DRESSING THE PART
▶ Are you confident, controlled or a conformist? Gemma White asks psychologists what your Halloween costume could say about you
Seong Gi-hun from Squid Game, early 2000s Britney Spears, WandaVision’s Wanda Maximoff, A$AP Rocky and Kim Kardashian at the Met Gala, and Cruella de Vil are a few Halloween costumes you’re likely to spot when you’re out trick-or-treating or at a spooky party today.
For decades, costumes tended to stick to the classics – vampires, zombie nurses, lumberjacks with an axe through their heads. However, the advent of social media has lifted the lid on costume possibilities.
Memes, tweets, Marvel characters, major celebrity stories of the year all inform the decisions of true-blue Halloween fans, who like to put together the most current and niche outfits to impress friends and, more importantly, to wow social media. Whether you mask-up or meme-ify yourself, the reason for your costume this year may be spookily spot on.
“One of the reasons why Halloween is so great is because you can dress up and show off in a way you may not ordinarily do,” says Carolyn Yaffe, clinical psychologist at Medcare’s Camali Clinic for mental healthcare. “You can be a different person and have a new personality. You can show off a cool costume while either trickor-treating with your children or at a party. And, best of all, you get candy.”
Whether pulling an old favourite out of the dressing-up box, or spending a month meticulously planning a costume, what you wear can say a lot about who you are.
“The type of costume you choose may be attributed to many things, such as feeling the need to explore traits that aren’t that prominent within yourself, or trying to reflect a part of yourself that you tend to suppress,” says Christine Kritzas, counselling psychologist and education director at The LightHouse Arabia.
“Scary and shocking costumes are usually [chosen by] individuals who wish to challenge social norms and who seek to be different in a sea of conformity,” says Dr John Huber, a clinical forensic psychologist and chief executive of Tripsitter Clinic. “[Sensual] costumes can be for people who wish to exude their inner prowess and show they can be seductive. People who dress as superheroes may be doing so in order to be a superhero to themselves.”
Those who choose to wear “powerful” costumes, says Kritzas, “may be more confident, aggressive, bold and controlling. However, others may do the same because they’re generally fearful beings who struggle to take risks and lack in assertiveness skills.”
Dressing up like a celebrity or a pop star, meanwhile, says Yafe, “is an opportunity to live a fantasy life for one day”.
There’s no denying that niche outfits, such as dressing up as a side character in a TV show or film, a meme or something that went viral online, have become a popular subset of Halloween costumes.
“Dressing up as memes or pop culture events is a way to self-express while also being relevant to the world around us,” explains Yaffe. “Although we are dressing up, it is still a great way to express who we are as people and how we feel about the world.”
As esoteric as these costumes are, by dressing up as a pop culture moment, you’re not being as individualistic as you might think. “Those types of costumes are the ‘social norm’ and they are a safe play for people who don’t want to rock the boat,” says Huber.
Kritzas agrees: “When someone dresses the part of someone or something that is trending at present, they are often playing it safe. Everyone approves of this person, so they are likely to approve of their choice of costume then, too.”
An alternative choice is to wear a mask. “Sporting a mask or wearing a lot of make-up allows for one to step outside of themselves and into the persona of another,” says Kritzas. “The masks allow for people to appeal to others differently and protect them from having to show how they really feel at that specific time. Wearing masks can also give us permission to indulge in a part of ourselves that we long to express or have neglected from our pasts.”
The days of Halloween being seen as an occasion for children, then, are long gone, and adults are likely to spend more time putting together their own looks than those of their offspring. Family-themed costumes, too, are popular, with the way parents dress their families being deemed a subconscious declaration of how they want the world to view them.
“Families may gravitate towards choosing themed costumes that represent their values and qualities,” says Kritzas. “The costumes parents choose for their children may project how they wish for them to be in real life. They may choose characters for themselves and their kids that are brave, strong, intelligent or kind, as they too wish to be perceived as being that way in their respective communities.”
Indeed, part of the fun is transforming into someone or something completely different for the evening. Psychologists point to a phenomenon called enclothed cognition, which finds that our choice of clothing can affect and influence our psychological state. It explains the bright, elaborate costumes many performers wear on stage, as well as concepts such as power dressing when you want to be perceived as powerful or authoritative in the workplace.
“Adults have a lot of responsibility on a day-to-day basis. Halloween is one day where work, home, children and bills can be delayed,” says Yaffe. “It is a time for people to take on a character other than ourselves; we can transform our reality for at least a day.”
Kritzas says: “Dress-up allows adults space to play, too. Through it, adults are given an opportunity to access different parts of themselves and access their creative sides. It also gives them an opportunity to tap into their inner child and connect with that part that still wants to play, have fun, let their hair down and be carefree. “Halloween, in general, stretches an individual’s imaginations through role-playing, creative outfits and myriad identities.”
Huber says: “It allows us to take a break from being ourselves and to live vicariously through someone else. In a costume, you may do things much differently and people may react in ways to you that they wouldn’t if you were just you. It’s also a form of escapism.”
Experts also agree that Halloween offers the chance for people to step outside of themselves for the night, often in ways that give them additional confidence. It’s also the case that the feelings we experience that evening don’t have to be relegated to a once-yearly occurrence.
“The principals of neuroplasticity inform us that if we dress the part of a confident character, then we start thinking and feeling as if we are that character,” explains Kritzas. “This then allows our brains the opportunity to form a new neural pathway of thinking confident thoughts and
Scary and shocking costumes are usually [chosen by] individuals who wish to challenge social norms and who seek to be different
DR JOHN HUBER
Psychologist at Tripsitter Clinic
feeling positive emotions to match those thoughts. In order to then deepen that neural pathway, it is important to seek out more opportunities to experience those feelings of confidence.”
Feel-good endorphins, released when we feel the kind of confidence experienced from dressing up in costume, can be replicated without the need for a zombie outfit on other nights of the year.
“If wearing a Barack Obama costume on Halloween allows you to be more social and confident, and brings about feelings of stability and assertiveness, then a way of replicating that persona in real life would be to enrol in public speaking classes and build that muscle of confidence to express your views clearly,” says Kritzas. “The more you build that ‘muscle’ (neural pathway), the more confident you will feel daily without needing to wait for next year’s Halloween to roll around.”
If all this has inspired the procrastinators among you to dress up tonight, after all, then here are a few simple ways to recreate on-trend costumes.
If you have an lion, bull, owl or leopard mask, with access to a glue gun and a generous handful of gold sequins, bedazzle it to make a VIP mask which you can wear with a suit – a way to make it very clear you’ve watched Squid Game.
A$AP Rocky’s quilted throw at the Mel Gala is a low-effort, high-reward look for men. Wear a suit with black trainers, then cover it with a colourful quilted blanket. Assuming your friends are up-to-date on their celebrity fashion references, the look will be instantly recognisable.
Kim Kardashian’s head-to-toe black look on the Met Gala red carpet is perhaps easiest to execute. Just dig out black leggings, a black top, pointy black boots and a pair of tights to poke a hole in to accommodate your pony tail. Extra points if you go to Satwa and pick up two stretches of black jersey fabric to tuck into your leggings. The devil will be in the detail when it comes to this look, so spend the time you’d usually designate to gruesome face paint to matching the myriad shades of black.