How to Design a Halloween Costume
Halloween is just around the corner, and if you’re like me, you love dressing up for Halloween. And if you’re an engineer like me, you may be repeatedly taught the engineering design process - but can we apply it to other disciplines? Can it help us design the Halloween costume of our dreams?
Why would we even design one? With design, we give ourselves the creative liberty to come up with whatever costume we want. We also have the ability to add and take away aspects of a design to better suit our costume’s needs and desires for that party or event in the coming days. This is often far better (and more fun) than the off-the-shelf products and costumes that everyone scrambles to buy from Amazon this week.
Halloween Costume Requirements and Ideation
The problem may be the lack of a Halloween costume idea, or maybe just a lack of new options (let’s be real, you can’t wear the same skeleton costume for the third year in a row). This year could be different. In order to solve your dilemma, you have to be creative. A clear place to start is thinking of some of your favorite media from this past year. What was popular? What was unique? What went viral? Do you want to be cool or scary? Do you need to impress or just show up? How much time are you going to give to this costume project?
Draw from some inspiration from outside sources. Perform a Google search, and it can provide within seconds millions of options (including last-minute DIY’s!). Maybe look through your favorite memes from this past year. A quick look at your Halloween movie collection could be a good option too. When it comes to fashion, and especially Halloween costumes, inspiration can come from anything and anywhere [1].
Once you have a couple of options, “you can confidently converge on the basic idea you believe has the most potential to solve the problem [2].” The idea you choose will be the one you think will be the best at suiting your needs (i.e. the requirements) as a costume. Of course, your costume design should meet the requirements we specify for yourself, but you should think about other requirements possibly out of your control, such as weather conditions (inside or outside event?) and if there are any themes for the event or collaborations with others you want to consider.
As an example, I am going with a costume inspired by Beyonce’s ‘Cowboy Carter’ album.
Cowboy Carter Album cover. Accessed from Pitchfork
I went to Google, and typed in some of the best albums of the year, and it gave me a couple of ideas. Because of the elements required for the costume, I decided to go with this design. I knew I didn’t have a ton of time to work on this project, so I went with an easier design of said album cover for my costume.
Your costume doesn’t have to be character specific! [5]
Sketch, Model, and Iterate
As we explore ideas, draw up some sketches. We will want to define and refine the design and get a quick sketch on paper. There are a couple of articles on sketching at the BYU Design Review, but if you’re looking for more fashion-based sketch content, this article by MasterClass has a pretty good and brief introductory guide [3].
In your design, you can follow some of fashion’s design principles [4]. Keep in mind the balance, texture, and emphasis in your design. If you use cardboard, you can look at how the texture of the corrugated plane can be used. Maybe the fabric you want for a light, airy texture can be found in chiffon, a type of fabric with a semi-transparent appearance. Fabric, based on its thickness, is pretty malleable.
During this ‘modeling’ phase, gather your materials and determine how much you will need. Whenever I design a new garment, I always buy more fabric than needed because I’m bound to make mistakes. As engineers, we know the modeling phase requires lots of reconfiguration and unaccounted problems. The same thing goes for fashion design, so don’t be discouraged by the learning curve.
For my costume, I went thrifting for some clothes I could paint on. In order to make pants that look like Beyonce’s iconic white chaps, I grabbed white jeans, and a handful of fabric paints, and got to work drawing and painting the sides.
Sometimes the best designs are the simplest. Author’s material for her costume.
Designing for the right conditions
Now on to your prototype/final design. Luckily we’re not testing your costume in a 120 mph wind tunnel or using it as a bridge support, so it doesn’t need to hit a factor of safety. However, make your costume with the understanding that it has to last all night in the (potentially) cold wind, while bumping into people, and perhaps while dancing. But also recognize it doesn’t have to be super durable either.
When in doubt, you can always piece together a costume with some creativity, fabric paint, and makeup. I decided to go with less sewing, so I have made my ‘Cowboy Carter’ using random clothing pieces that can fit together. It’s simple and so should be durable enough to make it through at least one Halloween evening (and maybe two).
If you choose to sew your design, there are plenty of tutorials online that help you figure out the basics. [6]
Conclusion
Halloween costumes are my favorite part of this holiday. Everything from the creative new costumes to classic witches and vampires make Halloween different from any other celebration. With such an exciting time approaching, I hope you can not only find inspiration from this article but also realize that engineering principles can apply to so many other disciplines.
[1] Istituto Marangoni, “The Five Stages of the Design Process,” https://www.istitutomarangonimiami.com/blog/the-5-stages-of-the-design-process/, Accessed October 9, 2024
[2] Mechanical Engineering BYU, “Basic Design Process,” https://www.me.byu.edu/00000173-91ad-df84-a573-dffd43be0000/me-basic-design-process-r1-4-pdf, Accessed October 7, 2024
[3] Masterclass, “Step-by-Step Fashion Drawings: How to Draw a Fashion Figure in 10 Steps,” https://www.masterclass.com/articles/step-by-step-fashion-drawings-how-to-draw-a-fashion-figure-in-10-steps, Accessed October 9, 2024
[4] The Museum at FIT, “Elements and Principles of Fashion Design,” https://www.fitnyc.edu/museum/documents/elements-and-principles-of-fashion-design.pdf, Accessed October 9, 2024
[5] Vintage Hairstyling, “A Victorian Look for your Vintage Halloween,” https://vintagehairstyling.com/bobbypinblog/2012/10/a-victorian-look-for-your-vintage-halloween.html, Accessed October 23, 2024
[6] Pngtree.com, “Sewing Design Pictures,” https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fpngtree.com%2Ffree-backgrounds-photos%2Fsewing-design-pictures&psig=AOvVaw3wt4WemvRNQb-0wshg4mJS&ust=1729122392839000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=0CBQQjRxqFwoTCOjR4MrJkYkDFQAAAAAdAAAAABAK, Accessed October 15, 2024
