Dress up parties. I love dress up parties. Any excuse to don a ridiculous outfit and of course behave in a fittingly, shall we say, eccentric fashion I welcome with joy. We get to be ‘ourselves’ and ’normal’ quite enough as it is. I find that wearing a costume actually often changes the way we behave automatically – we assume a character and feel just enough liberated to be slightly more talkative, imaginative and spontaneous.   

My fondness for escapist-dress-up-ventures has at times lead to…interesting outcomes. Like the time my friend had a Michael Jackson themed dress up party and I was the one of two people who dressed up. I had an afro wig and cocoa powder ON MY FACE (forgot to buy face paint) as well as lots of painted on chest hair (I was going for pre-op Michael). It was a great party.

While Halloween isn’t that big in Finland, in the past few years some sort of costumed merrymaking has been quote popular. In honour of the approaching festivities and in case you have an upcoming halloween party and haven’t decided on a costume yet I thought sharing some of my own ideas for costumes and some I ruthlessly ripped of others might be helpful:

While the vintage costume photos above are terrific and inspirational they may be a little difficult to pull off. In case you do not have the material for Michelin man outfit at hand here are some things you could consider:

Put tights on your head. The shear fabric of ladies stockings around your face is an instant creep effect. Pair that with a trench coat and hat and voila – ze outfit iz complete! Funny story: my mom’s cousin actually wore this outfit one day just to scare my mom and her sister when they were small. It totally worked. She also freaked out some innocent bystanders – apparently several old ladies switched to the other side of the street after seeing her. Yep this is what my family does for fun.

Another option for those with long hair would be to comb it in front of your face. Then just walk around with your head slightly tilted to one side and your back a little hunched and only communicate to people by hissing. Guaranteed spook effect. If you want to take the look even further you could also wear a long sleeping gown, hunt down some of your old toys or buy some from a thrift store, mutilate said toy in some gruesome fashion (ripping of ears and eyes form cuddly toys, painting bloody marks on dolls) and carry it around with you the whole evening.

A great idea from man repeller for a very easy ’costume’ to put togther if you are a female and goinf to a party with another female:

”You can also round up all of one friend and request that she hold your hand through the duration of the night. When people ask why you’ve been holding hands, you’ll just tell them you’re the Emoji “sisters”. The pro is night-long companionship here. The con is having to forfeit use of one whole hand — but at least now you’ll know what it feels like to be a conjoined twin.”

If you have a little more time and energy and would like to go with an animal costume this year why not try one of these:

So here they are. Your welcome.

Sources:

Great vintage halloween photos from http://jonmwessel.wordpress.com/2012/10/29/halloween-those-damn-adults-vol-1/incredibly-bizarre-vintage-halloween-costumes-20/.

DYI costume picture from http://www.sadanduseless.com/image.php?n=2519.

And the man repller quote from, would you believe it, the man repeller at http://www.manrepeller.com/2013/10/5-halloween-costume-ideas.html.