BeWEAR of the Basics

Halloween gives people the opportunity to escape from their ordinary, mundane life and reinvent themselves into something completely new. Despite the possibility of becoming anything your imagination can muster, people, especially teens, tend to stick to the same basic costumes. 

Scattered amongst the dense suburban streets on Halloween, swarms of red devil ears, white halos and flashy blue cop costumes overwhelm the population of children and teens. People clutch their pillowcases of candy sporting the same overdone cheerleading costume that they probably copied from pinterest and claimed as ‘theirs’ a month before on their private  snapchat story. 

Everyone knows that these costumes are basic, and still, most don’t try to branch out to something new. In fact, according to a poll of 23 students, the devil costume was crowned “most basic,” reeling in 61 percent of votes. Falling only one vote behind, the angel came in a close second with 56 percent, and the schoolgirl totaling a 47 percent. 

Sophomore Alissa Gallion is being a devil and a school girl for Halloween this year, even after voting both costumes as most basic in the poll. However, Gallion shows no shame, valuing ease over originality when it comes to finding the ideal Halloween costume. 

“I know these costumes are basic but I’m still being them because it makes it really easy to find a costume,” Gallion said. “I can always make it unique and my own.”

Teenagers are not solely to blame for their lack of originality when it comes to  costumes, rather their overlapping sources of inspiration. In fact, over half of the students who participated in the poll voted that they either used pinterest, or random people’s past costumes as inspiration. Not surprisingly, the only 21 percent that voted that they came up with their own ideas were five boys who participated in the poll, which makes sense considering most boys throw a costume together the night before. Even so, girls tend to be more basic than boys in and out of Halloween season in an attempt to remain ‘trendy.’ 

However, the overuse of these “inspirations” make costume repetitiveness  inevitable. Pinterest can only provide so much, and teens are sucking its content dry as each Halloween passes. Therefore, a pivotal step in the journey to authenticity is discovering a new source of inspiration. 

“If you don’t want to be basic try and find costumes based off characters from TV shows you like or people that you idolize,” Gallion said. “Something like that.”

Coming up with a costume based off something you like is as original as it gets. Rather than looking for something that has already been done, try and think of something that personally relates to you. No one can steal the thoughts in your head. 

Others disregard the need to be original and put the stigma of being basic to rest. 

“It doesn’t matter if you’re basic,” sophomore Emily Proscia said. “Whatever you want to be is whatever you can dress up as.”