News
Briefly
Calendar of Events
Commentary
Opinions
Sports
Diversions
Special Report: Ethamphetamines
World News
Classifieds
Login
Letter Submission
Search
Archive
Publishing Policy
Mail Subscriptions
St. Cloud State University
College Publisher
Home
>
Commentary
Spooky solutions for dull costumes
By Carol Seavey
Published:
Monday, October 21, 2002
Carol Seavey -- Staff Essay
The first fallen snow last week is a sure sign of the coming holidays. Thoughts of time spent with friends and family, laughing and eating, getting dressed up, holding horror movie marathons and carving pumpkins fill students minds.
Yes, Halloween, only the greatest holiday ever, is just around the corner. With that comes the last minute search for a viable costume. This often results in common, store-bought costumes that are mass produced. Examples of this are the M&M, monk, cow, or witch. I’m not knocking the traditional Halloween character, like the witch, devil, or vampire.
I, for one, have been brainstorming for possible costume ideas since last summer and encourage you to put some extra effort in your costume to make it unique from every other french maid in the room.
One way to do this is to make your costume more specific. For example, be a witch that has a crush on Justin Timberlake and add an N’Sync doll covered with voodoo pins to your costume.
To add some excitement to an M&M costume you could be the green one, which some say make you horny, thus becoming a horny M&M by adding lingerie and sex toys to the costume.
Another way to spawn costume ideas is to take something from popular culture and exaggerate greatly. Try to think of rock stars, t.v. personalities and characters or movie stars that stand out. Late Night’s Conan O’Brian would be easy to exagerate; make some stilts to aquire his gigantic height and a large, orange wig with the hair swept back Elvis style.
Get ahold of some Daisy Dukes and a brown afro and you won’t even have to dance to the oldies for people to notice that you’re Richard Simmons.
Also, consider group costumes. When the entire cast of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-including Shredder and Splinter-showed up at a party they delved into everyone’s childhood heroes. Another group of guys wore white shoes, pants and white stocking caps then covered the rest of their bodies with blue paint for the perfect smurf costumes.
If you’re still searching for good costume ideas, try roaming random isles in your local department store. Try to find a costume in the kitchenware isle; cover yourself with magnets and say you’re a refridgerater. You could also try the automotive department; large plastic funnels would be the perfect addition to a Madonna costume.
Everyday items can spur creativity. Even an air freshener is a possible costume idea. Imagine someone wearing a giant, Christmas tree cut out while spraying people with pine- scented air freshener.
Try thinking of different ways to use items to create different things. Take, for example, the hula-hoop. If two were covered in foil and worn around the ears they could accent J-Lo’s rediculously large hoop earrings. You could also make them into giant Mickey Mouse ears. Another hula-hoop idea is to use it as a frame around the waist to widen a costume. This is traditionally used for a clown costume, however, may be more appropriate when dressing as Mimi, from the Drew Carey Show.
Some costumes fit the standards of creativity without requiring a sewing machine. The classic white trash bag worn as a pull-over with the simple words ‘White Trash’ scrawled on it would delight any crowd. Another simple costume is the ‘chick magnet’; just attach Barbie dolls to your clothes and you’re ready to go.
Some costumes should definately be avoided. Anything that has stretchy black pants and ears of some sort as the main components of the costume is unacceptable. Avoid anything that comes as ‘one size fits all’ and especially deter from trendy costumes. For expample, about five scantily clad girls were Victoria Secret Angels at one party.
Whether it take ten minutes to scrape up or the whole week to put together, your costume should be something you can be proud of. Make the best costume contest a real competition and make the most of this Halloween.
