Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Say No to Boo-ring Costumes


By Danielle Padilla

Me ready to raid the neighborhood for candy 
Crunchy leaves pile at your doorstep, ice begins to frost your windshield, and those Halloween costume adds bombard your mailbox. There are only a few days left until little girl witches and little boy zombies parade the streets in search of tricks and treats. As tempting as it may be to buy a costume advertised in the catalog, that is, the same catalog in everyone's mailbox-don't! If everyone is reading the same catalog, that means most of the readers will be wearing those same costumes on Halloween night, which would defeat the purpose of a creative costume. Halloween is a night to be anything you want to be- dead or alive- and young trick-or-treaters shouldn't conform to what everyone in the neighborhood is wearing.

Frida Kahlo 
Ever since I was a little girl, my mother has sowed, glued, or safety pinned every one of my childhood costumes. And although my school's playground was surrounded by whoever the new Disney princess happened to be, I had an original costume that was uniquely mine. Cabbage Patch slippers, scraps sewed together from old bed sheets  an old wig- I probably still have somewhere- and face paint, were a part of my homemade clown ensemble. I still remember trying to fit into it 2 years later.

My clown costume sparked my homemade costume career, and Halloween projects that followed included: a gift wrapped in fun, colorful wrapping paper, Disney's very own Pinocchio, Frida Kahlo- I even included the uni-brow and other costumes equally as fun and easy to make.
From me to you


"I'm a REAL homemade costume" 
If you got all excited and inspired to design, create and wear a homemade costume after reading about my experience with them, there is still time to pull out the sewing kit. So, you've never sewed a button, let alone build a complete costume? Don't worry, I've built a costume out of a cardboard box! If a cardboard box is all you can get your hands on this Halloween, you have the option of going as a Lego, dice, a Rubik's cube, a television, a hot air balloon, a robot and if you really lack imagination, you can always just be a cardboard box. Whatever you decide to go as this Halloween, don't go as the one who spent a whole lot of money on the same expensive costume everyone else is wearing at the party.