Short hemlines, tight leggings and cleavage-bearing dresses — those are not components of your grandmother’s Halloween costumes.
Those styles are typical when it comes to current Halloween costumes. Anything from a beloved cartoon character to a public service worker is recreated with a sexy twist, a trend that would shock those who first began celebrating the spooky holiday.
Halloween costumes first gained strong popularity in the early 20th century when outfits were simple and often made of paper cache or black clothing, according to TIME Magazine. Even when the holiday adapted to focus on children and trick-or-treating, sexy costumes were still nowhere to be found.
Sierra Holt, a second-year graduate student studying apparel, textiles and merchandising, said adult costumes as they are known today connect back to the ’70s when the trend of homemade costumes declined following the second wave of feminism. As women began leaving the house, sewing skills, along with the free time to make garments, lessened.
“A lot of people just don't have the time or the skill to create any of these costumes, so that's where we see the connection of people actually buying their costumes,” Holt said.
Manufacturers took over the business of making Halloween costumes, realizing they could make money off of a demand for cheap and easy-to-find costumes. But they also gained control over what costumes were made and how it affected society.
The sexual revolution of the ’70s brought about a more widely accepted sexualized image of women.
“We went from this really conservative idea of what women should wear to women starting to embrace tighter clothing, shorter clothing,” Holt said.
As society changed to allow women more freedom of expression, manufacturers used that growing sexual image to their advantage by creating sexy costumes.
“Sex sells,” Haesun Park-Poaps, an associate professor of human and consumer sciences, said.
When the sexy costumes proved to be more popular, manufacturers in turn created more.
“They make what consumers want, and consumers have a better response to those, so that's why they make more,” Park-Poaps said. “It’s a reciprocal relationship … they want what consumers want.”
But some consumers don’t want to follow in the trend of a promiscuous costume.
In a Bustle article, writer Erin Mayer complains about how there are no “unsexy” costume options for women today.
“Unless you make your own costume, you'd be hard pressed, as a woman, to find one that isn't short, tight, and skimpy,” Mayer said in the article.
Kenyetta Whitfield, a senior pursuing a women’s, gender and sexuality studies certificate, finds the lack of creative costumes for women very discouraging.
“It's really unfortunate that you start off as a child and have the opportunity to be in all of these costumes, but then you get older and you realize that once you're a pre-teen or teen, you can't be anything like that,” Whitfield said. “That's really unfortunate for girls to have to learn.”
Mijeong Noh, an associate professor of retail merchandising and fashion product development, said consumers may be able to take power over costumes back from manufacturers with the rise of do-it-yourself trends.
“(Students) can contribute to sustainability by modifying older costumes,” Noh said. “If I had a chance to make a Halloween costume, I’d do it myself.”
Several news outlets have contributed to the growing movement of DIY costumes year after year, including articles from BuzzFeed and USA Today. Nearly none of those options include a sexy costume.
“I think that's interesting that we're starting to see a rise in anti-commercialism,” Holt said. “That's a big defining moment for millennials.”
