Share:

Halloween is almost here and the ghosts and goblins are making their appearances in storefronts, on billboards and many homes are already in the spirit.

Although pumpkins and witches are usually synonymous with the month of October and Halloween, adult costumes of today are all about being sexy, wearing less and being someone or something you wouldn’t normally be.

RIP Halloween, a costume store located just one block west of campus, offers a variety of costumes, wigs and accessories for students and children at discounted prices. However, if you look at their storefront advertisements you’ll notice majority of their mannequins are dressed in small, tight or sexy clothing.

“Fashion wise Halloween hasn’t changed much,” said co-chair of the fashion department Hollie Luttrell. “Students are a little more political than past years, but it seems as if formal has been ousted. Students are not just wearing something silly for Halloween anymore.”

If you look hard enough, you can find some silly costumes and funny presidential masks at RIP Halloween, but most of the costumes for the ladies are small and sexy. For those interested, the store offers three plus aisles of costumes for the ladies, from a sexy baseball player entitled “nasty curves,” to a Playboy playmate, which comes with a smoking jacket, belt and fake cigar.

Instead of the usual homemade silly nerd costumes and dressing up like the opposite sex, students are letting it hang out more and being more creative as well.

“A lot of women like to show off their sexy side on Halloween,” said Jene Kemp, business. “I think it has a lot to do with the way the media glorifies sex and the way they portray women as sex symbols. I also think for some women Halloween is all about confidence, some of my friends who are more apprehensive about what they wear come up with some creative costumes.”

For students like Kemp, Halloween has turned into a holiday for both adults and children.

“Growing up Halloween was all about the children and making sure they had lots of candy and lots of fun,” added Kemp. “Today Halloween is mostly about the parties and sexy outfits; but when else can a girl be a French maid or sexy nurse?”

However, store manager at RIP Halloween, Alisa Rivas implied that children costumes continue to sell because kids have their minds more made up on what they want to be for Halloween.

“Some of the more popular costumes for younger kids are the minions from the movie Despicable Me as well as Sully and Mike from Monster’s INC.” Rivas said. “For adults, the costume choices vary because the women are trying on everything in the store to see what exactly works for them.”

For students like Robert Hines, kinesiology, Halloween is about getting creative. Although he doesn’t normally dress up he did admit to being on the fence this year.

“I usually don’t dress up for Halloween, but I want to dress up this year, said Hines. “I want to be someone or something that will stand out and make people laugh; I’m still on the fence about it honestly. My girl wants us to be Tarzan and Jane, but I don’t know.”

“More couples are coming in looking for matching costumes this year,” Rivas added. “There doesn’t seem to be one particular costume that more people are looking for so far, however. Everyone wants to be different and stand out.”

Like a college student’s major, Halloween trends are always changing. One can argue that trends don’t exist when it comes to Halloween costumes because adults always want to be different and stand out.

 

Follow: