It’s surprising how little details like your manicure can make or break a costume. Stacey went all out last year and she ended up with the Beast of Show prize for it!
Last year, I won a prize for Scariest Costume for my Raiders of the Lost Ark Melting Nazi Costume.
After the break is a tutorial for how I made the mask… (Continue Reading…)
Last year, when I wanted to be a mummy, I had a bit of a problem. The mummy costume that had been handed down to me by Stacey was too tight. I had a choice. I could find (or make) a new costume or lose ten pounds. So, I looked for a mummy costume that would fit me a bit better than the old one. All I could find in the stores was the costume on the right.
It wasn’t really what I was looking for. I didn’t want to be a sexy mummy. I wanted to be a scary mummy. The theme for our party last year was Scary Monsters, Super Creeps. In the end, it was easier for me to lose the weight (only lost seven pounds, but it was just barely enough) to fit into the old costume than to find a new one that wasn’t overtly sexualized.
If you are sick of the Slutty Costume Phenomenon, then here is an alternative.
These folks have a ton of suggestions for costumes of women that are inspirational, powerful and not particularly slutty. Of course, lots of the costumes are just famous women from the Victorian Era, which is kind of disturbing to me because they forgot all the women like Madeline Albright and Margaret Thatcher because they just wore normal women’s business suits.
Of course, every damn one of these costumes would turn into an evening of, “Who are you?” questions, followed by the boring explanation. Lisa Meitner might have been the woman to discover nuclear fission, but NO ONE has heard of her, so your costume just turns into a boring lecture on patriarchy in the sciences. The best costumes don’t need to be explained, so choose wisely.
Ironically, I won the prize for Sexiest Costume last year, even though I tried so hard to be scary. And the most ironic thing of all is that it felt REALLY GOOD to win that prize.
Last year the Ohio University STARS launched a campaign called, “We’re A Culture, Not A Costume.” Here are the posters they created.
I love Halloween, so when I think of many of the costumes that I’ve worn, I wonder if I had been a racist with any of them. Where is the line drawn? There are those who have wondered why a white guy with a photo of a cowboy wasn’t included. Why is the cowboy costume not offensive?
I think the difference is when you dress up as a person of another nationality or culture it can be perceived as ridicule. Even if you never meant it that way, it can feel like the costume has boiled an entire culture down to a stereotype. So a geisha costume reminds an Asian girl of every time a guy expected her to be subservient just because of her appearance.
When is it alright to dress up as another nationality? Is it ever?
Personally, I think the line is not with intent. There are few people out there who set out to offend or harm anyone. None of us intend to hurt people’s feelings, so saying that you didn’t mean to offend someone with your costume is not enough.
I think you are safer with a costume depicting a specific person, such as Sayuris, the heroine of Memoirs of a Geisha, rather than just a normal geisha girl. Of course, it would take conversation and explanation to get this idea across and those are hard pressed in a noisy Halloween party. In the end, you may still offend someone.
In fact, MANY of our costumes from the past could be offensive to people. The year Stacey came as an old lady with a walker and offered linty candy and used tissues to people could be called ageist. Dressing up as a hippie, a tourist or a goth could be offensive. The costume staples of princess, cheerleader and kitty cat could be considered sexist. It seems that there are very few costumes that could NOT be construed as an insult.
So, how do you dress up without hurting someone’s feelings? Here are a few tips:
When in doubt, throw it out: If you are worried that someone might look at your costume and think that you’re a racist, then DON’T wear it. That inkling of intuition is there for a reason. Find another costume.
Choose fiction over reality: If you dress up as Mr. Spock, Harry Potter or Shrek, no one can accuse you of offending them, even if they are a highly logical geek, fantasy nerd or Scottish bore.
Choose historical figures over anonymous people: Dressing up as Martin Luther King Jr. is VERY different than dressing up as a random black man.
If you have to do elaborate makeup to change your appearance, you might be toeing the line: Covering your entire face with makeup to make your skin a different color, altering the shape of your eyes and even wearing a wig might be enough to offend someone. The more you need to change your appearance, the more likely your costume may be perceived as offensive.
