Lovelyish

Collegians! Want to spend an arm and a leg on your Halloween costume this year? As if! Last year, my friend Elvi and I combined our creative forces to become the classic, dynamic fashion duo: Cher and Dionne from “Clueless.” Armed with our measly, student worker paychecks, the two of us immediately hit up the local Goodwill in search of our accessories.

From the moment my calendar reads All Saints Day, my wheels instantly start turning on how I plan to outsmart the most creative costumers next year. This process includes not only being original, but also being thrifty as well.  

Take it from a Halloween costume aficionado, finding the amenities to an ever-so-clever ensemble can be as easy as rummaging through your closet or a day trip to your local consignment store. Check out some of photos of my friends and me in our DIY college costumes and learn how we put them together without breaking the bank!

The Sun Drop Girl & M.I.A.

At my university, as I’m sure it is with many schools, Halloween celebrations last an entire weekend. For Day 2, I chose to spend my night “dropping it like it’s hot” as the “Sun Drop girl” from the popular commercial. Elvi, on the other hand, remade rapper M.I.A.’s infamous maternity outfit from the 2009 Grammy Awards.

Thankfully, for my bank account, I already had the shorts, the shoes, and the leggings for my costume. Finding the socks and the headband turned out to be an equally easy task. My mother discovered the socks in a brand new package at the Goodwill for $1 and I found the headband in a set of 6 for $5 at CVS. The soda bottle clocked in at a whopping $2. However, as for the signature, Sundrop t-shirt, that took some digging. I perused the Internet and stumbled across a website that sold the graphic tee for $20. At a total of twenty-eight dollars and some change, I trick or treated myself to a creative yet cheap costume.

However, that night, Elvi proved that no one on the corner had swagger, or more money in their pocket, like her! Her entire costume was handmade! With clothes she already owned, M.I.A.-for-the-day cut a black, sheer dress in half and dressed it with a matching black skirt. As for her strategically placed polka dots, she cut two pieces of cardboard into circles, drew on the dots and taped them to herself. At $0 total, Elvi’s ensemble epitomized D.I.Y.

American Apparel Strapless body suit: $28. Green tights: $2. Plastic ivy leaves: $0.99 a bunch. My friend Frieda’s expression: priceless.

As a Batman fanatic, I longed to pay homage to my favorite villainess Poison Ivy, and Halloween was my perfect opportunity. To be as authentic as possible, I chose to make my costume myself. Considering I had already dyed my hair a deep red color during the summer, I was able to save myself a few bucks rather than buy a wig. Although it was incredibly tedious, I spent an entire Saturday hot gluing each poison ivy leaf to my body suit. To top it off, I bobby-pinned two leaves to my hair to add a little panache. 

Frieda took a much simpler route. After one trip to Rue21, she snatched up a cute, leopard print dress ($8) and a pair of strappy heels ($10) that she knew she would wear on other festive occasions. With a borrowed pair of ears, Frieda certainly was the cat’s meow that night!

What are the chances that the year I decided to dress up as Kim Kardashian I would have a roommate whose cousin plays for the New Orleans Saints? With an authentic Saints jersey in one hand and my VHS copy of “Ever After” relabeled as “Sex Tape” in the other, I was surprised how many people knew I was the notorious reality star.

Prior to the start of the semester, I stocked up on party dresses for the year. By the time I finally decided to go as Kim K., I was already half-way prepared! My body-hugging, one-shoulder Forever 21 dress cost about $20. Yet, two important pieces were not as easy to find.

For Kim’s long tresses, I searched through racks on racks on racks of wigs until I found “the one” for $18 at the local Halloween Express. Getting her infamous rear-end was a bit trickier. With most of my paycheck spent on the wig, I resorted to begging my mother for the as-seen-on-TV padded underwear, Booty Pop. Suffice it to say, she had no intention on spending $20 on something I would only wear once.

To save both of us a pretty penny, she suggested I wear two pairs of underwear and stuff one with a scarf! What do you know? INSTANT BOOTY!