Halloween Costumes Hiding In Your Closet

2021 was the second year of me trying to find costumes in my closet. While I was working from home during the COVID pandemic of 2020, I decided to dress up every day in October to see if I was able to find 31 days of costumes from my closet. Whether it stemmed the fact that I wanted to protest the one-use costumes from Amazon and the local Halloween shops or just because I was very bored from working from home and social distancing, I reconnected with my creative roots.

From Batman to Louise of Thelma and Louise to Leela from Futurama and beyond, I tried to sift through my closet (and technically also Nic’s closet) to come up with 31 completely different costumes.

I wanted to prove that costumes could come from every day clothing. That you could reduce, reuse, and recycle your way to an iconic costume. And not only did this become a way to showcase my love for costuming, cosplay, and dressing up, it also was a way to subtly tell people that synthetic costumes are a thing of that past, and the first place to look for themed parties should be your closet or secondhand.

In 2021, I had another successful year of showing off these characters with a second installment of “Costumes in My Closet”, where I posted a costume every single day on my Instagram story. While some were repeats from 2020, I also was able to come up with new ideas from new clothing items I had acquired and old clothing items that I saw in a new light.

Now, we’re back for the 3rd year, and I couldn’t be more excited to show some of the ideas that I have been thinking about all year. Every time I see a new character/ costume or buy a piece at the thrift store, I add it to the list in my iPhone notes titled “A Sustainable Gal’s Closet Halloween Costumes”.

Let’s take a look at last year’s contenders, and get excited for a full month of costumes in my closet.