Classic costumes scaring up more sales
More adults are expected to buy Halloween costumes than ever, and this year they’re going back to the basics with fake blood, fangs and spooky masks.
Halloween is right around the corner, especially for those who might opt to celebrate this weekend, instead of the Tuesday on which it falls. According to the National Retail Federation, costume spending is expected to reach an alltime high of $4.1 billion this year with the highest percentage spent on adult costumes.
Danny Gurganus, president of Danny’s Trix and Kix in Spring, said the store sells around double the number of adult costumes than kid costumes. He opened the store in 1976, and he said that wasn’t the case in the early days. He noticed adults started to get more into wearing Halloween costumes during the 1990s.
“Halloween is definitely an adult holiday,” Gurganus said. “Through the years, we’ve all come to the conclusion that in the costume industry — not the Halloween industry but in the costume industry — it lets adults become children again.”
He’s seen costume trends come and go with some years having a dominant costume or theme. This year, however, he said it’s a very “generalized Halloween” with a variety of costumes and some focus on horror. Jason, Freddy Kreuger and Michael Myers are classic horror costumes that he restocks multiple times a season due to high demand, and this year is no different.
The Adams Family is also a popular costume that has had some extra interest this year after “Wednesday” hit Netflix late last year. But the one costume that he thought might dominate hasn’t done as well as he initially thought: Barbie.
“Barbie” was the movie of the summer, leading many to think the iconic pink outfits would be a top Halloween costume. The National Retail Federation estimated it to be the third most popular costume for adults and the seventh for children. For Gurganus’ store, he said it’s a strong product but it hasn’t been a best seller.
Gino Chelaskis at CostumeWorx also has seen less interest in Barbie costumes than anticipated. He said he’s sold some children’s Ken costumes and Weird Barbie getups, but it hasn’t been a big part of the season.
“Because of the popularity of the movie we anticipated real traction there, and it’s just been subtle,” Chelaskis said. “I think everybody’s thinking ‘everybody’s gonna do Barbie, so I’m not.’ ”
Costume Worx is a theatrical rental house that doesn’t focus on Halloween, but helps customers put together costumes by renting out garments or selling special effects makeup. Chelaskis said Halloween customers tend to go into Costume Worx for period pieces and horror costumes.
This year, he has seen high interest in the regency era, related to the hit Netflix show, “Bridgerton.” But he also said a major trend this year has been horror. Customers are asking for more graphic looks than is typical, such as wanting to look like their eye is popped out of their head or their head is cut off.
But the intense gore has collided with the real-life terrors of the world, and Chelaskis said he’s had customers backtrack on their costumes since the Hamas attack on Israel. He said customers had been set up with prosthetics to make it look like their bodies had been blown up before the attacks. Those customers returned to pivot their ideas to be sensitive to the Israeli conflict, he said.
Chelaskis isn’t sure why there’s high interest in a gory Halloween, but he said people tend to do the antithesis of their last year’s costume. He said last year, there was high interest in fairies.
“I think it’s just a cycle,” Chelaskis said. “A lot of people ride that seesaw, what they did last year, they want to do something drastically different and then that reverberates again the following year.”
While some buy their costumes as early as August, last-minute shoppers can expect busy stores in the days leading up to Halloween. Both store owners said the foot traffic is unmatched Halloween week to any other time of the year.
Chelaskis recommended having an idea of what you might want to dress up as to get the best and fastest service. He said just narrowing down costumes to a single category can be a big help to employees trying to help multiple customers at once. Also, the type of Halloween event you’re attending should be considered when deciding how elaborate the costume might be.