Current:Home > NewsShop your closet: Last minute Halloween costume ideas you probably have laying around-InfoLens
Shop your closet: Last minute Halloween costume ideas you probably have laying around
View Date:2024-12-23 14:28:37
With Halloween a week away, you might be facing a last second party invitation with the command, “costume required.”
While it would be easy to run down to the local Spirit Halloween and pick out something off the rack, there are plenty of options for those who would prefer to save some cash and shop out of their closet.
Let's be real - shopping out of one's closet prevents the accumulation of items that eventually end up forgotten and sent to either a landfill or second-hand shop.
While you may not be able to put together the perfect recreation of a character from your closet, there are likely plenty of options that will get the point across.
Here are a few suggestions for costumes you can pull right out of your closet.
Witch
The third most popular costume this year is the easiest to pull out of the closet. All that is needed is a black top, black bottoms, black shoes and a black hat.
What makes this combination so useful is the number of permutations that can be pulled from it. If your top is a turtleneck, you can be an artist or mime. Roll up your shirtsleeves and slick back your hair, you’re a Greaser. Add extra eyeliner and the façade of a cynical outlook on life and boom you’re a goth.
If you have a black dress from a previous witch costume, a down hair style and large glasses, you have entered Edna Mode from "The Invincibles" or an up-do and pearl necklaces can transform you into Holly Golightly, Audrey Hepburn's character in "Breakfast at Tiffany's."
Top scares:Here are the most popular Halloween costumes of 2023, according to Google
Lumberjack
Much like the formula of the witch, the formula of flannel shirt, jeans and boots provides a web of costume iterations.
If you have cowboy boots on hand, the costume makes itself. Swap that for a knit beanie and a healthy dash of nihilism and you've made yourself into a mid-2010's hipster.
Replace the beanie with straw, either real or paper, a disdain for avian beings and a mid-Western stoicism born of staring over fields of corn, you can be a scarecrow.
Detective
While a suit can be the jumping off point for many costumes, James Bond, Hillary Clinton, "Men In Black," a detective allows the most flexibility for characterization. Have a sense of world weariness and a slight New York accent? Go as Lennie Briscoe from Law and Order. Want to ditch the tie, throw on a devil may care attitude and call yourself Patrick Jane from The Mentalist.
If you are able to get your hands on a deerstalker hat the outfit becomes a Sherlock Holmes costume. If you do need to acquire a last piece it is wise to add something that, like the Holmes cap in the dead of fall, has utility beyond All Hallows Eve.
If you don't want to go the suit route, a Hawaiian shirt and jeans can make you Magnum P.I. (Mustache not included. Display chest hair at own risk.)
Rich person
While there are ways to incorporate an “Old Money Aesthetic” into day-to-day life, what you are aiming for with the “rich person” costume is a caricature of wealth steeped in the films of the late 1980s.
If you have a blue blazer in the closet, pairing it with an open collared white button-down collared shirt, khaki pants and a “Harvard accent" and you have the traditional WASP character.
Failing that you can throw on multiple polo shirts with each collar popped and become the arrogant yuppie that was once the hallmark of teen-oriented mall stores.
Bob Ross
The famous television painter is a closet shopper’s dream. If you have a light blue shirt and jeans, you have the costume. A quick trip to a local craft store for paint brushes and a palate round out the look. Roll up the shirtsleeves just above the middle of the forearm and practice the calm, slightly breathy cadence and you’ll have yourself a happy little costume.
Halloween pet safety:Tips to keep your furry friends safe this trick-or-treat season
What pulled from the closet costumes did you wear this year? Email us and you may be featured in a costume roundup!
veryGood! (6)
Related
- Everard Burke Introduce
- Three-time Pro Bowl DE Robert Quinn arrested on hit-and-run, assault and battery charges
- From turmoil to triumph, Spain clinches its first Women’s World Cup title with a win over England
- US, Japan and Australia plan joint navy drills in disputed South China Sea, Philippine officials say
- Jake Paul's only loss led him to retool the team preparing him to face Mike Tyson
- '1 in 30 million': Rare orange lobster discovered at restaurant in New York
- Pilot error caused the fatal hot air balloon crash in New Mexico, NTSB finds. Drug use was a factor
- School's starting — but many districts don't have enough bus drivers for their students
- New Pentagon report on UFOs includes hundreds of new incidents but no evidence of aliens
- Police: Man blocking traffic fatally shot after pointing gun at Detroit officer
Ranking
- Beyoncé has released lots of new products. Here's a Beyhive gift guide for the holidays
- Aaron Rodgers to make New York Jets debut in preseason finale vs. Giants, per report
- 3 dead, 6 wounded in shooting at a hookah lounge in south Seattle; no word on suspects
- Everything to Know About the Rachel Morin Murder Investigation
- Prosecutor failed to show that Musk’s $1M-a-day sweepstakes was an illegal lottery, judge says
- Sweden defeats co-host Australia to take third place at 2023 Women's World Cup
- Where do the 2024 presidential candidates stand on abortion? Take a look
- Why we love Bright Side Bookshop in Flagstaff, Ariz. (and why they love 'Divine Rivals')
Recommendation
-
Engines on 1.4 million Honda vehicles might fail, so US regulators open an investigation
-
Horoscopes Today, August 18, 2023
-
Starbucks told to pay $2.7 million more to ex-manager awarded $25.6 million over firing
-
Stella Weaver, lone girl playing in Little League World Series, gets a hit and scores
-
Gold is suddenly not so glittery after Trump’s White House victory
-
Pete Alonso apologizes for throwing first hit ball into stands: 'I feel like a piece of crap'
-
Trump says he will skip GOP presidential primary debates
-
Maui water is unsafe even with filters, one of the lessons learned from fires in California