A fashion girlie’s guide to Halloween costumes this year
1.Yes Ghoulfriend!
If Caspar the ghost were an international model and fashion’s number 1 ‘It’ girl, we can only imagine it would look a little something like this. An excellent money-saving DIY, Coperni’s spray-on dress from their show-stopping SS23 presentation in Paris is perfect for that ghostly, yet undeniably sexy, Halloween look. Grab a pair of white cotton pants and do your best Bella Hadid pout. While the at-home version may call for a friend with a can of spray paint and some nipple pasties for safety, we recommend another option, silly string perhaps, which… whether you want to trick or treat, this outfit proves sexy is the new scary this spooky season.
2. Come and Play with Us.
Gucci has made Halloween too easy this year, with creative director Alessandro Michele revelling in the weird world of seeing double. It’s not long since the Gucci campaign paid homage to all things Stanley Kubrik, so sending their 68 identical twins down the SS23 runway was nothing short of wonderfully wicked in its grandiose tribute to the director. Paralleling the Grady sisters in The Shining and their cult classic phrase “Come and play with us”, any recreation of a retro-chic look at Gucci’s show is the perfect costume for you and your chosen partner that night. Grab a blazer and your lookalike, a sharp hat and perhaps strap a gremlin to your pants, and you’re good to go.
3. Swamp Monster
Balenciaga raise eyebrows and have audiences shifting in their seats at the best of times, so we predict that any look from the luxury house is sure to spook at least one person you know this Halloween. But, if you’re in the mood to get truly messy, then slosh around in your local park pond for the ultimate swamp monster, and parallel the mud trek on the Balenciaga runway. The mythological creature who lurks in the depths of the swamp is sure to set hearts racing and children running. It may also be the perfect costume for those who want to go viral like Balenciaga love to do, especially if you pierce your cheeks, give yourself prosthetic horns, and frown as hard as you can in your make-shift leather jacket that skims the floor.
4. Feeling: Alienated
For the special FX fans out there, look no further than fashion month’s queen of other-worldly beauty looks herself, Doja Cat. There hasn’t been a moment that the singer took rest from her responsibility to be the talking point of all the shows she attended. Bring to life an Oscar trophy with full gold body paint like Doja at the A.W.A.K.E Mode show, or go Dune with her headscarf and eyeliner at Vivienne Westwood. But if you really want to stress yourself out with the mess you’re about to make, then try the full-face ice-cave alien creature look at the Monot show, that saw blue contour over a frosty white base, and body makeup that went from her shoulders to the tips of her fingers. In all honesty, we have no clue what aliens look like – who are we to say they don’t wear falsies with platforms and a clutch?
5. Get Home Before the Clock Strikes 12…
Pop culture popped off at the SS23 Thom Browne show, and proved that we could have the perfect fashion moment and get home before midnight; two shoes, an opera coat and all the trimmings included. What seemed like a pantomime with its performance of Cinderella to the Grease soundtrack, was elevated by Thom Browne’s love for storytelling, and how he admits the outcome was intentional in its princess meets American prom meets Paris opera. But overriding important was the similarity to cringe but fantastic 2004 A Cinderella Story with Hilary Duff. The arrival of Duff as Sam at her all-American high school fall party sends an infectious Halloween spirit through the screen, and yes we do want to be the belle of the baseball! An elevated version of the noughties entrance scene can be recreated by the extravagant Thom Browne show. So choose your character, but all we know is that if we aren’t driving off in Prince Charming’s pink tulle Cadillac by the end of the night, we won’t be going at all.
6. Mirror Mirror on the Wall… who’s the scariest of them all.
Well, it’s you. According to JW Anderson SS23 that is. This collection detailed a transient moment in time according to the designer, one that finds us at risk of falling into our screens and becoming consumed by technology. So, if you really want to freak everyone out at your Halloween celebrations and perhaps spend the rest of the night apple bobbing on your own, then dress as alternate reality, or a mirrored orb to hold up to society and show them who they truly are. Get the Black Mirror look with your own bedroom mirror, or any reflective surfaces for that matter. Tin foil perhaps? Terrifying.
7. Clown Couture
Moschino SS23 bounced down the runway with inflatable attachments and silhouettes, detailing an amalgamation of crazy motifs. Moschino’s signature go-to are their wacky, bold colour palettes and kooky designs, with the show transcending from a 60s-style blow up dress to an avant-garde pool party vibe. But, who did inflatables first? Clowns. And let’s be honest, the relationship is uncanny. The bouncy castle and balloons, the blow-up flower on the shirt, the big shoes and the colours of horrible blues, sickly yellows and headache-inducing reds. So if you feel like channelling your inner Pennywise, then use Moschino as your inspiration, and head down an abstract road to your killer clown couture.
8. The Devil Wears Prada
Throw out your latex boots and big plastic devil pitchfork… because red for a devil? Groundbreaking. If you can take any advice from fashion’s favourite assistant Andy Sachs in the 2006 film The Devil Wears Prada, it’s that the devil in fact wears a signature bob and black and white collared dress. Anne Hathaway revisited her iconic role for the Michael Kors SS23 in New York, sporting her bangs and black turtleneck like the good old days next to Vogue’s editor-in-chief Anna Wintour. Or if you don’t fancy going as the devil, just pop on a pair of Jimmy Choos, because as fellow assistant Emily says in the film, “You sold your soul to the devil when you put on your first pair of Jimmy Choos. I saw it.”
