Last-Minute Costumes
Don’t let lack of a costume scare you off from Halloween festivities. These disguises made from common household items are perfect for the costume-challenged.
Halloween snuck up on you again and the costume stores are stripped bare. No time to order online, and your well of imagination has run dry.
Don’t get spooked. Students from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising are here to help.
We asked students at the private college of art and design in Irvine, Calif., to come up with costumes using five things they found around the house. Call it “Project Runway” on a shoestring budget.
School administrators were really excited about the idea.
“We love this,” said Shirley Wilson, who helped set it all up. “We’re going to offer them gift certificates to the student store to increase participation. I think this is great.”
It worked. These students of fashion and costume design, merchandising, interior design and more came up with some fabulous ideas, using everything from Target bags to laundry baskets.
Some of these might be more work than the unschooled designer wants to tackle. Others are easily doable. And if you’ve just given up on the whole Halloween thing this year, save these ideas for next year.
Winning designer: Allia Murphy
Costume: Magical Fairy
Items used: curtains, hangers, Christmas ornaments, plastic flowers, old dress.
How she did it: “I bent and shaped the hangers and covered them with tights for wings. Old dress was sewed to curtains. I combined hanger and Christmas ornaments. Wove together plastic flowers.”
Comment: “It took awhile to make,” Murphy said.
Designer: Eva Korb, apparel manufacturing major
Costume: Girlie-Girl Superhero
Items used: faux fur material, aluminum foil, thermal blanket, shopping bag, safety pins.
How she did it: “I sewed the fabric into a top and booties, foil into arm guards, bag into a cape, thermal blanket into skirt. All held together by safety pins.”
Comment: “Girlie-Girl Superhero kills people with kindness.”
Designer: Florentina Popa, product development major
Costume: Minnie Mouse
Items used: Target plastic bags, red ribbon, black tights, black belt, white shirt How she did it: ‘‘I used all the Target bags and tied them together to make the dress.”
Comment: None. Minnie Mouse is very shy.
Designer: Bri Emery, graphic design major
Costume: A Hallow’s Eve Feast — Pig Roast
Items used: Box, tablecloth, plastic silverware, apple, pig ears.
How she did it: Cut a hole in the box and tablecloth for her head. Set the table with plastic silverware. Put on pig ears, stuck an apple in her mouth and, for special effect, taped her nose up with clear packing tape.
Comment: “I should have cut armholes.”
Designer: JoAnne Bonifacio, merchandise marketing major
Costume: Dirty Laundry
Items used: Laundry basket, pillow case, socks, bed sheets, fabric softener.
How she did it: stapled items together and slung it over her shoulder.
Comment: “Definitely last-minute.”
Designer: Mayra Villareal
Costume: Wedding Gift
Items used: Box, tissue, ribbon, wrapping paper, pearl string
Comment: “We recycled things from my wedding.”
Designer: Angela Leavitt
Costume: Rubik’s Cube
Items used: Box, black paint, checkered Vans sneakers, checkered tights, construction paper.
How she did it: “I painted the box black, taped the corners with black duct tape, cut out five colors — red, blue, yellow, green and orange — and glued them on the box. The color is my stockings.”
Comment: Rubik’s Cube was invented in 1974 by Erno Rubik, a Hungarian obsessed with 3-D geometry.
Designer: Krista Thompson, interior design major
Costume: “Dangel” (That’s a devil and an angel combined.)
Items used: Wings, halo, devil tail, devil horns, high-heeled shoes
How she did it: pulled together various costumes into unique idea.
Comment: “This is original and cute.”
Designer: Nancy Palacio
Costume: Mulan from the Disney movie
Items used: Curtain rod, paper plates, lace, chopsticks and bathrobe
How she did it: For the parasol, she glued together paper plates and stenciled them with butterflies, then attached them to the curtain rod.
Comment: She has always liked “Mulan” and used that as inspiration.