Halloween is one of the biggest and most festive holidays in Ann Arbor. One of the coolest parts of Halloween by far are the costumes — whether they’re made last minute or whether they‘ve been in the works for an entire year. We went out during Halloween festivities to document the goriest, cutest and most interesting costumes.
Residential Ann Arbor
Nostalgia sets in when seeing children prancing around in their costumes, buckets full of candy swinging. You can’t help but smile.
Seven-year-old Connor dressed as a member of the SWAT team. When asked why he chose his costume he responded cooley, “because I like it.” Love the decisiveness, Connor.
While Avery, who is five and a half years old, opted for a softer look, as she sported her Elsa costume from “Frozen.”
“I like Elsa! She makes ice sometimes!” she exclaimed. She cannot wait for the new Frozen movie to come out in theatres.
Five-and-a-half-year-old Abe had opted to mesh two of his favorite things together into one costume. “I chose my costume because I like Pokemon a lot … and also vampires,” Abe explained.
Asher, who is four years old, dressed up as one of my favorite animals, a gecko. He chose this animal “because (he) like(s) the golden (shine on his costume).” A fashion icon in the making.
When we asked seven-year-old Matilda, who first introduced herself in her scariest monster voice, why she had chosen her costume, she firmly responded, “Because Marcel Marceau.” Seems as good a reason as anything.
Nolan chose to dress up as Scream “Because (he) watched the movie,” while Sean went for the hockey-player look “because he likes to play hockey.” It’s a very bold choice to dress up as yourself, and we applaud that.
Hazel and Fiona, 10 years old, strutted out in their best zombie bride costumes.
“We wanted to be something zombie, and we wanted to be matching costumes,” Hazel explained.
10-year-old Amelia went for a costume that would please both her and her mother.
“I’m a ’70s hippie girl. My mom rejected all my other costumes, and I really liked this costume,” she explained.
— Reporting by Claire Meingast, Daily Staff Photographer
— Additional Reporting by Isabelle Hasslund, Daily Community Culture Editor
Lutherween
The Luther Co-op throws an iconic annual Halloween party, so we decided to crash it.
School of Music, Theatre & Dance junior Archie Magnus and Literature, Science & Arts junior Julia Silverman were sporting one of the best couple’s costumes at Lutherween. A party widely regarded as one of the biggest Halloween parties in Ann Arbor, Lutherween pulls in an expected attendance of over a thousand people. Julia was decked out in magician attire and Archie (to quote them directly) was a “sexy bunny.” The inspiration for this costume was derived from a lot of internet searching.
“We felt a little discouraged until we found our way here. This was the simplest and most budget-worthy costume,” said Magnus. “And funny! It’s funny and good!” said Silverman. “Yeah, we’re pretty funny people,” agreed Magnus.
“If you count the trip we took to party city, it took us an hour to put this all together,” Magnus said. Besides, of course, for Silverman’s shoes. To which she eagerly cheered before departing “Wait, but my shoes are from Chicago — Chicago!”
During her final semester in the School of Social Work, graduate student Emily Piellusch decided that now was as good a time as any to go all out for Halloween.
“I’m a deathly/skeletory type of showgirl. I know skeletory isn’t a word, by the way,” Piellusch said. She got the idea from looking at an Instagram page from Brooklyn Club “Haus of Yes.” She had been picking up the various costume pieces for a couple of weeks until she “finally did all the crafting this afternoon in about an hour and a half.” This was a pretty fantastic costume for an hour and a halfs worth of work, if you ask me. Congratulations Emily, you’re killing it.
LSA senior Leah Hardy and Engineering junior Jacob Todd were also sporting an adorable couple’s costume.
“We wanted a couple’s costume and we have a cat, so we figured Team Rocket would be perfect for us,” Hardy said. “It was her idea,” Todd added.
When I asked Todd if he liked Hardy’s idea he said, “I mean yeah, I was excited about it, I’m just not a very good planner. This is our first couple’s costume. Last year we went to Halloween together, but we weren’t coordinated.” I asked them how long they had been together and Hardy said, “A year yesterday!” Daily photographer Keemya and I exploded in congratulations before sending them on their way.
LSA senior Miranda Schaffer was wearing full Britney Spears attire. She looked as though she had walked straight out of the iconic “Oops!… I Did It Again” music video.
