As I mentioned in last week’s post, Halloween is my favorite holiday. Ever since I can remember, I’ve loved dressing up, and ever since high school, I’ve loved sewing costumes for myself and others (not just for Halloween). While I pride myself on never having repeated a Halloween costume idea, it has been a few years since I’ve had the time to create anything elaborate from scratch. And on those occasions when I don’t have the time to sew, I, like most others, turn to options I can purchase.
2012 – Compact Fluorescent Lightbulb: Subject relevant to my job at an energy efficiency company; entirely handmade, but with so much polyester fiberfill I don’t even want to think about the carbon footprint.
2013 – Lucy in the Candy Factory from “I Love Lucy”: Subject also relevant to my job for different reasons; made the dress (and the truffles for my coworkers to eat), bought the wig, borrowed the chef hat from my dad.
Fast, Frightening Fashion
Unfortunately, when it comes to buying Halloween costumes, a cheap price tag in the store is often paired with a heavy one for the environment. Fast fashion, characterized by cheap materials and clothing articles that are intended to be worn a few times and then discarded, has become a central component of our Halloween celebrations. The vast majority of costume materials (84% according to a recent study of online retailers) is plastic.[3]
I didn’t even intend to go into the subject of decorations in this post, but just a quick look around our neighborhood at Halloween shows a truly frightening display of plastic: inflatable yard figurines, massive skeletons and gravestones, and an array of gargoyles, spiders, and other creatures, all derived from oil. The Halloween industry hit an estimated $10B in consumer spending in the United States alone in 2021, with $3.5B of that spent on costumes (slightly more than on candy).[4] And most of those costumes, again, are made from plastic and designed to be thrown away after the holiday.
Since getting my MBA in sustainability, and most certainly since my Zero Waste Lent [5] and Plastic Free July [6] adventures, I have tried to be incredibly mindful of my purchases, particularly clothing purchases. To my recollection, I have not bought myself a new, synthetic piece of clothing since before launching this blog. If it’s new, it’s natural materials; if it’s synthetic, it’s second-hand; if it’s new and synthetic, it was most certainly a gift from someone else. And I try to stick to that for Halloween costumes, too.
2015 – Marty McFly from “Back to the Future” (photo taken on October 21, 2015): purchased the hat and jacket online, made the hoverboard from cardboard and tape, and the rest of the clothes were mine (including the unlaced snow boots).
2016 – David Bowie (seen here with Freddie Mercury): purchased the wig, the microphone, and one brown contact lens; thrifted the rest. I was surprised how easily I could find clothing that evoked Ziggy Stardust without needing to copy an iconic outfit perfectly.
The Best-Laid Plans
My original plan for this post was going to feature a description of this year’s costume in the context of our Halloween Night adventures in Rome and our Bonfire Night party upon returning to Pittsburgh, but sadly those activities had to be skipped and postponed, respectively. A few hours before our tour of the catacombs in Rome, Christian tested positive for COVID-19. Our Halloween rapidly transformed into an administrative flurry of phone calls and emails to cancel activities, reschedule his flights, and book additional hotel space for him for the coming week. I tested negative three times in the subsequent 18 hours and flew home on our original flight the following morning.
As this post goes live, I am still testing negative, and Christian is back on US soil. We may still try to hold our party sometime this month (because I really want to wear my costume!), but that is yet to be determined. Mostly, I am feeling gratitude and relief that the past week went as smoothly as it did, all things considered. He and I got the most recent COVID booster in September, and his symptoms weren’t bad; there was no testing requirement to fly back to the US, but testing out of caution may have prevented me (and others) from getting sick too; and we got travel insurance, which should help offset a good bit of his extended stay. Always buy travel insurance.
Although I felt a good bit of disappointment about not being able to celebrate my favorite holiday, I also have to admit to a bit of wry amusement about the situation. The theme of our upcoming party – and my costume – was “The Masque of the Red Death.”[7] I almost felt that, like Poe’s revelers, we were succumbing to the pandemic after making light of it. Granted, we’ve been more cautious than most with respect to COVID, and almost three years into the pandemic, not having had it is more of a rarity at this point. Still, to me it felt very much like a “speak of the devil, and he shall appear” situation.
2018 – Rosie the Riveter: bought the shirt and a small piece of polkadot fabric; the biggest lift for this costume was curling my hair.
2019 – Alien Host (marking the 40th anniversary of “Alien”): bought the plastic chest-burster online, thrifted the shirt and jeans; the fake blood washed out of the jeans, and they made it into my regular clothing rotation.
Sustainable Halloween
I was sad that I didn’t get to show off my costume outside of a hotel room selfie on Halloween night, mostly because I was so proud of my efforts to source the components as sustainably as possible, as I have for the past few years. Upon closer inspection of my costume choices since grad school (all of which you will see displayed in this post), I was pleased to see that I really have tried to incorporate some aspects of reuse – or at least more responsible shopping – when possible. On three of the four occasions I’ve opted for a commercial Halloween costume item, I’ve also been able to pair that with other costume components that are thrifted, homemade, or purchased from an artist.
My record certainly hasn’t been perfect: one quarter of these costumes also included wigs, which are plastic and haven’t gotten much or any use since (though I haven’t thrown them out). Furthermore, I am also aware that even if I make myself a costume using synthetic fabrics, it isn’t much better – from a materials standpoint – than buying something pre-made and synthetic (though I typically don’t throw costumes away, either). The upside of hanging onto costumes and costume components is that I have been able to reuse bits and pieces over the years. And although I don’t repeat Halloween costumes, I have worn some outfits multiple times for non-Halloween events.
I know there can be significant costs of money and time when it comes to making your own costume or picking through options in a thrift store. However, I was very excited to notice more alternatives to the pop-up Halloween stores with cheap costumes this year. For example, the online thrift store where I bought my dress [8] posted costume ideas on their website, showing what types of pieces to pair together for a certain look. On my neighborhood message board and local “buy nothing” group, I saw posts requesting certain costume components that could be borrowed and then returned after Halloween.
2021 – Fremen from “Dune” (though some friends said I looked like Lady Jessica here!): used the camping onesie two years in a row, reused blue contact lenses from my Dune-themed birthday party a few years ago, and made the noseplug with pipecleaner and tape. (Christian was the Reverend Mother Superior from “Dune”)
2022 – Masque of the Red Death: designer dress from ThredUP, Venetian mask from Etsy – from the same people who made my plague doctor mask and hat![8] – and N95 for safety (Christian was already COVID-positive.)
I was encouraged to see that with a little creativity, forethought, and community support, Halloween doesn’t have to break the bank or the environment. I, for one, will certainly continue to keep costume impacts in mind in future years, but I’m happy to say that it looks like I’m not alone.
~
What was your costume this year? Did you buy it, make it, rent it, or thrift it? I’d love to hear about it below.
Thanks for reading!
[1] https://radicalmoderate.online/zero-waste-lent-week-5-clothing/
[2] https://radicalmoderate.online/sole-mates-part-1/
[4] https://www.statista.com/statistics/275726/annual-halloween-expenditure-in-the-united-states/
[5] https://radicalmoderate.online/zero-waste-lent-ground-rules/
[6] https://radicalmoderate.online/plastic-free-july-corona-edition-part-4/
[7] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3522435-the-masque-of-the-red-death
[8] https://www.etsy.com/shop/HigginsCreek
1 Comment
Rebecca · November 6, 2022 at 3:13 pm
Bought skeleton PJs., had black boots and black toboggan. Done☺