I work in a workplace where a lot of people dress up, and where the customers/patrons/children seem to appreciate/enjoy costumes, so I would like to wear a costume to work on Halloween.
I own these two wigs (link to the pink one; blue one apparently no longer available):
screenshot from Amazon.com
I am willing to buy:
• clothes I can wear again for other occasions
• especially a froofy dress, like this one or this one that have been in my cart anyway
• small, inexpensive accessories
• a tutu, because I’d enjoy the excuse
• not much; I don’t even really LIKE Halloween normally
The costume does not have to involve the wigs or a dress or a tutu. The costume must be:
• work-appropriate (library) (shouldn’t be scary to little children)
• moveable and not warm (I move around a lot and get overheated)
• relatively easy to understand/explain
Here is a costume I have already used twice for this purpose and could theoretically use again but would probably buy new wings because the wings I’ve been using were made for, like, a gradeschooler, and are snug and uncomfortable:
• bee (yellow-and-black striped shirt no longer available to link to; wings from a child’s costume we had in our Halloween costume box; antennae made from a headband and black pipecleaners)
Here are some costumes I have considered:
• Barbie! I could wear a pink gingham dress and add a daisy necklace (it’s pink-centered white flowers in the movie, but daisy is close enough and I’m more willing to buy it) and put my hair back in a pink bow! But even though I VERY MUCH enjoyed the Barbie movie, I am not sure I want to…dress as Barbie. Or maybe I do! I go back and forth. I won’t/can’t wear heels, so would have to figure out shoes.
(image from Amazon.com)
• Crayon, using a t-shirt that roughly matches either wig. But I don’t really like…t-shirts made to be costumes. Even though they seem like they would EXACTLY fit my issue, which is that I want to wear a costume but I don’t want to spend much money or be too overheated.
screenshot from Amazon.com
(image from Amazon.com)
• Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz! I could get the blue gingham dress and put my hair in two weird ponytails and wear red Converse and carry a stuffed animal in a basket! This would be a leading contender except that I don’t like The Wizard of Oz! or Dorothy! But it meets all of my requirements: easy to recognize/explain; I can buy a dress I don’t mind buying; I already have the other items. And does it really MATTER if I don’t like her/it?
(image from Amazon.com)
• Princess Bubblegum! I could buy the pink gingham dress (she wears solid pink but gingham is close enough and I’m more likely to re-wear), and wear the pink wig (it’s not her hairstyle/length, but it’s pink), and figure out the crown using cardboard or something. But…I am not sure Adventure Time / Princess Bubblegum is well-known enough to be easy to explain.
screenshot from Amazon.com
(image from Amazon.com)
• Cat or mouse or whatever! I could wear the ears and the tail, and put a pink-lipstick nose and black-eyeliner whiskers on my face! I have not seen cat/mouse ear/tail sets I like, but I could keep looking.
• Just wear a pink or blue wig and call it a day! There’s no law that it has to be a whole costume!
I would love to dress as something I am an ardent fan of! But…I don’t think I am a fan of anything that works as a costume. I could dress as Love Nikki Dress Up Queen, but that is not anything most people would recognize. I could dress as a Pokemon Go character, but that is not a costume I can assemble out of items I already have and/or can use again.
The blue wig makes me think of Coraline, which I think would require a yellow raincoat. Which is definitely not a tutu, but it would make sense in a library.
I have purchase an inexpensive Eevee ears and tail set and worn a brown shirt for one Halloween and I have no regrets.
My immediate thought was a book fairy. Pink wig, tutu, wand of some kind, lil cutouts of books on you. May need to get some new wings that fit better? Glitter would go far too.
My vote is for Barbie – the dress is perfect. (I’m also planning to dress up as Barbie this year, so we can be unintentional costume twins.)
However! I have a feeling that Barbie is going to be a very popular costume this year, which might be a positive or a negative for you. Normally I personally like to go with something a little more unique, but I saw a tweet that said something like, “So do we all collectively agree to dress up as Barbie for Halloween and say ‘hi Barbie!’ to each other back and forth all day?” and that sold me on the idea.
Okay so I LOVE the idea of a GIANT GROUP COSTUME with all of us saying “Hi Barbie!” to each other all day!!!!
I think pink converse would be a cute shoe choice for a Barbie costume!
The other possible shoe choice would be Birkenstocks!
I think the thing that will be particularly fun about the large number of people dressed as Barbie is that there will be lots of DIFFERENT Barbie costumes. Like you’ll probably see lots of Barbies all day, but I doubt you’ll specifically see another one in a gingham dress.
