Recent pop culture has blessed us with a host of great pop culture characters, offering up Halloween costume ideas aplenty.
Over the past 12 months, we’ve seen characters sporting iconic outfits across a plethora of seminal films and TV shows — a blessing come Halloween, when many of us want to dress up in a costume slightly more creative that your usual cat, witch or devil.
And with 31 October falling mid-week, you might find yourself in need of a Halloween costume two weekends in a row. No need to be an outfit repeater, however, as not only have we picked the best of the best from recent pop culture, but we’ve even found the items you need to recreate the look.
We’ve got Barbie and Ken in rollerblades, naturally, along with their box office nemesis Oppenheimer. But we’ve also got the likes of Bloody Mabel from hit TV show Only Murders in the Building, M3gan from the namesake horror flick and, for true pop culture buffs, there’s Kendall’s birthday party outfit from Succession and Evelyn with sausage fingers from the multi-award-winning film Everything, Everywhere All at Once.
View this post on Instagram
Barbie and Ken costume ideas
Where to begin? There’s stereotypical Barbie we see at the beginning of the film in a 1950s-style pink gingham A-line dress and matching white flower necklace and earrings, or the hot-pink denim two-piece and white cowboy hat. The latter is arguably one of the most iconic looks from the film, second only to the 80s extravaganza that was Barbie and Ken on rollerblades in retro workout gear. We see Barbie in a colourful leotard and pink cycling shorts, while Ken’s in a pink tank top with shorts and a waistcoat to match Barbie’s leotard, with both adorning yellow knee pads and matching yellow roller skates.
Get weird with inspo from Everything, Everywhere All at Once
Paying homage to this film is made easy with these sausage finger gloves (IYKYK). To dress up as Evelyn in this weird section of the film’s reality, you simply need a pussy bow blouse paired with beige or brown trousers and a beige cardigan. As Deirdre wears matching outfits in these scenes you can opt to go as her instead, simply adding this short white messy wig.
Zombie mermaid, inspired by Princess Ariel
Inspired by the release of live-action Disney film The Little Mermaid, the mermaidcore trend took over the fashion world, with sequins and ocean-inspired accessories all the rage. We even had the treat of a Dua Lipa cameo as a mermaid in the Barbie film, so this Halloween seems like the perfect time to dress up as this mythical hybrid sea creature. This long, shimmering tail skirt is just the ticket. Pair it with a purple bikini top, or this embellished bra will work well, too. Accessorise the look with these silver platform heels and, of course, you can easily add a little horror to the outfit with some fake blood.
View this post on Instagram
Bloody Mabel’s mug shot from OMITB
If you haven’t been watching Only Murders in the Building, it’s time to catch up. Thankfully, you only need to watch the first season (there are three) to see Bloody Mabel’s mug-shot outfit — and it’s super easy to recreate. You simply need a short A-line check skirt, a cream roll neck top with long sleeves and pair it with black tights, black shoes, hoop earrings and then drench the front of the top in fake blood. Turn the costume into a thruplet look and get two friends to dress up in suits. Go for a jumper under the suit and some white hair spray for Charles-Haden Savage, and a jazzy scarf with silver hair spray for Oliver Putnam.
The Manhattan Project’s infamous Oppenheimer
Dressing up as Oppenheimer from one of the year’s most talked about films is a pretty easy feat. Get yourself a brown suit and pair it with a white shirt, brown tie and brown fedora. Ladies, if you want to take on the character then bag yourself a brown suit with this blazer and trouser set.
Kendall’s birthday party outfit from Succession (niche, we know)
One of the many characters we love to hate from this TV show’s media family, Kendall’s birthday party is a standout episode in season two. Sadly, the Gucci jacket is sold out so you can’t blow the bank on this look even if you wanted to. Still, we’ve found a few pieces that’ll help you recreate it. Grab a pair of black jeans and pair it with a green turtle neck top, black bomber jacket and square pendent gold necklace. If you’re more of a showman than Kendall, grab a fake mic and perform your own rendition of Billy Joel’s Honesty to bring the episode to life.
Take your pick from M3gan, Elvis and Euphoria
As always, Amazon is making things easy for us with ready-to-go costumes. You’ll find the cheerleaders uniform from Euphoria here, as well as M3gan’s beige dress over a striped long-sleeved top with wig, too. And its no surprise that the site has an array of different Elvis outfits to choose from, with the legend being a fancy dress favourite for decades and brought back to life this year in Baz Lurman’s film.