When asked what inspired this years Britney Spears costume, she said: “Last year’s Britney Spears costume! Last year’s Britney look was ‘Hit Me Baby One More Time’ Britney, and this look is ‘Oops!… I Did It Again’ Britney. Get it?” She thought of the idea for this costume 364 days ago when she “enjoyed being Britney so much.” She felt like it was her “true calling.”
Schaffer ordered the red jumpsuit on Amazon two months ago because she “went to the Halloween store and some buffoon tried to pawn me off red leggings and a red t-shirt and say that was good enough to be Britney Spears and I said ‘No, no, no!’ So I went on Amazon and ordered it that night. A beautiful metallic jumpsuit.”
LSA senior Melissa Newman chose to be Lord Farquad from the movie “Shrek” for Halloween this year.
“I’m obsessed with Shrek. Obsessed. Last year I was Shrek for Halloween. I think it is the best movie on the planet.” According to Newman, her Lord Farquad look had gotten a great deal of positive reactions that evening.
“People can immediately tell who I am. I entirely self-made this costume, so I am pretty happy anyone is able to tell what it is.” It took her about four hours to make the costume, yet she had been thinking about it since last year’s Lutherween. She was quite excited that her love of Shrek lived to see another year.
— Alix Curnow, Daily Arts Writer
Theatre party
What better place to get pictures of Halloween costumes than from people who dress up in costume for a living?
*pic*
SMTD & Business junior Nate Pierstorff took us back in time with his Virgil costume from the iconic 2008 Disney Channel original movie “Minutemen.”
“In 2017, my freshman year, the university installed this new statue by the CCTC bus stop called ‘portal to a new’ something, and it looks like the portal that they come out of,” Pierstorff said. “And I was just like, ‘You know, they gave me a portal, I’m giving them ‘Minutemen.’’ Pierstorff said he did a full photoshoot in the portal.
He was so dedicated to bit that even his phone background was the movie cover.
“I like dropping in to different costumes. Like a little DIY masterclass that we give to people.”
LSA sophomore Kaitlyn Tom and LSA freshman Rex Rubinstein put a fun spin on their classic costume. Their original idea to dress up as bears with “Directed by James Harbaugh” written on their chests as an ode to their participation in MUSKET’S “Bare: A Pop Opera” (November 22nd-24th) fell through. But they found the next best thing: the Big Bad Wolf and (sexy) Little Red Riding Hood.
Rubinstein was in head-to-toe black and red, with a little red cape, fluffy tutu and even sexy knee socks.
“My costume was very, very last minute — I did a quick makeup look in 20 minutes and just put ears on and a tail,” Tom said. “I also had a boa to add a little sparkle which I thought made my costume super cute — thanks Rex!”
This year, Tom has embraced the Halloween spirit.
“I actually used to hate Halloween because I felt there was pressure as a girl to look a certain way,” Tom said. “But in the past couple years, I’ve begun looking forward to Halloween because it’s time I get to spend with my friends and wear silly costumes like my wolf costume.”
SMTD junior Ryan Moore lives for Halloween. Throughout Halloweekend, he progressed through Lady Gaga’s iconic looks from the Met Gala.
“I was purely inspired by my love of Lady Gaga,” Moore said. “I also am a huge fan of the camp aesthetic so when I saw her look for the Camp Gala I knew immediately it was something I needed replicate somehow.”
Moore took Halloween costumes to the next level. Splurging on a custom-made wig from Wigs by Vanity, it’s now his prized possession.
“I googled looking for a pink satin slip dress, which is a lot more difficult to find than I thought it would be so I settled for a dress that was close enough. I like that it had a slit in it because it allowed for people to see my eight-inch heels!” Moore said.
He continued, “I looked on Amazon for black oversized sunglasses, a necklace and an old fashion brick phone — I thought the blow up version was really campy.”
As a theatre fanatic and a costume designer, Halloween is Moore’s wonderland.
“Halloween is my favorite holiday,” Moore said. “I love dressing up all year round and the week of Halloween is the one week of the year that I can dress in costume and it’s considered normal, and everyone else is in costume too. I love the creativity that Halloween inspires.”
— Dana Pierangeli, Daily Arts Writer