Last-minute Halloween costumes
In a crunch? Here are some Halloween costumes to throw together with closet staples.
By Olivia Hunt / A&C Assistant Editor
With only a week to go until the end of October, it’s officially costume crunch time. Though Halloween will undoubtedly look different this year, there are definitely some ways to celebrate safely — and still rock a creative costume. Below are some punny, DIY-inspired costume ideas for when there isn’t time to run to the Halloween store.
“Ghosting”
The first last-minute costume idea is “Ghosting,” and it’s probably the spookiest costume on the roster. We all know what ghosting is — when someone cuts off all communication with a possible romantic interest, without any warning or notice beforehand. When it’s merged with an actual ghost? Double the fright. One fourth-year USD student, Helena Witiw, executed this idea last Halloween with a fresh, DIY flair. She explained what her initial vision was for the costume.
“Since Fall especially tends to be ‘ghosting season,’ I wanted to do some sort of pun where I’m dressed as a ‘ghosting’ ghost,” Witiw said. “I wanted to keep it simple, using fabric markers and a large white T-shirt, and drew a bunch of unanswered iMessage bubbles.”
Helena shared her opinion on store-bought costumes versus last-minute costumes.
“Store-bought is usually less memorable, because there’s no creativity in it. You just buy it and it’s done. That’s definitely not as fun,” she said. “At the same time, if you make a costume on your own weeks in advance, you could get burnout. When you make it a few days ahead, it always unexpectedly comes out better.”
Helena also shared some insight into how her friends and classmates reacted to her last-minute costume idea.
“This was probably the costume I got the most compliments on,” she said. “I wore it to class on Halloween day and everyone kept asking to take pictures of it. I ended up on a lot of snap stories.”
“Smarty Pants”
Another last-minute costume, with a similar DIY-spirit as Helena’s, is the “Smarty Pants” costume. Basically, one can tape or super glue packs of Smarties candies to an old pair of pants. To make them stick mess free, you can use small dots of glue or double-sided tape. To add to the stereotypical nerd look, one can wear a pair of glasses or hold a textbook as a prop. With this creative costume, there will be no doubt who’s the smartest person in the room.
“The Breadwinner”
This costume idea is perfect for anyone who loves bread just as much as they love sports. If someone’s a college athlete, they may already have some trophies or medals lying around their house. Using one or two as an accessory, they can wear their team jersey or sports gear — and, for the punny punchline, pose with whichever loaves of bread they have in their
kitchen.
“When life gives you lemons…”
This costume also includes some food people typically already have in their kitchen — lemons. Inspired by the fabric-marker drawing that Witiw did for her “Ghosting” costume, another creative idea is to write the word “LIFE” on a plain white T-shirt and hand some lemons out to friends. This pun is guaranteed to make friends cringe in delight, and will surely stand-out among the more typical Halloween costumes.