Halloween costumes through the years

Oh, Halloween, such a bizarre time of year; where children sweep the streets in the hopes of getting sweets, while adults dress up as monsters and ghouls, or rather sexy monsters and ghouls. For me, it always seems to awaken something of a creative spark in me - sadly just not in the way that I would hope as a writer. Rather than bringing about some inspiring horror story or sinister psychological play - no, instead I opt for trying to create my own costumes. I have no idea why this comes about, I'm not even very good at it, actually, I'm just awful. So, here are some of my more noticeable memories of hideous and falling apart Halloween costumes...

The Witch - Aged 5ish

I guess this one can be forgiven, I was very young after all. But yes, when I was about 5-ish (my memory isn't great), I wanted to go trick or treating dressed as a witch. I personally think I look wonderful and very comfortable; entirely missing the point of being scary. There is a very distinct memory I have from this time of feeling like I was in Harry Potter, something that I had longed to be a part of since I read the books. It's also worth noting that part of this fabulous costume I'd created was a very colourful and flowy cape, or as it was better known, on of my mother's skirts. Obviously, being very short and such a wonderful pattern I thought it looked very magical.

A Pirate - Aged 13/14

Oh how I wish I had a picture of this one as I can only imagine how ridiculous I looked. Firstly, I decided to go as a pirate through my love of The Pirates of the Caribbean, I also happened to own a lot of black and white striped tops that looked often like a pirate's top. Then came the trousers, I'd looked for some trousers that would look like a pirate, but couldn't find any that I could afford (I wasn't very old, around 13/14). So in my head I thought I could make some, using a bin bag of all things. I found out quickly that you can't sew that sort of material easily, instead, I sellotaped it together. Let's just be thankful that I had school trousers underneath or it would've been a horrible sight when they fell apart.

Harley Quinn - Aged 18

Urgh now for the most embarrassing of them all, its a wonder I had the nerve to even leave the house in this outfit. So it was the year of Suicide Squad, and everybody was obsessed with Harley Quinn, including myself. Once again I found myself with no money to actually buy a proper outfit, and I was very determined to go as the ferocious femme fatal. I took a set of black clothes and some old red clothes and sewed them together (somehow I'd learned to sew better by then). I'll just say that out of all the outfits this one at least held together. Honestly, it was the most hideous looking of them all, I got drunk just to forget I was wearing it.

At the end of the day...

It was all a good laugh, I've always enjoyed the process of creating and wearing a fun costume for Halloween. Once we get out of this weird mess I hope that we can go back to doing that, I would wear a costume at home for fun, but think it would be a lot of effort to sit around! Here is hoping that we'll get back to the spooky season as normal soon.