Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, October 31, 1995 TAG: 9510310068
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ELISSA MILENKY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
There were trendy favorites: Superman, Casper (the friendly ghost), Pocahontas and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. There were old standards: princess with a tiara, an angel, a witch with a gold-starred skirt. And then the inexplicable: a costume called "rigor mortis" that consisted of a death's angel robe and mesh face mask, the large hunk of synthetic blond curls that meet the floor in an imposing hair helmet, the sexy yet clearly misshapen red dress ... for men.
Robin Nolen, 6, squirmed away from her mother's arms in this narrow aisle Thursday evening, utterly confused beside the picked-through rack of masks and costumes. Angel? Witch? Pocahontas? She could not decide.
Her mother, Sandra Nolen, heard the Casper costumes were all the rage this year - the Hollywood influence no doubt. Robin had said she wanted to be an angel, but that was minutes ago. The 6-year-old later held up a tiny witch costume.
Mom liked the angel idea much better. "That's good because we're going to church," Sandra Nolen said.
Robin's costume quandary is not an unusual one. But at age 6, she is only beginning the true Halloween tradition. As Robin grows older, the pressure for better, more original, more look-at-me-I'm-so-clever Halloween costumes will only increase.
Admit it, if you're past junior high school and you're going for a disguise, the pastel, dancing princess costume isn't going to cut it anymore. As an adult, there are three main ways to capitalize on clever, though fleeting, costume fame: seize upon current events, go for a play on words or dress in an outfit ridiculously out of place for your age. An extremely unscientific poll of the newsroom proves this.
Example one, the word play: A co-worker dressed as a black-eyed pea to attend a party. Using black eyeliner pencil, she encircled her eyes with makeup and wore a shirt emblazoned with the letter "P."
"It actually took them all awhile to figure it out," she said. But once people understood the concept, it was an unbridled success. "I highly recommend it," she said.
Example two, current events: Another fellow employee dressed up as Tonya Harding, the famed Olympic ice skater who became everyone's favorite bitter villainess with the blond ponytail. It was a party favorite. Sometimes, the current events approach can become rather tasteless and redundant, however, as evidenced by the obscene amount of Nicole Brown Simpson look-alikes that were wandering the streets last Oct. 31. We won't even talk about the John Wayne Bobbitt costumes.
Finally, there is example three, the ridiculously out-of-place-for-your-age look: Someone who shall remain nameless took an extremely popular kiddie costume and warped it into something sick - Evil Barney. The purple mask was subtly dismembered with scissors in all the right places (meaning the eyes, forehead and mouth). A sign was placed on the front of her purple shirt that read, "I hate you, you hate me." She greeted all onlookers with a growl.
OK, it was my costume. I liked it, anyway.
Halloween is a time of heavy pressure to be dazzling, but you don't have to succumb. Take it from Robin's older sister, Holly, a high school student in Floyd County. She is not dressing up at all. She will just be Holly.
If you decide to go this route, and someone asks you to explain your costume, just say it falls in the inexplicable category. Keep them guessing. Then people will really think you're clever.
by CNB