Hallowe'en? Fangs aren't what they used to be - Hallowe’en parties should be about fun home-made costumes, says Lucy Cavendish. So why are women making things harder for themselves by following Lady Gaga's lead and running up dresses made of meat?
I haven’t been to many Hallowe’en parties recently, not adult ones anyway, for one perfectly good reason. I hate dressing up.
What a fright: Lady Gaga at the MTV Video Music Awards Photo: AP/REUTERS
Perhaps I’m scarred from a party I went to a couple of years back for a friend’s wedding anniversary where we were all made to dress up as Barbie and Ken. The small daughter of a friend of mine had to lend me a blonde wig to make me vaguely resemble a Barbie. That’s how unenthusiastic I am about dressing up.
But years ago, when I had a social life and could be enticed out of my house, I used to make a real effort for Hallowe’en. My usual garb made me look pretty hideous – I’d usually go to parties dressed as a witch with fake warts on my nose and a pointy hat with green hair attached to it. It made apple-bobbing pretty difficult, but at least I looked scary.
Witches’ robes, ghosts’ outfits made from old sheets, or – if you’re feeling really adventurous – cat costumes complete with tail made from a metal clothes hanger wrapped in fabric – these are the Hallowe’en dress-ups we all know and love. And this sort of dressing up did help create a party atmosphere – you could use the luminous skeleton costume or bad vampire outfit as an excuse to talk to the people you didn’t know. It really was the ultimate ice-breaker – after all, it’s hard to be aloof if you’re dressed like Grotbags.
I haven’t been to many Hallowe’en parties recently, not adult ones anyway, for one perfectly good reason. I hate dressing up.
Perhaps I’m scarred from a party I went to a couple of years back for a friend’s wedding anniversary where we were all made to dress up as Barbie and Ken. The small daughter of a friend of mine had to lend me a blonde wig to make me vaguely resemble a Barbie. That’s how unenthusiastic I am about dressing up.
But years ago, when I had a social life and could be enticed out of my house, I used to make a real effort for Hallowe’en. My usual garb made me look pretty hideous – I’d usually go to parties dressed as a witch with fake warts on my nose and a pointy hat with green hair attached to it. It made apple-bobbing pretty difficult, but at least I looked scary.
Witches’ robes, ghosts’ outfits made from old sheets, or – if you’re feeling really adventurous – cat costumes complete with tail made from a metal clothes hanger wrapped in fabric – these are the Hallowe’en dress-ups we all know and love. And this sort of dressing up did help create a party atmosphere – you could use the luminous skeleton costume or bad vampire outfit as an excuse to talk to the people you didn’t know. It really was the ultimate ice-breaker – after all, it’s hard to be aloof if you’re dressed like Grotbags.
But, my how things have changed. The internet search engine Yahoo! has reported that the most searched Hallowe’en costume across the world is the infamous meat dress Lady Gaga wore to the MTV Video Music Awards last month. Such is the demand to do a Gaga that master butchers in New York are trying to make meat dresses for their most demanding of customers, while cautioning that the dress would be “highly perishable”. No kidding. Those who can’t afford the $2,000 price tag for the authentic Gaga experience are settling for plastic versions. Fully grown women are going off to Hallowe’en parties looking, literally, like a dog’s dinner.
This competitive Hallowe’en costuming really has gone too far. No one dresses as a witch any more. If anything, people now dress as pop stars, as if pop stars have anything much to do with Hallowe’en, which they don’t. In fact, current Hallowe’en costumes seem to bear no resemblance to anything traditionally scary at all. Take Cindy Crawford, who was pictured attending a Hallowe’en party dressed as Amy Winehouse. I suppose Gaga and Winehouse look more witchy than, say, Beyoncé but still… what is going on?