I am ALL IN on collective Barbie Halloween. Scariest thing we could be to the patriarchy!
You could also butcher one of the wigs (if you are willing to), do your makeup a bit silly, and go as weird Barbie!
Two costumes I have worn to work at office jobs are a deviled egg (white shirt, yellow circle on the front, devil horn headband), and a strawberry (red shirt with yellow duct tape seeds on it, leaves made of green felt glued to a headband).
This year I am going to be the “This Is Fine” fire meme. I’m working on my flames. 🔥
Dress all in green with a green wig and antennae and be a bookworm.
Love this suggestion!
Be the tooth fairy!!! Wig, tutu/dress/both, wand. Done! The Dorothy idea is also very cute. Red converse! So fun.
How about the crayon, but get a plain t-shirt and use duct tape or equivalent to make the words/wavy lines that you can remove after your done? and just have a regular t-shirt afterwards?
I think many people know princess bubblegum, and if that’s your preference , go for it! Even if people don’t know that character, they might just assume you’re Barbie or a princess. It’s a really cute dress!
My favorite costumes have been puns. i e. Freudian slip (a Goodwill slip I wrote Freudian terms on with sharpie and then wore over a black outfit. I feel like something along those lines would play really well in a library. Maybe a classic book title?
Friends dressed as a family of crayons last year. The shirt you linked to with matching knee socks and knit beanies. It was great. So, I think that with your wig would work well if you wanted to keep it simple.
*cracks knuckles*
I love Halloween costumes and costume/wig challenges generally, AND my kids are aging out of their willingness to do family-themed costumes (yes, we are…those people), so this will be fun AND therapeutic.
Also, I am taking credit for the bee idea a few years back. 😉 OH, if only we knew how much more rage was to come!!
The blue bob made me think of both Joy and Sadness from “Inside Out.” If you have a work friend willing to dress up with you, that would make you both more recognizable. But that may be a bit too much friendliness for work. I think Sadness would be the easier of the two BUT she wears a sweater and you don’t want to overheat, and…she is sad, which may not be what you are going for at the library. Then again, the second dress you linked to is the right feel for Joy if you can get the Bob into that topknot sort of thing Joy has going on.
If you wanted to get a cheap BLACK bob, Edna Mode is also a remarkably flexible costume – big black readers and the wig and dress in all black and you’re set.
I see you rejected Ruth Bader Ginsberg a few years back but that is an easily recognizable costume as well.
You could go literary (although, GEEZ, my best ideas all seem sort of pointedly political or at least anti patriarchy WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT IT) – Emily Dickinson has a very distinctive look which would really just need a collar and a broach and your hair in a center parted, low bun?
Or, slap a scarlet A on a black top and you are Hester Prynne. You could wear a black skirt and a white apron for a more Puritan feel.
Go with the gingham dress you like and get a bonnet from Amazon and an apron, and be a pioneer. Or an American Girl doll!
How is your fake Swedish accent? 😂 Because the Swedish Chef is quite easy to do with a chef hat and some cotton balls or fake fur for brows and a mustache, and the kids will think it’s funny to talk to you.
I’ll wrap up with – a witch is a remarkably easy and flexible costume. Hat, striped tights – wear whatever black layers you want. Very recognizable, no need to actually be scary. I was an extremely pregnant witch one year when we were Classic Monsters, and I was about as comfy as someone that pregnant could be!
“If you wanted to get a cheap BLACK bob, Edna Mode is also a remarkably flexible costume – big black readers and the wig and dress in all black and you’re set.”
I am Edna Mode for Halloween every year (put together a cheap costume for a con once, and it just continues to be the easiest and best costume ever). Black floofy dress, tights, and shoes I already owned, black wig for 20 bucks, big black readers for $13, and a cigarette holder for $7. Telling people not to wear capes and them asking me to critique their superhero costumes? PRICELESS.
Ooh, how about Joy from Inside Out? Blue short wig, green tank dress. It can go over a long sleeve yellow shirt. Done!
Oh I have made the mistake of being something no one could figure out / recognize. Ugh. The agony.
Personally, I like the crayon idea – especially with the colored wig – and I may steal it for myself if I have need.
I liked the group Barbie idea and the book fairy idea from the comments.
Glad you brought this up in early – maybe I’ll be ahead of the game this year!
