Ask Lemmy

My partner and I spent $250 and dozens of hours making alice and mad hatter costumes but they have lasted us 3 years so far, halloween, tea party, comiccon

Not a costume, but I made a ghost, we have a tree trunk in front of the house, I put one of those round metal plates upside down on it, white bath towel, cut dark red paper for eyes and mouth, attached them with pins, and a candle in an jelly pot on the ground

Sounds fancy? Looks like shit but I love it LOL

Spoiler

Luigi hat: £7.95

Moustache: £3.99

Water pistol (only found a double pack): £3.75

Total: £15.69

Unfortunately, not many people got the reference when I pulled my pistol to complete the set.

There wasn't much effort, apart from having to custom trim the moustache, since it came in a pack, and none of the included ~12 styles were the exact same as Luigi's.

I've work a costume the past several years. Halloween is my favourite time of year, the weather, the goths, the pumpkin spice lattes (yes I'm a mid 30s mostly straight dude so what).

I'm actually getting ready for a huge party tonight. Everyone's going to be in costume. My wife and I have spent morning on ours. Part of the fun is seeing what we can come up with. Last year I was a tech bro, just wow a tshirt and flipped baseball cap and handed out papers with little doodles I called NFTs. This year thanks to my wife insisting I grow a mustache I'm going at Matty Matheson, have an apron and hat already.

Last year my wife went as Winifred Sanderson from Hocus Pocus. She used a ren fest dress she wears already and borrowed some makeup. This year she's going as a pizza delivery girl I think from the movie Mystic Pizza? I dunno never seen it, something her and her friend cooked up, but again using stuff we have.

Don't overthink it, no need to be perfect, no need to buy junk you'll never wear again. Just go be free and have fun. Embrace the make believe

I like making costumes! If anything, it's a good way of making clothes that you would never make otherwise, and there isn't anywhere near an expectation of quality. Making a costume yourself basically automatically ensures that people would be impressed, no matter how shitty the costume is.

Regarding perfectionism, it's something that I've had to learn throughout my various forays into arts - there's going to be mistakes. There's always going to be mistakes. You can't avoid it, no matter how skilled you are. The skilled artists know how to avoid drawing attention to their mistakes, and that generally means that they just let it happen without caring about it. But also, it's just a costume, and as mentioned above, people will be impressed regardless of how shitty it is.

Regarding effort, it requires a lot of effort. Because you're making unusual clothes, you need to spend a lot of time to design it and make sure it fits properly. I designed costumes this year for me and my partner, and in total that took maybe 2 months. It's also more expensive than costumes you buy online. The raw material (cloth, thread) was maybe around 200 USD total, roughly 4-5x the cost of a regular costume you can buy online, or 2x the cost of a niche costume that you can buy online. It's definitely not a good use of money and time, but it's a good hobby project.

Regardless of if you buy a costume or if you make one, here's the trick: don't skimp out on the wig. Most people don't wear a wig, and the people who do tend to use cheap wigs. Cheap wigs have a plastic-y texture and are difficult to style. I get wigs from Epic Cosplay, which have a lot of different colors to choose from and tend to look fairly realistic.

Also, wigs never come with hair already at the right length! Make sure to give the wig a haircut, it'll look way better if you remember

I live in a part of the world that doesn't usually celebrate Halloween much, but last year our street made an effort. It seems people noticed because this year someone decided to hold a themed market here, and there was a big turnout. I think it's becoming a thing for the town now.

My neighbour is getting seriously into 3D printing and made lots of cool toys that he gave away instead of food. That was cool to see, because he's been struggling a bit since his wife died, and he was never very community-oriented, but having something like this brought out his good side.

I reused a wizard costume from a fantasy fair earlier this year. Hung a pumpkin full of treats from the end of my staff, and rode around on my electric unicycle for a bit, giving them away. Any bit of novelty is valid if it's in the right spirit. That's what I like about Halloween.

You can't really go wrong if you wear something that works for you. High or low effort, it's all good.

Depends on the costume. One year I spent almost $200 on Wreck-it Ralph, but that was a pair of overalls and two shirts I can still wear. The next was like $1000+ on electronics and components for a LED wizard orb I spent a month making and like $20 in fabric for a robe. This year was probably $50 for fabric, cardboard, and tape for a terrible Ken The Butcher costume.