Part of this is to do with the increasing commercialisation of Hallowe’en. Those who hate the whole idea of Hallowe’en claim that in its modern form it is just an American invention. But traditionally Hallowe’en was a Celtic celebration, a prelude to All Saints’ Day. Now it has been overtaken by trick-or-treaters and endless children dressed up as Casper the Ghost wandering round the streets. Such is the bad feeling towards Hallowe’en that some shops sell posters which say “No trick-or-treaters welcome” for people to put up on their windows and doors.
This year, despite the recession, there seems to be an increased upsurge in the whole “selling” of Hallowe’en. It is now the most commercially lucrative festival after Christmas and Valentine’s Day. And as expectations rise, so do the fancy nature of the costumes. This year my children have got much more savvy with their dressing-up demands. My daughter, aged three, recently announced that she wanted to celebrate Hallowe’en as a “pink princess witch”.
“You can’t,” said seven-year-old Leonard. “You have to go as something scary. Anyway, there’s no such thing as a pink princess witch.”
Only there is. The next day we happened to be in the local branch of the Co-op when we saw it. A pink witch costume complete with sparkling broomstick priced £14.99. “Ooh,” my daughter said. “That’s mine!”
Did I buy it for her? Of course I did. This has now sparked off massive amounts of friction in our house. Leonard now wants to go as a Pokémon-vampire (is there such a thing?) and Jerry, aged six, as a light-up luminous skeleton. They both swear that they have seen these costumes in the endless catalogues that come through our door on a daily basis.
“What about a vampire?” I say, remembering we still have a cape and plastic fangs from last year. “Or a bat? Bats are good.”
But there’s no stopping them. It’s pink princesses, modern-day action heroes or nothing. As for me, maybe I should unleash my inner Lady Gaga. Now that really is a scary thought. ( telegraph.co.uk )
This competitive Hallowe’en costuming really has gone too far. No one dresses as a witch any more. If anything, people now dress as pop stars, as if pop stars have anything much to do with Hallowe’en, which they don’t. In fact, current Hallowe’en costumes seem to bear no resemblance to anything traditionally scary at all. Take Cindy Crawford, who was pictured attending a Hallowe’en party dressed as Amy Winehouse. I suppose Gaga and Winehouse look more witchy than, say, Beyoncé but still… what is going on?
Part of this is to do with the increasing commercialisation of Hallowe’en. Those who hate the whole idea of Hallowe’en claim that in its modern form it is just an American invention. But traditionally Hallowe’en was a Celtic celebration, a prelude to All Saints’ Day. Now it has been overtaken by trick-or-treaters and endless children dressed up as Casper the Ghost wandering round the streets. Such is the bad feeling towards Hallowe’en that some shops sell posters which say “No trick-or-treaters welcome” for people to put up on their windows and doors.
This year, despite the recession, there seems to be an increased upsurge in the whole “selling” of Hallowe’en. It is now the most commercially lucrative festival after Christmas and Valentine’s Day. And as expectations rise, so do the fancy nature of the costumes. This year my children have got much more savvy with their dressing-up demands. My daughter, aged three, recently announced that she wanted to celebrate Hallowe’en as a “pink princess witch”.
“You can’t,” said seven-year-old Leonard. “You have to go as something scary. Anyway, there’s no such thing as a pink princess witch.”
Only there is. The next day we happened to be in the local branch of the Co-op when we saw it. A pink witch costume complete with sparkling broomstick priced £14.99. “Ooh,” my daughter said. “That’s mine!”
Did I buy it for her? Of course I did. This has now sparked off massive amounts of friction in our house. Leonard now wants to go as a Pokémon-vampire (is there such a thing?) and Jerry, aged six, as a light-up luminous skeleton. They both swear that they have seen these costumes in the endless catalogues that come through our door on a daily basis.
“What about a vampire?” I say, remembering we still have a cape and plastic fangs from last year. “Or a bat? Bats are good.”
But there’s no stopping them. It’s pink princesses, modern-day action heroes or nothing. As for me, maybe I should unleash my inner Lady Gaga. Now that really is a scary thought. ( telegraph.co.uk )
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