I honestly have complicated feelings about Halloween. On one hand, I love it. The spooky atmosphere, the excuse to be creative, the candy. On the other hand, the amount of waste it generates every year is pretty staggering. Americans alone spend over 4 billion dollars on Halloween costumes annually, most of which are made from cheap synthetic fabrics that are worn once, can’t be recycled, and end up in a landfill halfway through November.
But in my opinion, the most creative and memorable costumes have nothing to do with buying a plastic-wrapped outfit from a party store. Here are some ideas worth considering this year.
Look in your own closet first
This sounds obvious but most people skip straight to shopping without actually taking stock of what they already own. Before you do anything else, spend twenty minutes going through your wardrobe with fresh eyes. An all-black outfit can easily become a witch, a cat, or some type of creepy shadow creature. A white sheet (yep, really) becomes a ghost. A floral dress with some flowers in your hair can be a garden. And so on. The constraint of only using what you have is often what produces the most creative results.
Thrift stores are your best friend
If your closet really isn’t giving you anything to work with, a thrift store is the next stop. You can put together almost any costume from secondhand pieces for a fraction of what a new costume costs, and the items can be worn again or donated back afterward. Some ideas that come together easily from thrift store finds:
🌲 A 70s disco look from some wide-leg trousers and a sparkly top
🌲 A businessperson with an oversized blazer and a briefcase
🌲 A tourist with a Hawaiian shirt, camera, and fanny pack
🌲 A librarian with a cardigan, glasses, and a stack of books
🌲 Any decade-specific look since thrift stores are basically time capsules
Lean into makeup and face paint
A lot of the most striking Halloween costumes are mostly just good face paint with simple clothing. A skeleton look is almost entirely black and white face paint on a plain black outfit. A vampire is red lipstick, pale foundation, and whatever dramatic outfit you already own. Day of the Dead looks are beautiful and involve elaborate face painting that is the actual costume. Investing in a good face paint set and learning a couple of techniques on YouTube gets you much further than any store-bought costume.
Costume ideas that use mostly what you have
Some specific ideas that work with things most people already own or can source secondhand easily:
🌲 A ghost: a white sheet with two eye holes cut out. Iconic and zero purchases required.
🌲 A black cat: black clothes you already own, cat ears from a dollar store or made from cardboard and black paint, eyeliner whiskers.
🌲 A plant: wear green, tape some leaves onto your clothes, done. Bonus points for a pot hat made from a painted bucket.
🌲 A tourist: Hawaiian shirt, shorts, camera around your neck, socks and sandals. Highly recognizable, zero effort.
🌲 A painter: white clothes or a white shirt you don’t mind getting messy, actual paint splatters, a paintbrush.
🌲 A film character (from something you already own merch for): a band t-shirt, a sports jersey, anything recognizable.
🌲 A specific decade: pick any decade and dress accordingly using only thrift store finds or things already in your wardrobe.
🌲 Rosie the Riveter: a denim shirt or jacket, red bandana tied around your head, red lipstick. Done.
🌲 A scarecrow: flannel shirt, jeans, straw poking out of your sleeves and collar, a hat. One of the easiest and most recognizable Halloween looks there is.
🌲 A witch: black dress or skirt, pointed hat made from black card stock, dark lipstick. Classic for a reason.
For kids
Kids’ costumes are honestly where the most waste happens, since children grow out of things so fast and a costume worn once is basically immediately too small. A few approaches that avoid the disposable costume trap:
🌲 Size up deliberately so the costume lasts more than one year
🌲 Choose a costume that doubles as actual clothing, like a princess dress that works as a dress-up outfit all year or a superhero hoodie that gets worn to school
🌲 Swap with friends and neighbors since chances are someone in your circle has a costume in exactly the right size sitting in a box somewhere
🌲 Build the costume around pieces they’ll wear again, like a firefighter costume that’s mostly just a real raincoat and boots
🌲 Check Facebook Marketplace and local buy-nothing groups before buying anything new
Renting is a real option
If you want something more elaborate, a full period costume, an intricate character look, something that definitely needs to be made rather than assembled at home, renting is worth looking into. Costume rental shops exist in most cities and the cost is often similar to buying a cheap new costume, except nothing ends up in landfill afterward. Some theatrical costume houses also rent to the public, which means access to really high quality stuff.
A note on face paint and makeup
If you’re buying face paint for Halloween, look for water-based, non-toxic options free from parabens and synthetic fragrances. A lot of cheap Halloween face paint contains ingredients you really don’t want on your skin for an entire evening. Snazaroo and Mehron are two widely available brands with cleaner formulas.
Halloween does not have to be a wasteful event. Some of the most fun costumes I’ve ever seen were entirely improvised from things people already had at home, and there is something satisfying about putting together a creative look without spending any money at all.