Halloween is supposed to be FUN and thinking about whether your costume will offend someone can take some of the fun out of the preparations, but making a costume that hurts the feelings of a friend can suck the fun out of any evening. Take the time to be sensitive about your costume choice and you’ll ensure an evening of fun for EVERYONE.
Of course, sometimes Halloween just needs to be for fun:
If you own two iPads that are able to do FaceTime, then you can create this cool costume that lets you see right through your body. This YouTube video explains it:
Here is another video showing the same effect with a more gory costume:
There are limitations to this costume, because you need to have access to a good WiFi signal to make it work. Otherwise, you’re illusion will turn into FaceTime screen constantly throughout the night.
Via: iPad FaceTime Halloween Costume Lets You See Right Through Your Body – Mac Rumors
I’m considering this costume this year because our theme is “Let’s Go To The Movies.”
Plus, it’s scary and I’d really like to be scary for once.
If you have no idea what this is, it’s the bad Nazi guy who melted after looking into the Ark in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Via: Reddit: My friend accidentally looked inside the Ark. Will he recover?
I did do that costume for Halloween. Here are the pictures:
I melted red, pink and peach crayons over the top of a skull mask and the effect was perfect.
It was so good, I won for Scariest Costume this year.
Tune in next Halloween for a tutorial on how to make this costume for yourself:
Retronaut posted some cards with costumes for Fancy Dress balls from 1887. Some of them were very interesting.
Here is a costume called The Hornet.
This one is called Magpie. I sure hope they aren’t suggesting wearing actual magpies (stuffed or live) on her head and shoulders.
Here is a good old fashioned Witch costume.
It looks very much like a witch costume you could buy today at Amazon:
Finally, here are some children’s costumes.
It funny how different costumes can be, but at the same time, they are VERY similar. The only difference now is that the normal clothes of people living in 1887 are now costumes of today. I suspect that will be the case in one hundred years. Our every day clothes of today will be the costumes of tomorrow. In fact, I have seen that within my own lifetime.
Alex’s little sister got to be a ballerina, but Alex had the best costume of all: a bag of groceries.
I love the receipt dangling out of the bag in one long strip. It’s the perfect touch. Awesome costume, Alex! Keep up the good work!
Photo via: Bag Lady « AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com
I love the inventiveness of this Toilet Bowl Costume from Carolyn Terlet.
It looks like a Porta-Potty connected to a white box. Add a white mask, turtleneck and leggings for the finishing touches. They used a flushing handle made out of aluminum foil and a clothes pin, but a REAL toilet handle is pretty easy to come by at the hardware store, so I’d go that route.
According to Carolyn, the candy went in the toilet bowl. Brilliant!
This year, our Halloween theme is 60’s and 70’s. I absolutely LOVE this costume idea because it reminds me of the Roy Lichtenstein paintings in the Sixties.
This was created by a M.A.C Cosmetics artist for Halloween last year and I think it’s genius. They started by using white makeup on her face and then added the black lines to highlight the features.
Then they used a dowel twisted into red lipstick to create the red dots on the face.
The finishing touches include a bright yellow wig, oversized earrings and a dress made from polka dotted material (which might be the most difficult part of making this costume).
One note of caution: if you are going to a Halloween party, this kind of makeup is VERY difficult to keep for an entire night. One touch to the face, and the image is ruined. Make sure you do a test run at least two days before your party so you can perfect your technique and practice NOT touching your face for the month before so you have a chance of living through the night without smearing your own makeup.
Via: Go Retro!: A Halloween Costume that Really Pops
Felicia Day did a similar look for Comic Con this year:
I love this costume. It looks like an 8-Bit rendering of her face. All it takes are some makeup skills and simple patches sewn onto a plain shirt.
I wonder how it looks when she closes her eyes. Excellent work!
