By Amanda DeCamp
I plan to be a pirate for Halloween this year. A black shirt covered in white skeletons, a pair of black and white striped tights and a red and white striped headband inspired me. I told a friend of my plan to be a pirate and she told me of her own disguise as a pirate two Halloweens ago.
“Oh, you have to wear a really tight corset!” she exclaimed. “And when I was a pirate, I cut this skirt off really short and it was all shredded.” I have celebrated Halloween post high school and I realize that it is more about what you are not wearing rather than what you are wearing.
I reminisced back to when I was a child and my mom would make me wear a turtleneck underneath my Snow White costume because it was too chilly out. I would protest and she would insist and eventually I gave in as getting candy was more important to me than my undershirt. Today, my short sleeve, tight skeleton shirt feels like that turtleneck. Girls wear stiletto heels, short shirts, or no shirts and fishnets. People are supposed to be in a disguise on this holiday, but perhaps there is no disguise at all. Halloween might actually bring out a girl’s true intentions. Maybe that’s a bit harsh, but what is the impression that is given when a girl wears the bare minimum on a cold autumn night?
The adult section in “The Halloween Scene” on Glen Cove Road in Carle Place gives a whole new meaning to “adult” costumes. A child should be steered far away from this section. However, the children’s costumes are no better with see through shirts and fishnets as well.
This Halloween, dare to be different, dare to go in an actual disguise. Erase your fear of being Cady Haren in Mean Girls. Naive from living in Africa and being home schooled for most of her young life, she walked into a party as a hideous “Ex Wife” and scared every guest. Consider the following options while you’re shopping for your costume
Top 10 Best Unsexy…But Creative Costumes – taken from friends, friends of friends and others:
1. Be your favorite food – a Twinkie is perfect for the person who still wants to get all the attention but stay warm at the same time – plus hand out Twinkies to everyone you meet!
2. Girl Scout/Boy Scout – for the poorer college kid who can borrow their little brother or sister’s uniform
3. The Weather – dress up as your favorite season. For fall, spray paint leaves and glue them all over a green shirt and bottom. Get even more creative – “Partly cloudy with a chance of rain” – wear head to toe light blue and glue cotton balls all over, spray people with a bottle for the rain.
4. Be your favorite cocktail – a Long Island Iced Tea, a Hurricane, a Screwdriver or a Dirty Banana all make great conversation starters.
5. For a group of friends, modernize a favorite nursery rhyme. The three little pigs and a wolf, three little kittens who lost their mittens, three blind mice or Mary and her little lamb all allow for an extensive amount of originality.
6. The Walk of Shame – by wearing an oversized flannel shirt, a pair of heels and makeup smeared all over, you might as well be walking back from a guy’s dorm. It’s a comfy, inexpensive and warm alternative to a typical costume.
7. Your favorite band…or just one that you can dress up as – Earth, Wind and Fire and Red Hot Chili Peppers are two unique ideas.
8. Have nothing to do with your old bridesmaid’s dresses that the bride swore you could wear again? Wear it again, only this time you don’t have to look perfect in it!
9. Your favorite movie – Be the girls from A League of Their Own or the boys from Major League.
10. Be conjoined twins with a friend or dress as a grandpa and grandma of the opposite sex.
Lindsey Lohan warned us all, “Halloween is the one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it.” No one wants to be as hideously ugly as she was in Mean Girls for Halloween, but you can still keep warm, be imaginative and avoid any unwanted labels!
Amanda DeCamp is a junior print journalism student. You may e-mail him at [email protected]