What you do is entirely up to you and your situation. Cheap materials make it cheaper, but the costume may only be single use. The orb was stupid expensive because I went fancy and made an object that would last, but that's hardly necessary.

My wife and I wore our Renaissance Faire outfits for Halloween this year. A really good Ren Faire costume, IMO, looks medieval but has lots of customizations that make it look more authentic and lived-in, which I think just takes time and multiple iterations. So, we put a little money (<$20) and time (a few hours) into "upgrading" them throughout the year when we can get deals on various components. Grand total, we're still at less than $100 each.

Did a blues brothers costume with a friend. Just a black suit that most people will probably have + sunglasses and a hat.

Every year I try to make my main costume a little better. This year, I tried again to get a KFC bucket, bit again they gave me a size too small. I'll try again next year.

I also have a tie dyed lab coat and lab goggles as an emergency costume.

Next year I think I'll add a mask and that might cost me $25 if o can find one at spirit of Halloween today.

Halloween Costume = trash meant to be worn one time and then tossed, priced accordingly but a bit high.

Cosplay = ongoing project meant to be worn several times a year that you keep sinking money into

I cosplay but only been at it a year. My Ghostface has about $70-80 in it and honestly, it’s a Halloween costume plus biker/tacticool gloves from Amazon. I need to work on it. My Tom Nook (Animal Crossing) is a bit more but I have a tail, ears, a crocheted Bells bag (with actual bells! It rings!) Plus an Android phone with a themed case and themed icons/wallpaper. I mainly do this one because it’s way more comfortable and it’s kid friendly. Plus young people have fond memories of the game. The reactions are a big part of what makes cosplay work.

I got a cheap hat from walmart and a clip on bow tie from the goodwill. Then I donned a shitty sport coat I had at home, and pinned a couple cards from an old deck I had to the hat. Went as the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland. It took maybe 30 min to put together. Definitely didn't blow anyone's socks off, but I had something to talk about at the parties I went to and had a good time.

€18 euro clown costume with €2 face paint for one. €3 cat in the hat costume from the school (which does costume recycling for money) for the other. They both looked great.

We bought my son's costume for something like $25, he was a Ghostbuster. My wife and I got tablecloths from the dollar store for a couple bucks each and were ghosts. Costumes don't have to be perfect or expensive!

I was going to be extremely lazy this year and draw dignity from the Simpsons on a shirt. Cost - that shirt.

(But then my cat had a seizure so I stayed home with her. She's recovered and had a full night of good skritches.)

This year:

$10 "space officer" shirt from temu

$60 Kira Nerys Cuffed Earring from rock love

Edit: Adding pic to prove to happened

My kids got fall guys inflatable costumes, $35 each. I wore the same costume I bought 6 years ago, a steak. Cost $70

"forest spirit in autumn" I wrapped some silk flowers and leaves onto a headband with suede cord, glued pieces of the remainder to my face and body, and wore flowy clothes that I already own.

Cost: $5.88

0 money. I already had a pair of bunny ears, improvised a tail from curtain tassel tie-back thing that was already like a fluffy white ball, white clothes.

Just myself. I am Ken this Halloween. (The rollerblade version.)

I spent around $120 gathering all the different elements of the costume, and it looks superb.

My son went as Wario.

• Overalls, $15 used on Mercari
• Yellow shirt: already owned
• Yellow hat, $10 from a hat store

I went as Waluigi, similar stuff and costs.

There's one more key consideration I haven't heard people mention: you can choose to make your costume out of stuff you can wear outside of Halloween!

My son can wear purple overalls any day of the year. Our hats aren't cheap costume hats, they're baseball caps, which are useful accessories you can wear any time.

If you're looking to get started making a Halloween costume, try going to a thrift store or an online reseller like Mercari and recognize that Halloween is an opportunity to buy stuff you kinda want to wear but feel self conscious about buying. Buy yourself a used leather biker jacket. It's just a costume! But also... Now you happen to have a dope jacket in your closet. Maybe wear it the week after Halloween and see if it feels right...

That's one of the best parts of putting together Halloween costumes, imo.

When I lived with my cousin, he'd borrow one of my sweatshirts to look "spooky" on Halloween. It was black, fit oversized, and had a nice big hood. So that's one approach.