Costumes tell a story

Julia ♦ October 28, 2020 ♦ Leave a comment

EN GARDE! Halloween in Hawaii with Indiana Jones and Zorro, 1993

“Clothes make a statement.  Costumes tell a story.” — Mason Cooley

I mentioned a couple of days ago that my siblings and I much preferred making our own Halloween costumes over buying them in a store.  Perhaps it’s because the store-bought costumes in those days were cheesy little plastic masks coupled with cheap apron-like printed garments worn loosely over regular clothes.  I look with amazement and perhaps a twinge of envy at the elaborate quality of embellished princess gowns and pirate gear available for purchase seemingly everywhere nowadays.

But pulling together our own costumes was very much a part of the excitement of the holiday.  Our parents allowed us the fun and rare privilege of plundering their closets, accessories, props and Mom’s makeup to use as we saw fit.  Then the ritual of photographs, followed by heading outdoors when there was just enough light to see and compare our friends’ creations, usually as unique as our own.

One year a friend (with the help of her parents) became an amazingly realistic mummy, covered in gauze made from her brother’s old cloth diapers, taped all over her body and head (except for eye holes and a small mouth hole for breathing).  That might have been the best costume I can remember seeing.  Creating original Halloween costumes is one of the best ways to “go green” by recycling materials already on hand, at home or at thrift shops.

We followed the tradition of home-created costumes with our sons, and they do indeed tell a story that brings back happy memories of their interests and preferences at various ages.  Their costumes call to mind the tales they enjoyed that prompted their choices, as well as the stories I remember of that particular year.  As Halloween approaches, I hope you will enjoy seeing, and maybe creating, the many costumes that fill this season with memorable scenes.

This post was first published seven years ago today. The original post, comments and photo are linked, along with two other related posts, below. These links to related posts, and their thumbnail photos, do not appear in the blog feed; they are only visible when viewing the individual posts by clicking on each one. I have no idea why, nor do I know how they choose the related posts. That’s just the way WordPress does things.