Halloween is just around the corner — do you have your costume ready? If not, don’t worry! You still have plenty of time to fashion one of these easy and inexpensive get-ups!
1. A bunch of grapes, bag of candy or gumball machine — The common accessory here? Balloons, and lots of them! If you’re going as a bunch of grapes, look for dark purple or green balloons. Wear head to toe brown (the stalk), blow up the balloons, and stick them all over your body. Done! For the bag of candy or gumball machine, blow up multi-coloured balloons, and fill a large clear plastic garbage bag with them. Cut arm and leg holes, and secure the top of the bag with a colourful ribbon around your neck. If you’re going the gumball machine route, use cardboard or an old box for the bottom of the machine. Use craft paint to paint a coin slot on the front.
2. Where’s Waldo? — Find a red and white striped shirt, a red and white striped hat, and pair with jeans and round-rimmed glasses. You’re Waldo! This works really well as a group costume. How many Waldos can you round up?
3. Greek Goddess — It doesn’t get much easier than the Greek goddess costume — all you need is a white sheet that you can turn into a toga, a belt to keep it in place, sandals, and lots of gold jewellery. Add to the goddess look by teasing your hair to its voluminous max!
4. Puck from A Midsummer Night’s Dream — You need green and brown, and lots of it. Green tights, shorts, and top, for starters. From there, head to your back yard (or a nearby forested area) and grab some leaves and twigs to add to your costume — saving a few for your hair. If you’re feeling ambitious, glue leaves, twigs, and flowers to make a headpiece! You might also want to refresh your memory of the Shakespeare play and rehearse a line or two for that Halloween party!
5. Medusa — Head to the dollar store and fill your shopping cart with rubber snakes — that’s the one thing you need to make this costume work. Weave them through your hair, paint your face white, and don a long gown and your best turning-people-to-stone stare.
6. Daft Punk — You really need two people for this one. It all starts with motorcycle helmets — spray paint them gold, pair with all-black attire, a few sequins, and voila! You’ve transformed into the French electro duo!
7. The Dude from The Big Lebowski — Get ready to look slovenly! For your best impression of Jeff Bridges’ character from the cult fave Coen Brothers movie, start with a bathrobe, add a T-shirt, shorts, and sunglasses, and mess up your hair. Oh, and the final touch? Make sure you have a White Russian in your hand.
8. Zombie-fy your look — Go as tame or as gruesome as you like — it’s all in the makeup! Go for a pale face, with grey-black around your eyes, and use red lip pencil to add some gore. Have a hockey uniform? Go as a zombie hockey player! Scrubs? Go as a zombie nurse or doctor. You get the idea. Once you have the makeup and dead stare down, you’re more than halfway there.
9. Edward Scissorhands — Your best friend here is hairspray, and lots of it. Mess up your hair and spray it, or, if you’re worried about damage, find a wig. As for the outfit, you’re looking for head-to-toe black, including black boots. Strap several belts around the top part of your outfit. Makeup should be a white face and dark circles around your eyes. You can easily fashion finger scissors by cutting strips of cardboard and wrapping them in tin foil.
10. Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s — To channel the iconic character Holly Golightly, as personified by Audrey Hepburn, you need a long black gown, black elbow-length gloves, a string of faux pearls, and a tiara. A cigarette holder completes the look, but you could also hold a coffee cup and a pastry to replicate her ‘breakfast’ at Tiffany’s.
What are you dressing up as for Halloween? Comment below, or send your pics to submissions@cityline.ca!