Halloween Costumes

The classics, and why they still work

Ghost, witch, skeleton, vampire, black cat and scarecrow have survived for a reason: each one is instantly readable, needs no explanation and can be assembled at any level of effort from a bedsheet to a tailored costume.

Recognisability matters more than detail, especially for children going door to door in low light. A costume built around one strong silhouette — a pointed hat, a hooded cloak, a painted face — will always read better than an elaborate outfit with fine detail nobody can see after dark.

Costumes for young children

• Little ghost: a white sheet or a white hooded jumper with a fabric-pen face; the warmest and simplest option there is.
• Black cat: black clothes, felt ears on a hairband, a tail from a stuffed tights leg and three whisker lines drawn on each cheek.
• Pumpkin: an orange jumper or tunic with a black felt face pinned on and a green hat or hood as the stalk.
• Little witch or wizard: a dark dress or coat, a cardboard cone hat covered in fabric, a stick from the garden as a wand.
• Scarecrow: checked shirt, patched trousers, straw or raffia tucked into the cuffs, a few freckles drawn on.
• Spider: a black outfit with four additional stuffed-tights legs sewn along the sides.

Last-minute costumes in under thirty minutes

A white sheet with two holes is the traditional emergency answer and remains a good one. Beyond it, an all-black outfit is the most useful base in the wardrobe: add cardboard bat wings and it is a bat, add felt ears and a tail and it is a cat, add a white skeleton painted with fabric paint and it is a skeleton.

Other fast options: a dark suit or blazer with a white shirt, a red-lined cape and pale face paint for a vampire; a lab coat with a wild wig for a mad scientist; a business outfit covered in tea-stained paper and pens for a haunted bureaucrat. All of these are built from clothing that already exists.

Costumes for adults

Adult costumes in Austria tend towards the understated. A well-made vampire or a Victorian-style outfit with good makeup reads as considered rather than costume-shop. Film and literary characters work well at private parties where guests know each other and will get the reference.

Couple and group costumes are worth the coordination if you are attending a party together. Anything with a shared visual system — the same palette, the same era, the same material — reads as a group even when the individual costumes differ.

Making a costume yourself

• Start with the silhouette, not the details. Decide the overall shape first and add nothing that does not support it.
• Shop your own wardrobe, then the charity shop, then the fabric shop. Buying new is usually the last resort, not the first.
• Felt is the ideal beginner material: it does not fray, needs no hemming and can be glued.
• Cardboard, hot glue and black spray paint will make almost any prop convincing at three metres.
• Test the whole thing once, in the evening, before the day itself.

Comfort, warmth and safety

The evening of 31 October in Austria is typically between two and eight degrees. A costume that only works over a t-shirt will end with a cold and unhappy child. Design the costume to fit over a warm layer from the start, or build it around a hooded jumper.

Three practical rules for children out in the dark: the costume must not reach the ground, since long hems cause falls on steps; masks should be replaced with face paint, because masks restrict both vision and breathing; and something reflective — tape, a strip on the bag, a small light — should be visible from behind. Reflective detail can be worked into a design so it looks intentional rather than added on.

Keeping it appropriate

For kindergarten and school events, check the rules first: many Austrian institutions ask for costumes without weapons, without blood and without masks. Nothing derived from real violence or from a real recent tragedy is appropriate anywhere.

It is also worth avoiding costumes based on the dress or identity of a living culture. There is more than enough material in ghosts, myth, folklore, film, animals and the autumn harvest to make this a very easy restriction to observe.