By Robin Bakker

Halloween is really the only time of the year where you can be anything or anyone you want to be. So why does everyone pick the same outfits and costumes every year?

A few factors go into making Halloween costumes predictable. Spirit Halloween, TikTok, and other cheap clothing websites are all examples of why everyone chooses the same outfits.

Spirit Halloween

Everyone knows and loves Spirit Halloween. But, why is it that everytime I go into the store each year, I see the same costumes and for an expensive cost? While they have some basic costumes ranging from police officers or prisoners, gangster members, greek mythology characters, and more. They have a good amount of pop culture references. 

Carole Baskin and Tiger Joe are probably going to be the most worn costume this year. But Harley Quinn or even the clown from IT have been over worn at this point. And the store still showcases the costumes because everyone wants to be them. 

Except the few new pop culture references that have been made popular since the year before, Spirit Halloween keeps the same costumes every year. So everyone that walks in, remains believing that only these costumes will work for Halloween.

TikTok

I don’t know about anyone else but recently I have been getting videos of costume ideas from TikTok for specific persons. For example, “best friend ideas,” “couple ideas,” or “for blonde hair.” Each video that I see also shows about the same ideas that I have seen everywhere. There is little to no originality in any of the ideas. But, each video gets well over a thousand likes. 

With a lot of people on TikTok and these videos being at least everywhere for me and the people that like the videos, the originality of costumes plummets. One of my favorite parts of Halloween is to show off your ideas. Whether they be something funny or scary or authentic, it should be from you and not a random stranger on an app.

Cheap Websites/Stores

With these ideas that people get from TikTok or other halloween stores, a lot of people have been going to cheaper stores or websites to get their costumes. I have seen TikToks where people will show screenshots of different outfit pieces that you could buy that could go together to create an outfit. And the cost of them is a lot cheaper than Spirit Halloween or anywhere else.

Shein, Romwe, and Zaful are the most common sites that have cheaper clothing where people can buy costumes. The only bad part about it is that you really need to plan ahead. Shipping takes a long time unless you can afford fast shipping. Unless I have an amazing idea for a costume, I am one to wait until the last minute to decide what exactly I will be wearing. So, ordering from one of these websites takes time.

Another option: thrift shopping. If you have a general idea for what you are looking for, a thrift store will most likely have something similar to what you want. I remember freshman year, I found four different costumes I could use and it all only cost $11. 

With going online, you are more likely to end up with similar outfits with someone else. If you choose thrift stores, you have more of a chance no one will wear the same thing as you. You still will probably have the same idea as someone else, but it gives you an edge of being somewhat different for choosing a thrift store and not a website.

You can be whatever you choose to be for Halloween. Why waste that opportunity with choosing to be something just because everyone else is doing it? Show yourself in your costumes and show some thought. This year may be different with the pandemic, but that shouldn’t limit your creativity.