A Halloween Costume You Don't Have to Buy: Build It, Borrow It, Swap It

The packaged Halloween costume has a very short life. It arrives in a plastic bag, it's made of thin synthetic fabric designed to survive roughly one evening, it appears in a few photos, and by November it's in a bin bag or at the back of a cupboard forever.

It's also, usually, not a very good costume. The best ones at any party are the ones somebody clearly built — recognisable, a bit clever, and unmistakably theirs. They almost always start in an ordinary wardrobe.

Start with the wardrobe, not the idea

The usual process is to pick a costume and then find the pieces. Reverse it. Open your wardrobe first, pull out the strongest single pieces you own — a long black coat, a slip dress, a boiler suit, a trench, anything with sequins — and ask what each one could become.

You'll find most good costumes need one strong base and two or three details. The base is almost always already hanging there.

Costumes that start in most wardrobes

• A long black coat or dress: witch, vampire, a Victorian in mourning, or anyone who lives in a gothic novel.
• A trench coat: detective or spy. Add sunglasses and a newspaper with two eye holes.
• A white shirt, black trousers and a waistcoat: magician, vampire hunter, or a waiter in a haunted hotel.
• A boiler suit or overalls: mechanic, paranormal investigator, or astronaut with a little foil and a lot of commitment.
• Head-to-toe denim: a cowboy with a borrowed hat, or a fairly convincing tribute to an entire decade.
• Anything sequinned: a disco ball, a 1970s night out, or simply the most glamorous ghost at the party.

“The best costume at the party is the one nobody else bought from the same website.”

— The Bestis Editors

Borrow the one piece that makes it

Most wardrobe costumes are one item away from finished: the hat, the cape, the wig, the gloves, the ridiculous jacket. That single statement piece is the thing turning ordinary clothes into a costume, and it's exactly the kind of item worth borrowing.

Someone you know has a witch hat in a box. Someone has a cape from a fancy-dress party three years ago, and a sequin jacket they wear once a year. Ask your circle before you buy anything — it's quicker than delivery and it costs nothing.

The classic still works

The bedsheet ghost is the oldest costume there is and it's still funny. Use a sheet that's past its best for the bed, wear sunglasses over it rather than cutting holes, and add one thing that's yours — boots, a handbag, a drink in hand. The joke is the contrast.

Let the details do the work

A costume reads from the face and the edges. A plain outfit with strong make-up and one good accessory beats an elaborate costume with nothing done above the neck. Use the make-up you already own wherever you can, and save the money for the one thing you genuinely can't build.

Group costumes without a group shop

Matching group costumes are usually where the shopping spirals. Pick a theme everyone can build from their own wardrobes instead: one colour head to toe, a single decade, a film genre, or everyone as a different kind of ghost. It's cheaper, it's more fun to see what people come up with, and it photographs better than six identical costumes from the same bag.

On November 1st

Return anything borrowed within a day or two, washed or cleaned properly — that's how you get lent to again next year. Put your own pieces back into normal rotation, because a long black coat is still a long black coat. And anything costume-only that you'll never wear again shouldn't go in a cupboard; it should go to someone with a party next year.

On Bestis, ask your circles for the hat, the cape or the wig before you buy anything, and swap your costume pieces on afterwards. Build it from what exists, borrow the finishing touch, and let next year's costume already be hanging in somebody's wardrobe.