Halloween Costume Ideas | Abbey Yokoyama

Every October, the same dilemma arises about what we should dress up as for Halloween. If you are still finding yourself stuck on this question, here are some DIY costume ideas.

  For solo costumes, some options include a referee, the character Paddington, or even ‘Handy Manny,’ a repairman from the popular children’s television series.

A referee is a simple costume, and can come together with just a vertically striped black and white tee, a black skirt, shorts, or pants, and a whistle. 

A Paddington costume can be executed using a red bucket hat, a navy blue cardigan or top, khaki bottoms, and a pair of red boots. 

If you are leaning towards the Handy Manny costume, you can wear a red and white hat, a green top or baseball-style t-shirt, jean bottoms, and brown shoes. You can even add a tool belt, toolbox, or yellow gloves to look more like the character. 

For couples or duos, some more costume options include the duo ‘Where's Waldo’ and Carmen San Diego, the sun and moon, Sabrina Carpenter and Jenna Ortega from the ‘Taste’ music video, Bluey and Bingo, and Lucy and Gru. 

The Where’s Waldo costume can be executed with a striped red and white top, jean bottoms, and glasses. The Carmen San Diego costume can be completed with a yellow top, a red trench coat, and black bottoms. That costume might be a bit harder to do with just the items in your closet, but an easier costume to DIY might be the sun and moon. 

One person can wear gold and white, while the other can wear silver and black. You can even make your own headbands or tiaras to go along with the outfit! 

For dressing up as Sabrina Carpenter and Jenna Ortega from the Taste music video, one can wear Ortega’s black midi bodycon dress with black heels, and the other can wear Carpenter’s gingham-patterned blue top and capris with white heels. To make it even more accurate, you can add fake blood to the blue top to match the gory music video

To dress up as Bluey and Bingo using clothes you already have, you can mimic their colors. For Bluey, you can wear light blue and navy blue, and for Bingo, you can wear orange and tan. You can also make ears if you’d like. 

For Lucy and Gru, the person dressing up as Gru can wear all black with a black and gray striped scarf, and the person dressing up as Lucy can wear a turquoise trenchcoat or dress. 

For bigger group costumes, which can also be done solo or in duos, some ideas include Strawberry Shortcake, Care Bears, or Monster High characters; different bugs, fruits, or sodas; or even storybook characters from Alice in Wonderland and Winnie the Pooh. If trying to make these costumes from existing items you already have, you can just mimic the colors of the character and add details made out of paper if necessary. For example, if you are dressing up as a Care Bear, you can just wear the color of one and add a paper cutout of the design on the bear’s stomach and tape it to your costume.

Overall, from a referee to Bluey to Strawberry Shortcake characters, there are a variety of costume ideas and ones that you can make yourself as well.