When I saw the pic of the pink dress, my first thought was Lucy and Ethel at the chocolate conveyor belt. I had to Google to see if I was making that up because the episode was black and white, but I’m seeing colorized versions with pink dresses. Of course it would be unbecoming to spend the day with a face full of chocolate, but I also know you loves your chocolate…
I paid a total of $24 on Amazon a few years back for a Butterfly Wings Woman Cape (those keywords would find the right kind of thing, anyway) and a matching-ish headband. The wings are big but unstructured (no wires), so they are satisfyingly dramatic but take up almost no space in a drawer. When children asked me what I was, I told them I was the Queen of the Butterflies. I didn’t do anything special for makeup or clothing (I just wore plain black), but if you have some colorful sparkly eyeshadow handy you could have a lot of fun. Oh, and the particular wings/headband I chose were blue, like a morpho butterfly– maybe you could include your blue wig, if you want an excuse to wear it again?
I really like the bright flower dress from your cart. Could you add some fake greenery/flowers from a dollar store, plus some fake bumble bees, and call yourself a pollinator garden?
I’m imagining you could attach the extra garden elements to the dress with pins, or glue them on a cheap headband, or make a wrist corsage with hair elastics or long pipe cleaners or something.
DEFINITELY BARBIE. I don’t think people will read into as your impression of the movie. it’s cute, current and the wig and dress are perfect.
One year we dressed as Disney Princesses, I was Belle, blue dress, an apron and a book, it was pretty easy.
Another year I dressed as a doll, I did pigtails, a white with cherries T-shirt and a tutu skirt, for makeup big eyelashes and with pink blush did circles in my cheeks.
The organization I use to work for had a superhero themed run. One year I dressed up as Quailman from the tv show Doug. Only two people recognized me; everyone else thought I was Captain Underpants. I don’t have any costume ideas unless you want to go as The Rock wearing a turtleneck, fanny pack, and some jewelry but I understand the concern of people not knowing who you are.
Your wigs make me think of Lisa Frank. If you Google Lisa Frank Halloween costumes, you’ll see what I mean! Tons of options, including a tutu or a fun onesie!
Maybe it’s just because I have a toddler, but Pinkalicious and Strawberry Shortcake sound like fun, bookish costumes to me.
Black dress from Wool&. You could then potentially do the 100 day challenge and get store credit- I think it’s $100 USD but can’t remember. Pretty much a free dress anyway. Butterfly wings from Amazon. If you want to go all out you can also make an antenna out of a hairband, pipe cleaners and a couple of pom-poms 🙂 Have fun deciding! You have a lot of good ideas in your post already
Wear all pink and the pink wig. Get a “my name is” sticker and write Floyd in it and you are Pink Floyd.
Or wear all black and you are the dark side of the moon.
How about dressing as Barbie, but wear the pink tutu and a t-shirt of your choice along the the pink wig (but not the pink dress). I think that the bookworm idea is awesome, too.
I think Dorothy would be fun and your logic could be that the library patrons and children would very easily recognize and enjoy the costume.
So many fun ideas!!
What about bring the “Blue Moon”, your blue wig with this tee:
https://www.amazon.com/Karuina-Pattern-Printed-Short-Sleeved-T-Shirt/dp/B089ZJ2MYS/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?keywords=moon%2Bshirt&qid=1693677253&sr=8-4&th=1&psc=1
Or Fern from Charlotte’s Web? Very recognizable, and just requires jeans and a plaid shirt, a Halloween spider pinned on your shoulder, and a stuffed pig to carry under one arm as Wilbur.
The blue gingham dress made me think of Alice – add a white apron and a perky black bow hairband, perhaps a t-cup or a stuffed rabbit as accessories? (Or a mysterious bottle labeled Drink Me, contents known only to yourself.)
I think you’ve unintentionally inspired me to dress up as Barbie for Halloween, thank you!
The print dress made me think of Mrs Frizzle from the Magic School Bus, which seems like it would be an awesome costume for a library.
What about the children’s storybook character Pinkalicious? Pink wig, lots of blush on your face, pink clothes. And I think she carries a wand on one of the covers? Lots of kiddos would recognize you!
Now I want to be Barbie too! So fun!! Go with that one, but you actually have a lot of awesome ideas 🥰
Wear a pastel rainbow striped shirt (maybe this one? https://www.amazon.com/Rainbow-Pastel-Striped-Shirt-Women/dp/B07DTJ5CBW) and the pink wig, and be a pack of Smarties.
