Students readying their costumes as Halloween nears

Costumes are an essential part of the Halloween spirit, and many go to great lengths to get the costume perfect. 

Peet freshman Gavin Nielson tries to fit his costumes into a specific criteria. “It’s either between scary Halloween or just funny. Those are the two primary topics that I choose.”

Sophomore Tristan Becerra, on the other hand, just picks “whatever I feel like, whatever I think is interesting.”

This differing criteria is reflected in their costumes. “I will probably be going as a plague doctor,” Nielson said. “They would wear a kind of crow hat, with a plague fedora as well as a black robe.” Meanwhile, Becerra is going as Johnny Knoxville for a simple reason. “He’s really funny.”

From beginning to end, the costume process is different for each. Becerra formulates an idea and goes from there. “Usually I think about it a couple months before Halloween.” 

Once he knows what he’ll go as, Becerra opts for a hands-on approach. His costume is “technically homemade. We’re getting parts of the costume, but we’re not like stitching anything together or making it.” This allows Becerra to create exactly the costume he wants, but it does come with some challenges. “We’re only getting the stuff right now.”

Nielson takes a much simpler approach. While at the store, “I just saw it and thought it would be a cool costume.”

Both acknowledged that a costume is an important part of Halloween. For Nielson, he wanted the costume to be perfect for trick or treating. “I just thought it would be fun and probably one of the last years I would go.” Nielson also said that without the costume, he likely wouldn’t go trick or treating.

Becerra said that a costume “really shows out what your interests are. Like, someone can be dressed up as one of your favorite characters from a show, and you don’t know them, and you walk up to them and you’re like, ‘Oh, I really like your costume.’” 

 “I just think it’s pretty cool,“ Becerra said.