Via: A Fantastic Halloween Costume: 8-Bit Low-Res Makeup And Shirt – #26035 – NOTCOT.ORG
I can’t believe how much I love this Recyclobot Costume from Mother Rising.
He took his Recyclobot for a spin at a Halloween party at our local community center and he made quite a scene. Children circled around him trying to get a closer look, and parents were taking photos. I could hear him inside saying, “I’m not a real robot…I’m just pretending”.
Not pictured, she also had dryer tubing for his arms. It was even better in real life because she used some LEDs under the bottle cap eyes to make them glow.
The tiny LED lights can be found in the wedding section at Michaels and are often used to illuminate balloons.
If you can’t find them at Michael’s, then you can buy them here for 18 bucks a bag.
They have three settings: constant on, slow blink and fast blink. They last for approximately 8 hours on a button battery, so that’s plenty of time to last for a Halloween party.
I had never heard of balloon lights before I read this entry, so I’m excited about all the things you could do with them. High tech costuming just got a WHOLE lot easier! Imagine being able to make yourself a positronic brain just like Data in Star Trek.
When I first looked at this costume, it just looked like a normal kid’s robot costume, but when I heard about those balloon lights, my whole life shifted just a little.
If you are looking for something to make for a costume, you can’t beat this cool helmet. You can download the .rar file here:
I like to do papercraft and if there is a cool way to easily add to your costume without using a lot of money, papercraft is the way to go. You don’t have to be into Final Fantasy to enjoy the cool awesomeness of this, so here is a great way to do a costume on the cheap.
Every year, San Diego’s Comic-Con has a huge costume and presentation contest. Here is a video of some of the best and what the judges look for:
Video via: Watch Singing Skeletor, Jawa Pimp, and Disney Cheerleaders – Cosplay – io9
While looking at the costume sites online, I found this cool Mad Scientist Costume. You can see it in more detail here:
When I saw this costume, I realized that it would be a perfect and easy steampunk costume. It comes with the brown robe, the apron, gloves and goggles. All you would need would be a top hat and some good knee-high boots and you’d be DONE! EASY!
From now on when people don’t know what steampunk is and still want to follow along with the theme for the Halloween party, I’m forwarding them a link to this costume.
Check out the closeup of the goggles. It’s almost worth the forty bucks just for those cool goggles:
For women it’s a little more difficult to find anything really good. I didn’t want to have a costume that was too revealing, so I used a prom dress and the corset and top from this Tavern Wench costume. If you want to go the sexy route, there are a bunch of vampire and pirate costumes that could be repurposed for Steampunk.
This pirate costume would work as a Steampunk outfit if it were coupled with leggings, combat boots and a good brass gun of some sort. Even that hat would work as long as you wear some cool goggles around your neck.
Also, the intersection of vampire costumes and steampunk are strangely similar. This vampire costume is perfect for steampunk, just lose the choker and collar. It comes with the top hat, so all you need to do is add some steampunk gear and you have an easy costume.
I’ve been planning my costume for months, so I’m feeling a little surprised at how easy it can be to throw together a Steampunk costume. Tomorrow, I’ll talk about Steampunk Gear.
After much gathering and sewing and plotting and planning, I’ve finally finished my Halloween costume. This year’s theme is steampunk, so my costume is all Victorian and funky glasses.
The dress is a prom dress I found at Thrift Town for fifteen bucks and a corset from a serving wench costume.
The hat is a derby hat I bought at Thrift Town for a couple of dollars with fifteen dollars of flowers, feathers, beaded trim and tulle sewed onto it. I used this hat as an inspiration for it.
The jewelry is from my collection of jewelry from the Eighties and the mourning pin was from my grandmother’s collection of “junk” jewelry.
The spectacles were found in a little shop in Baker, Oregon that time forgot. It was stuck in 1986 and still had all the “cool” stuff from back then. They kept their inventory for so long that cool finally found its way back to it.
You can see more photos of the costume here:
Honestly, my Halloween costume has birthed a life of its own and I’ve written an entire story about it.
There are five entries to the story and one will post at Steampunk Stories every Wednesday until Halloween. ENJOY!
