Photo Courtesy of Sueda Dilli- Pexels
Store bought costumes can feel cheap and uncomfortable. Instead of buying a cheesy store-bought costume, next time try making your own instead!
Every Halloween seems to be getting more extravagant as we get older. Now that we’re in college, there seems to be an expectation to dress up as multiple different things for “Halloweekend.” We also tend to see people online in these extravagant costumes with unreal expectations of physical appearance. When most people think about buying a Halloween costume, the first place they think to get it is from Amazon or Spirit Halloween. These are where the influencers get them from, so why should the common person do any different? These have been the main outlets for Halloween costumes for a long time now. What happened to dressing up as one thing and receiving the hand-me-downs? What happened to wearing that handmade costume your mom spent her time making for you?
I believe we should start thrifting our Halloween costumes once again. Too often do people buy pieces of their costumes from places like Amazon and SHEIN to just do one of three things: return them, donate them to thrift stores like Goodwill, or throw them away. While returning or donating the pieces seems to be a better option than just throwing them away, this is not the case. A majority of the costume pieces that you order off Amazon are made completely out of plastic, which is not meant to last. Just because it is being donated does not mean it can sit in the store until it is bought again. Those plastic pieces are not meant to sit for long periods and there is a good chance they will start to disintegrate just sitting there. Ultimately, this leads to them ending up in a landfill anyway. This continuous cycle happens everyday without your knowledge.
The environment is being ruined with the amount of plastics being thrown into landfills. That themed headband or bright orange tutu you’ll only wear once and then return will still end up in a landfill. People don’t seem to understand that if you keep playing into consumerism, big corporations like Amazon will continue to fill the planet with plastics. This is not me saying you need to completely stop buying from Amazon. Their business is convenient for many people and you can often find good prices on items you need. Still, that’s exactly what they are: a business. Continuously consuming products they produce will only hurt the environment further in the future.
Instead, try purchasing items for Halloween that are already in the thrift store, preferably nothing plastic, and then you can actually wear what you bought more than just once. This is both cost-effective and better for the environment. While less convenient and more time consuming, the fact that you picked out the item by hand and took your time encourages you to wear it more and feel a sense of sentiment towards it.
Maybe next year, instead of turning straight to Amazon to look for pieces of a costume, locate some local thrift stores and try to find some cool items! Going with friends could amplify the experience and make it even more fun than just going by yourself as well.
If you’re a crafty or creative person, you could also make parts of your costume, or even the entire thing. I remember when I was younger, my mother used materials found in our house to create my Halloween costumes. I dressed up as a gumball machine one year by hot gluing pompoms onto a white shirt, and another year I was the Operation Man by sewing felt shapes onto a gray long-sleeved shirt. With a creative eye and some glue, my mom was able to make me costumes I was proud to be wearing. Those costumes were more sentimental and comfortable to me than the store bought ones I wore that I can’t even remember. Needless to say, the thrifted or crafted costumes are overall better than the ones simply bought off Amazon.