What to wear: Costumes for Halloween 2012

Halloween costume trends continue to be colorful and creative as revelers prepare both classic and modern outfits for this year’s festivities.

According to Ron Thompson, manager of Spotlight Costumes in South Side, some of the most purchased costumes this year are influenced by popular movies and television shows such as The Walking Dead, the Avengers series and the latest installment of the Batman franchise The Dark Knight Rises.

“Superhero costumes were the first things to go,” Thompson said.

Senior legal studies major Shannon Begley, who will participate in this trend as Catwoman this year, agrees that movie-themed costumes will be very popular. Batman and Catwoman costumes will be particularly numerous because of the film was partially filmed in Pittsburgh.

According to Begley, the attraction of these costumes lies in their ability to make an individual feel like a character or celebrity for an evening.

“Who doesn’t want to be famous?” Begley said.

According to Thompson, another significant trend will be zombies, inspired by the television show The Walking Dead, and will include the zombification of classic costumes such as witches, wizards and even characters such as Alice in Wonderland.

“That seems to be a very popular idea: take anything and make it dead,” Thompson said.

Thompson said that this willingness to modify costumes shows a trend towards creativity, adding that his store has sold significantly more make-up kits than in previous years.

“It’s more about individuality [this year],” Thompson said, though he added that few customers actually achieve this goal. “When you do mention that something’s not an original idea, they get very upset.”

Nick Parrilla, manager of Costume World in the Strip District, agreed that many of his customers are creative, buying pieces and then modifying them to create an original costume.

“They’ll buy something like a duster jacket and burn part of it to make it into Freddie Krueger’s jacket,” Parrilla said. “Some people are creative like that.”

According to Parrilla, couple and group costumes, which are consistently popular, will be prevalent again this year.

Thompson agreed, stating that he sold several pairings of Batman and Catwoman and Superman and Wonderwoman already this year. He also sold a set of Avengers costumes to a group of twelve college students who wanted to match at their events.

“It’s a safety in numbers thing,” Thompson said. “[You] can be something goofy if everybody else is. No one can judge [you].”

Kelly Anlas, a junior computer science major, is part of a group costume this year as one of the seven deadly sins. She and six friends will each embody a vice and attend festivities together.

“[Group costumes] are a fun way to band ourselves together,” Anlas said. “It’s a bonding moment when you can look back and see that we did this together.”

According to Anlas, standard Halloween costumes such as the witches, superheroes, and policemen will still be prevalent this year because they are simple and easy to find.

“Whatever people can buy at a Halloween store will be popular,” Anlas said. “People like to be recognizable. It’s more fun not to have to explain.”

According to junior secondary education and social studies major Niko Kouknas, traditional Halloween costumes are not as effective as modern and eccentric costumes, especially if they’re humorous. He hopes that his costumes of a banana, a replacement referee and Elmo will make an impression.

“People like out of the ordinary,” Kouknas said. “You get more of a reaction out of a modern costume than a classic one,” Kouknas said.

According to Parrilla, any type of costume is effective at Halloween. What is important is choosing to wear one.

“At Halloween I don’t think that there are any drawbacks to anything you do,” Parrilla said. “It’s one day out of the year that you can be anything you want to.”