Since you mentioned Pokemon, another easy and very recognisable option would be going as Pokemon trainer, possibly Ash, but wouldn’t have to be.
There are many, many examples online with people having put together their outfit, often with things they mostly already have, and the hat and Pokeball you can either make yourself or buy for not much money. You could also modify it a bit and for example make a belt that has a flat Pokeball (made from Felt or cardboard) at the front, if you don’t want to carry around a ball all day.
Although, come to think of it – there are bound to be a lot of little kids in Pokemon costumes, and they probably have a blast if you had a lightweight/soft ball thing you could throw at them to try to “catch” them!
You could get a foam ball, put a hole all the way through and put twine loop through that is fixed on both ends, with the loop end being put over a button or a carbine hook on your belt or so, somewhere where it’s out of the way and you have your hands free while you do your work., but easily taken off to use.
Or you could straight up go for being a Pokeball, and do half white, half red clothes, with the belt being made to be the sphere dissection with the big logo on the front, similarly to what I described above.
I do love this one, because it’s both very simple, very distinctive, can be as cute as you want it to make, will get recognised immediately by everyone and is just a very creative approach. One cute example with a little girl in a white skirt, which could easily be pants instead: https://www.pinterest.de/pin/313281717841382321/
Here is one video with very simple trainer and Pokemon options, there of course is an unlimited supply of other ideas and options online:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=A8V3p-fW-9g
Another self made trainer one you could adjust:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEmEyv8TBXk
https://www.gameskinny.com/listicle/11-easy-pokemon-costumes-you-can-diy-this-halloween/
https://www.pinterest.de/pin/149885493828895700/
I’m also not a huge fan of Halloween, or at least I don’t like the pressure of having to come up with a clever yet recognizable costume! So a few years ago I bought a skeleton onesie and declared that I would wear it every year forever. I even carefully read reviews and spend more to make sure it would last, and I honestly love it. It’s super comfy and I no longer dread Halloween parties.
Black shirt and pants, monarch butterfly wings, and antennae headband. The wings are all you don’t already own, and they’ll store easily. I feel like you could get a pretty solid rotation of easy costumes and then only have to do a new one if some topical idea strikes you as easy and perfect.
(1) If you find mouse ears you like, wear it with overalls. Cut a circle out of a cardboard box and use a black sharpie to draw chocolate chips. Easy “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” themed costume.
(2) If you want the excuse to buy a red tutu, go as a gumball machine. Red tutu. Hot glue gun to add craft pompoms to a white tank/T-shirt. Done.
(3) I have a ton of black upon black outfits, so the Hester Pryne from Scarlet Letter appeals as an easy costume.
I’m stealing the crayon idea!!
I really love the idea of a group costume of Barbie. That would be awesome.
Princess Bubblegum is a great idea, too.
Is Stephanie from Lazy Town too far in the past? (My now-adult son loved that show). The pink wig with a pink dress (preferably striped, but not necessary), white tights, pink socks, and white sneakers. https://www.stickpng.com/img/cartoons/lazytown/lazytown-stephanie
Easy costume ideas:
Waldo from Where’s Waldo. Red & white striped shirt, fake glasses, jeans, red & white winter hat.
M&M – make or buy a t-shirt with the “M” on it (whatever color you want) and buy corresponding tutu. My teen daughter & her friends dressed as this last year & it was so fun!
Is Pinkalicious still a thing? My kiddos (who are teens now) LOVED her! And all you need is a pink tutu, pink shirt, pink hair, some fairy wings and wand, and maybe a cute little cupcake type purse or stuffy. We had a dress up as a book character day once and I was not quite on top of things, but we pulled off that look easily and quickly!
I do a witch, which hopefully isn’t too scary for your library. Pointy hat from Michaels, I wear a dress I already have, and I carry a wand from Great Wolf Lodge that I poke and smack my deserving coworkers with. I wear it every year and without the hat, it doesn’t appear to be a costume.
Pre-JKR horribleness, I dressed as Mrs. Weasley from the HP movies. It required very easy-to-acquire-from-the-thrift-store items: long patterned skirt, bulky decorated cardigan, I think I may have added a knit beret. You would want to have a wand of some kind; I used a drum stick (actual stick to beat a drum, not a chicken). It was an ideal costume for a woman hurtling towards middle age, which I know that you are NOT, and neither was I, in fact none of us are! HAHAHA. ANYWAY you could probably come up with a similar book/movie character costume that calls for easy thrift scores.