Check out this awesome garden gnome costume. You don’t have to sew a thing!
Who knew a couple of Fun Noodles, some fabric and some toddler clothing could make such a rockin’ costume. I don’t really think it would work for adults, however, since the size difference is so big between adults and gnomes.
On the other hand, I can’t really think of a kid that would really WANT to be a garden gnome for Halloween. It kind of reminds me of the kid who came to our house a few years ago as a table. I swear that kid’s gonna be in therapy for a LONG time.
There was nothing like the costumes that they used to sell in the late 70s and early 80s. They were made of plastic, had flat masks and looked NOTHING like the character that they were portraying. Instead, the costume showed a picture of the character on your chest.
Enter Exhibit A: PlaidStallions’ Yoda costume from 1980:
He explains:
I decided to go for realism with the costume by adding the greenest sweater I owned, some playtex gloves and my pajar boots, just like Yoda didn’t wear. I don’t why I was trying to add realism to a dark blue suit with Yoda’s face on it, guess that comes with being nine.
Click on over to PlaidStallions to see a full-sized photo and other great stuff from the 70s and early 80s.
I got an email back in January:
This morning I googled “Tres Hombres” to find some information for work. I came across your “found” Halloween photo, and thus began a wonderful one-hour journey into your site: the Halloween subsection (I’m a huge Halloween fan), a short foray into Laurie Lipton, party photos etc, etc. I notice you’re located in SLC, as am I; then I came across your Halloween photos. The Norton’s photos surprised me as I’ve known David and Mary for several years. Wow…what synchronicity! I think when she was the kitchen witch in that photo she was wearing a hat she borrowed from me. =D
As you’re a costume aficionado I’ve included a couple photos of my own…and two photos I took at the cemetery in the Avenues for a photography class. I’m looking forward to future visits to your site and seeing more about our common interests.
Regards,
TaMara Gold
And what costume photos! They are totally AWESOME! Check them out here:
Tune in tomorrow to see her cemetery photos in their spooky brilliance!
Plaid Stallions has a photo of this awesome Dr. Who costume from the seventies:
I loved Dr. Who as a kid and I would have actually liked this costume. Unlike a lot of the costumes at the time, it is trying to look like the person it’s representing. When I was a kid, most of the costumes just looked like pajamas advertising whomever they were supposed to portray. As an example, see Wil Wheaton’s Halloween in 1977.
This one is MUCH better!
I never got to wear a costume like this. By the time I was allowed to celebrate Halloween, I was too old for a mask and pajamas. I had to have a MUCH more elaborate costume than that to impress the junior high crowd. The first year I was able to celebrate Halloween, I was a cheerleader. Dr. Who was long gone from my memory and I wouldn’t have even considered dressing up like a guy.
Even now, I wouldn’t dress up like Dr. Who, despite how much I love him. I’d be perfectly fine dressing up as Ramona, however. Of course, it would be yet ANOTHER Halloween of “What are you again?”
Two people just to run the Jabba the Hutt costume, plus all of these awesome Star Wars bad guys! Here’s how they did it:
Jabba looked great:
Last year, there was just too much Halloween to fit into my blog, so I moved it to this year. Craftzine had a TON of costume ideas. Here are some of them:
Craftzine.com blog: Bat Wings Tutorial: Use an old umbrella to get the articulation right. Great idea!
Craftzine.com blog: Last Minute Lego Costume: Great if you can convince three of your friends to come as Legos as well. A little bulky, though.
Craftzine.com blog: Lego Costume Hack: Lighter weight costume that’s easily removable.
Get thinking about your costume NOW! Don’t be scrambling at the last minute.
Jerry submitted this photo to PlaidStallions. It looks like the perfect Halloween costume for a nerdy kid like me!
He didn’t say that this costume was for Halloween, but for me, it looks like the perfect Halloween costume.
If you forgot to dress up today, just go here and print out this great last minute costume:
SCARY!
