Scary Style, Freaky Fashion

Many people think that Halloween is a holiday entirely void of true fashion. Blood, rubber masks, wands, wings and other whimsical accessories would not normally compliment an outfit. However, Halloween is better seen as the epitome of high fashion. On no other day is an outfit, the most essential aspect of couture, the highest priority.
October 31st is the sole day of the year where people can openly obsess over what they are going to wear and be concerned over what others think about their outfits. Children go door to door to display their costume and fashion sense; Halloween literally turns every neighborhood in the U.S.A. into a fantastical runway.
For the months, weeks and days leading up to Halloween, the topic becomes a matter of much thought and planning. No one wants to distribute bad candy, and no one wants to attempt to purchase a costume on the day of the festivities. Just as it is foolish to buy a formal dress on the day of the event, it is equally unwise to buy a costume on the day of Halloween. It would be negligent to be so rash about a night that serves as an annual statement of personality. Literally months in advance, people will announce their costume, declare their originality and start planning their accessories.
Accessories are a crucial feature of any outfit. However, most people are not conscientious of their accessories on a day-to-day basis. Halloween is an occasion where everyone from children to the fashionably-oblivious take accessories into serious consideration. A vampire would be totally lame without fangs and blood running down the chin.
In addition, many people celebrate Halloween on multiple nights. At colleges across the nation, Halloween is celebrated on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Tuesday to maximize the festive potential. Costumes are the essential item on each of these crazy nights.
Halloween costumes, like any other outfit, are a basic form of self-expression. If you are what you eat, then you certainly are what you wear. Halloween offers a chance for people to fulfill their inner desires and thoroughly express their personalities. The 8 year-old future doctor will trick-or-treat decked out in a white lab coat, scrubs and rubber gloves with a stethoscope slung around his neck.
Costumes also allow people to diverge from their usual selves for a day. Any daily outfit could potentially be seen as a mask for the true self, but a Halloween costume may allow the wearer to venture further out of his comfort zone. It is easier to push boundaries, dress up and act like someone else when there is a legitimate excuse for doing so.
Thus, females across the nation may throw their turtlenecks and ankle length skirts aside to strap on fishnets, a super-mini skirt and a revealing excuse for a shirt. Why knock all of these girls and call them sluts? Instead, we should applaud their confidence or their ability to break out of their shell and embrace their femininity.
Halloween also allows males to embrace their bodies as many squeeze into leggings or even full spandex body suits so that they can emulate their favorite superheroes — Superman, Batman and Spiderman. Many males also reject their masculinity as they dress up as various females, from nuns to JAP’s, and even as parts of the female anatomy.
Halloween also provides a forum for people to make social or political comments more freely. Rubber caricature masks of prominent politicians are an easy way to make a political statement. Other people will go a step further to wear a costume to intentionally make a disagreeable comment (a la two freshmen in boxers dressed up as none other than Mark Foley and his page).
Everyone should take advantage of Halloween as a night (or two or three or four) to embrace themselves, break out of their shell, make a statement and be exceptionally fashionable. So dress up, go out, eat candy and have a Happy Halloween!