If ever there was a time to stand out, it’s Halloween; and let’s face it, it wouldn’t be the scary season without copious amounts of face paint and fire and brimstone, now would it? However, no matter how wild your imagination or how eclectic your sense of style during the rest of the year, the fact is, once Halloween hits, everyone takes the opportunity to up the ante and dazzle as they’ve never dared to dazzle before. Sure it’d be rude not to!
However, despite the fact the whole idea of Oíche Shamhna conjures up images of creepy crawlies, ghosts, ghouls, gory vampires, wicked witches and other weird incarnations, perhaps this year it’s possible to put a new twist on fright night and use Halloween as an excuse to let your creativity run wild.
Here are just a few ideas.
Take some inspiration from iconic cartoon and superhero characters, a la model Claudia Schiffer who turned up at a celebrity bash dressed as Kimberly Hart, the Mighty Morphin Pink Power Ranger.
Then again, if you’re a history buff, why not channel one of France’s most famous women, actually she was the last Queen of France – given the Revolution where she er, lost her head; yes we’re talking about the beautiful but doomed Marie Antoinette. Besides, when else would you get the opportunity to deliver her most symbolic and, unfortunate line, “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche” (Let them eat cake). And, if portraying the wife of King Louis XVI at a Halloween shindig is good enough for the divine Bette Midler, then it’s good enough for us.
Speaking of the divine Ms. M, as the day of the dead is traditionally the time when witches take to their broomsticks, why not change it up a gear, and, instead of permeating the air with a sense of fear by dressing up as a wicked old crone, why not inject a sense of fun and recreate the immortal and hilarious Winifred Sanderson, Bette’s lovable character from what, for me, has got to be one of the most adorable, albeit cheesy, Halloween movies of all time, Disney’s Hocus Pocus!
If you’ve got your heart set on winning the best costume prize, then why not take some spooky sartorial inspiration a la Lady GaGa, and copy Tim Burton’s artistic outcast Edward Scissorhands’ character from the famous, multi-layered dark movie of the same name. However, we would advise you don’t method act and offer fellow partygoers or their doggies a bespoke haircut!