Via: Unshelved blog
If you read the phrase Sexy Hamburger Costume, you probably had a big question mark light up above your head, but after seeing it, I’m sure you agree. It IS a sexy hamburger costume!
To see the costume from all angles, click here:
The dress is a crocheted creation and I’m am impressed with the inventiveness. It wraps up the funniest and sexiest costume prizes in one fail swoop!
Fairy Wings made out of tights and coat hangers:
Pirate Costume made from an old pair of leather pants:
MY FAVORITE! A mummy costume that will let you go to the bathroom without unwrapping!
Via: Craftzine.com blog: Threadbangers DIY Halloween Costumes
The crafters and makers at Make and Craft magazine talk about their favorite Halloween costumes.
I love Brian Jepsen’s trip down memory lane:
As a kid, I was drawn to vivid psychedelic imagery (hey, who wasn’t?). The trippier, the better. I was sucked right into HR Pufnstuf as well as Lidsville, my two favorite kids shows. I was thrilled to be able to dress up as HR Pufnstuf one halloween, and this photo remains one of my favorite pictures in my family’s pile of slides.
I have dressed up more for Halloween than most people do in a lifetime. It seems like I’m continually trying to make up for those years as a child when I couldn’t celebrate. I have ended up turning Halloween into some sort of yearly event that I think about all year long. I don’t have any photos from childhood of me dressed up in a one-dimensional costume, but maybe if I did, I wouldn’t like Halloween as much as I do today.
Wondering what you would like to be for Halloween? How about Katamari Damacy. Here’s a link to a photoset on Flickr from gollygee17. She achieved costume uniqueness last year!
This is the kind of costume that you would have to spend the entire night explaining, but the people who got it, would REALLY get it!
Ironically, I didn’t really dress up today, but my Animal Crossing girl did. I think the Halloween Party wore me out this year. I’m still recovering.
Moby, International Recording Artist Extraordinaire, talked about Halloween last year after the holiday. I found it so enjoyable, that I decided to post it here this year.
He talks about the costumes and what he enjoys when he’s people-watching:
“on one hand i really do love it when someone makes a huge effort and gets really dressed up, but i think i’m most amused by the 1/2 assed, no effort costumes, i.e-street clothes with a blue wig.”
He’s right. Sometimes the best costumes are the ones that make people crinkle their foreheads and say, “What ARE you?”
The easiest Halloween costume is something thrown together from the thrift store. If that is your plan for your costume this year, you need to get to the thrift store NOW! If you wait until two days before Halloween, you will be sorely disappointed because the thrift store will be a picked over shell of what it was earlier in the month.
Even the easiest thing in the world to find (like a suit coat that you don’t mind ripping, tearing and destroying) might be difficult to find in your size because the thrift stores sell a lot of their inventory in the month of October. Your plaid coat for your Used Car Salesman costume went out the door in the early days of October underneath the arm of someone who planned a little more than you did.
So, if you want an easy costume this year, you can do it. You just need to do it NOW instead of a couple days before Halloween. If you need some ideas for easy costumes ideas, here are some links:
About.com – Make Your Own Halloween Costume – Free Creative Halloween Costume Ideas: Lots of good ideas here.
Homemade Halloween Costumes – easy and cheap!: Lots of great ideas for costumes made out of thrift store clothing. Mute your computer before you click on the link unless you want to hear Grim Grinning Ghosts on a harpsichord.
Costume Idea Zone: A very professional site with costume ideas. There are commercials for BuyCostumes.com, but there are also some good ideas here.
All of these sites are desperately in need of pictures to augment their descriptions. It’s a lot easier to see the costume with a picture. Here is a group of pictures of costumes, but they’re not all homemade. It’s great for some ideas, though.
The funnest part of Halloween is that for one day, you can be whatever you ever wanted to be. If you want to be scary, powerful, sexy or funny, you get to choose. That’s the truth every day of the year, but we tend to forget that. With Halloween, we get to remember what it is we want to be.
Check out this awesome AT-AT costume.
This is better than anything I’ve ever done on my own!
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