College students are all too familiar with the stress and impossible decision-making when it comes to picking out a Halloween costume. It becomes even more stressful and impossible when you procrastinate finding something to wear and find yourself the night before Halloweekend raiding your closet, wondering how niche you can be, while still being recognized on a barely lit-up State Street.
This often happens because students feel like they are faced with limited choices. You either buy an expensive full costume or buy each individual piece on Shein.
Americans are expected to spend $13.5 billion on Halloween shopping this year, according to the National Retail Federation, with consumers expected to average $115.14 per person. So how can students keep costs low when Halloween culture encourages spending?
When October hits, University of Wisconsin-Madison students begin the hunt for finding the perfect Halloween costume. From the classic zombies and vampires, to the more trendy “Off-Campus” or “Odyssey” characters, to the niche internet memes and characters like Punch the monkey, people are rushing to buy their costumes and pull their looks together as the end of the month approaches.
Madison is well known for its nightlife and party scene for students, and Halloween is a peak time of the year when anyone and everyone hits the streets in their costumes all weekend long. This year, UW-Madison students are looking for ways to balance affordability with sustainability this Halloween season, while planning a costume they will likely only wear once.
“I think a lot of people spend a lot of money on costumes,” UW-Madison Senior Hadley Wendorff told The Daily Cardinal. She said she believes Madison’s Halloween culture can influence how students dress and spend their money by encouraging multiple elaborate costumes in one weekend.
“If your friends have a great costume you wanna have a great costume too,” she said.
Other students find themselves buying costumes on discount websites. Lily Myhra, a junior at UW-Madison, told the Cardinal she searches for her costumes on Depop.
“I would say [I spend] $50 to $100,” Myhra said.
Madison’s party culture also affects who wears what costumes — and how many costumes students wear every Halloween.
“There’s fads for the year,” UW-Madison Junior Matteo Rovera said. “I would probably only ever wear one Halloween costume a year, but because of what my friends are doing, I have three this year.”
Myhra, Wendorff and Rovera all came to a similar conclusion about Halloween spending; not one of them wants to spend over $100 for a single weekend of Halloween costumes.
Quick options like Amazon, Spirit Halloween and Shein seem appealing for fast shipping and low prices, but these suppliers contribute to the harmful effects of fast fashion.
Fast fashion is the model of designing and producing clothes at rapid rates using inexpensive materials. It follows the changing trends quickly and comes at a cheap price for consumers. The price for the environment however, is far from low.
Fashion production makes up 10% of all global carbon emissions and pollutes rivers and streams. Eighty-five percent of all textiles go to dumps each year.
It’s easy for Halloween to become a holiday that directly aligns with the values of fast fashion: Wearing a new costume every year that you toss when you are done with it. But students can still find options for balancing affordability and sustainability this Halloween.
These are some helpful tips for finding a costume this year based on advice from fellow UW-Madison students who have already been through the wringer.
Tips for an Affordable and Sustainable Halloween
- Shop second-hand: Find used costumes from thrift stores, second-hand websites like Depop or Vinted or platforms like Facebook Marketplace
- Wear friends’ old costumes: Share old costumes — or costume pieces — with friends instead of throwing them out.
- Use what you already own: Search your closet, search your parents’ closet, heck, even search your friend’s closet.
- Buy pieces that can be reworn: Find clothes you can reuse for day-to-day use or for another costume for a future year.
- Avoid fast fashion: Opt out of relying on popular shopping websites, like Shein, Amazon and Spirit Halloween.
Whether you’re going as Nicki from Obsession or Gargamel from Smurfs, avoid spooks for the environment and your bank account, and make this Halloween sustainable.
