By Sophie Albertie
Prepare to be spooked: I’ve always been here for concept costumes.
We’ve come a long way from the worst guy you know in the corner of a party wearing a “this is my costume” T-shirt. It’s time to hold space for “Gay Halloween,” a magical place where the most hyper-specific pop culture moments are blown up to full size. Probably the best Halloween-based trend to come out in the past couple of years.
So far, the commitment to the bit has gone miles.
The simplicity of a long brown wig and a tray of fake limes for your architectural digest Dakota Johnson costume, or a lamp cover with pictures of Clairo glued to it for “Clairo shade,” this is the peak of self-expression, and the inspirations only got more niche.
Jump in the pool and pretend to sink as the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, find a friend to join you in being Chappell roan and the passenger seat. In this case, more is more and makes me die laughing every time—both from befuddlement and admiration.
The flak perpetuated by the vampires, ghouls and goblins of the holiday is understandable to an extent, but sometimes haters stay mad because they just don’t get it. There may be a fine line between conceptual and just lazy, but the line still exists. Plus, if you get to be sexy, someone else gets to be insufferable.
If I’m throwing a monster bash and someone shows up in a mini-skirt and a pair of black cat ears, I love it. If someone throws on a Harvard sweatshirt and tells me they’re dressed up as Princess Diana jogging, they can stay all night.
Happy Halloween, stay classic or be barely legible. The choice is yours.
