Halloween has become one of my favorite holidays since I came to
UCLA. There’s no mandatory family dinners, like during
Thanksgiving and Easter. Unlike Christmas parties, with me
pretending I remember family friends I haven’t seen since I
was 2, these parties involve people my age.
And by the time we’ve gotten to college, we’ve made
the wise decision to replace the candy with beer. But the real
reason I love Halloween is the costumes.
Halloween is a chance for everyone to be really creative with
their outfits. No one is restricted to putting on a boring, slutty
secretary outfit for your typical “pimps and hos” or
“CEOs and office hos” theme party. But not only is it a
chance to show off your own originality and style when it comes to
costumes, you can learn something about people by what costumes
they pick.
First of all, there are the celebrity-worship costumes ““
you can tell who reads Us Weekly and watches E! on a regular basis
because their costumes reflect an infatuation with their favorite
celebrities.
These costumes usually reflect whatever the “it”
show or whoever the “it” girl of the year is. I’m
embarrassed to admit my repeated past affiliation with this
category. Last year, at the height of “The Simple
Life,” my roommate and I went all-out on our Paris and Nicole
costumes, recreating the looks of our favorite celebs.
And while I have to admit that our costumes made for really good
parodies and stood out against other UCLA students, we were in for
a surprise when we headed off-campus and over to West
Hollywood.
All of sudden we were in the middle of a crowd of people who
read the tabloids ““ not chemistry books ““ and there
were lots of Parises and Nicoles. Let me just tell you that you
don’t want to compete with a drag queen over who has a better
costume.
This year, I’m sure Halloween will reveal a lot of Jessica
Simpson fans in Daisy Dukes and cowboy boots. I actually thought of
this myself, but then realized people would probably ask me why I
wasn’t dressed up. Just kidding. Sort of.
Then there are the costumes that people wear to prove that they
have a side to them that their friends don’t know about. This
category usually includes straight-edge studious types wearing red
dresses and devil horns to try to prove they have a naughty side,
or its counterpart of lushes in halos.
I’ve heard of people revealing their inner nerd by
dressing up as elements of the periodic table. A friend of mine was
surprised to learn that a friend of hers had a serious affection
for elementary school lunches when she showed up to a Halloween
party as a tater tot one year.
And by some people’s attempt at putting together a
costume, you can tell that they didn’t have any party plans
until the last minute. These are the people you’ll find
incorporating polo shirts from their closet into their
costumes.
This was my current roommate and me, freshman year. We were
cowgirls. To be more specific, we were cowgirls from the East Coast
who found out about a party 15 minutes before our ride was coming
to pick us up.
So, the cowgirl outfits consisted of polo shirts, jeans, loafers
and bandanas I borrowed from my then-roommate. And to make things
even more awkward, we matched, high-school style ““ people
from that party who have since graduated still remember me and my
roommate as the matching freshman cowgirls.
But it was at this party that I learned to appreciate Halloween
costumes and was inspired to do better the following years.
So while you still have time, plan a Halloween costume that will
bring to light some up-to-now-unknown aspect of your personality.
Just make sure you look hot.
Rodgers loves dressing up for Halloween parties. Invite her
to yours by e-mailing her at jrodgers@media.ucla.edu.