Halloween is the one time of year when it’s OK to leave the house looking a fright. People of all ages let their imaginations run wild and become someone, or something, else for a day.
A great costume is an essential part in celebrating Halloween. Children revel in wearing costumes – often depicting vampires, witches, ghosts, and superheroes – when they go trick-or-treating. Meanwhile, adult partygoers often choose costumes depicting celebrities, politicians, and other public figures.
“It is an escape from reality for a day,” says Kelly David, spokesperson for Spirit Halloween, the largest seasonal Halloween retailer in the country. “For adults, you can put on a Halloween costume and forget about work, the bad economy, and other pressures.”
Killer Design
Donning a costume can be loads of fun, but designing and constructing one can be just as cool.
Costume designer Rachel Godollei-Johnson says her line of work gives creative people a chance to add their unique touch to traditional costumes.
“Designers have to find their own unique twist to make their costume look original,” says Godollei-Johnson, who also owns Landes Costumes by Rachel, which offers costume rental and design services for holidays and theatrical performances.
Each year, Halloween costume designers have the opportunity to design a new line of costumes. But, most of the time, their job requires that they only make slight enhancements to costumes of traditional characters like vampires and witches. Despite the limitations of working on the same characters, Godollei-Johnson says Halloween costume design offers creative freedom.
“There are design limitations,” she says. “But, there is something to working within those limitations and picking the right type of fabrics and then making something interesting that also falls within the budget you have.”
Packaged costumes are usually made of nondurable fabrics and will most likely be worn once. Custom-designed costumes that are often offered for rental are more durable and more expensive.
“The packaged costume can be produced in bulk and are only meant to last one night,” Godollei-Johnson says. “People don’t have to pay a fortune for those costumes.”
“There is a difference between bridal satin and cheap Halloween satin,” she continues. “There’s also bridal tulle and the commercial net material that you buy for costumes. Halloween costume-makers look for the cheaper fabrics.”
Abra Berman, Fashion Design instructor at The Art Institute of California – San Francisco, says although the materials are lower quality, designers can still be very creative. “Sometimes it is more fun to use low-quality fabrics because there are so many available and such a wide variety,” she says. “Because they are synthetic, you can sometimes get more creative than if you used a high-quality fabric that requires more care.”
Berman, who also freelances as a costume designer for theatrical performances, says the initial steps in designing the costume involve creating sketches that provide a clear picture of what the garment will look like.
Although the design element of making costumes can be fun and challenging, Godollei-Johnson says the best part of constructing a costume is when the sketches come to life. “Honing the cutting and construction techniques opened me up to the craziness you can do with fabrics,” she states.
Halloween Gets Big
The popularity of Halloween has grown in the past few decades, but especially in the past 10 years.
Halloween is the second-largest commercial holiday, with Christmas being the first. According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), 148 million Americans will take part in some sort of Halloween celebration, spending considerably more than they did last year. In its 2010 Halloween Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, the NRF found that Americans will spend an average of $23.37 on costumes this year.
Also, the highest percentage of people in the survey’s history will dress up this year, with 40.1% planning to wear a costume, up from 33.4% in 2009.
Godollei-Johnson says packaged Halloween costumes did not start taking off until the 1960s.
“You didn’t see a lot of packaged costumes until the 1960s and ’70s when the market for adult costumes took off,” she says. “Then, they were very traditional things like witches, skeletons, and vampires and different accessory pieces.”
Currently, group costume themes and costumes portraying pop culture personalities and characters are favorites.
“The popular costume trends this year include the cast of [TV show] Jersey Shore and Toy Story 3 characters,” David offers. “Group costumes are always popular.”
Pop culture now dictates what the big Halloween costumes will be, so retailers have to stock up.
“The general public wants what is hot and popular,” Godollei-Johnson says. “Many people have called my store asking if we have a Snooki costume, Lady Gaga costume, or the Twilight characters.”
Whether costume designers pull ideas from the TV screen or stick to traditional themes, their creations allow Halloween celebrants to take on alter egos and have fun while doing it.
Top Costumes for Halloween 2010
Retailer Spirit Halloween has predicted the best-selling costumes of the 2010 season:
- The cast of Jersey Shore
- Vampires
- Lady Gaga
- Gumby and Pokey throwback styles
- Iron Man costume (popularity of Iron Man 2 movie)
- Toy Story 3 characters
- Nintendo characters Super Mario and Luigi (25th Anniversary)
- Flappers and gangsters
- Star Wars characters
- Pirates
Source: Spirit Halloween