Haunts to haute

Bed sheet ghosts and toilet paper mummies just won't cut it anymore

KARACHI:

Back in the day, if you were lucky enough your family let you celebrate what they believed was the "devil's holiday", you'd scavenge through the closets at home, dig out a bedsheet, cut some holes as eyes, and call it a day. A one-time attempt to dress up as a "mummy" using toilet paper - unsurprisingly, didn't take long to start unravelling (the heat and sweat may have had a role to play in that). Nowadays, that kind of amateur hour just won't cut it.

Strangely, this year Bollywood and local celebrities seemed unusually quiet on the Halloween front. In recent years, we've had VJ Anoushey Ashraf's Wednesday Addams getup. Hania Aamir's ever adorable teddy bear suit. Last year, Alizeh Shah stood out as one of the few local celebs to don a Halloween costume with her cyberpunk-inspired look: blonde wig, pink high-heeled boots, and a Marilyn Monroe graphic hoodie.

In Bollywood, Ananya Panday dressed up as her all-time favourite character, Poo from Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, in 2022, rocking a baby pink crop top and nude faux leather mini skirt. Meanwhile, Janhvi Kapoor went goth in an off-shoulder black dress, with kohled eyes and a plum lip, embodying Morticia Addams in all her glory. Then there was Shanaya Kapoor, looking every bit the princess from The Princess Diaries, capturing the royalty-meets-Y2K vibes of the early 2000s.

Ghouls to glamorous

Long before celebs started donning extravagant costumes for Instagram, Halloween costumes were a different beast altogether. Back in the early 1900s, people in rural America dressed to genuinely terrify - think grim skull masks and ghoulish figures, channelling the holiday's pagan roots of warding off evil spirits and its Christian undertones of reconciling with death. But when Halloween crossed the pond to America in the 18th century, it didn't take long for it to evolve into an elaborate celebration. By the 1920s and '30s, the holiday had become popular in the States, with masquerades, costumes, and décor.

These days, Halloween isn't just a time for A-listers to don costumes; it's practically an art form, complete with photoshoots, lighting setups, and - I wouldn't be surprised - entire production crews. Forget the flimsy masks and last-minute hot glue jobs the rest of us know too well - Hollywood's Halloween is an extravagant parade of pop culture tributes with costumes that often have more resources behind them than some indie films.

If there's anyone out there who's a Halloween maximalist, it's Heidi Klum. For the 23rd edition of her legendary Halloween bash, she went extraterrestrial, dressing as ET, the beloved alien from Spielberg's 1982 classic. Klum's costume even featured the character's signature glowing finger, along with a wig that matched her own golden locks. Apparently, aliens come in chic.

Chicken Shop Date's Amelia Dimoldenberg reached all the way back to the Disney/Pixar vault for a costume that had us chuckling in recognition. She dressed as Roz, the grumpy, slug-like monster from Monsters, Inc. And then there's Lizzo, who deserves a special mention for doubling down on her costume's message. Dressed as Ozempic, a weight loss drug, she cleverly referenced online chatter speculating about her recent weight loss. She also dressed up as a "face card" for her second look, commenting on the theory of how attractive people can get whatever they want.

Paris Hilton also turned back the clock, donning Uma Thurman's iconic Mia Wallace look from Pulp Fiction. Then there's Ed Sheeran, whose costume was all about irony. Sheeran dressed up as an AI-generated meme of himself in a monkey costume and posted a picture holding a phone with the original meme for comparison. "Haters will say it's AI," he captioned the photo.

Blasts from the past

If this year's Halloween had a theme, it would be 'Throwbacks and Memes', and no one did it better than Hailey Bieber and Kendall Jenner. Together, they recreated the iconic early 2000s Simple Life duo, Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie, down to the very last detail in their chaotic ranch looks. The timing couldn't have been more perfect, with The Simple Life parodying America's obsession with celebrity culture while also satirising the quintessential "country life" aesthetic.

The award for most ambitious group costume? That one has to go to girl group Katseye, who dressed as the animated fairies from Winx Club. For those who grew up on Saturday morning cartoons, this one probably hit like a wave of pure nostalgia. Each member of the group embodied a different fairy character, with costumes so spot-on you might think they had a direct line to the cartoon's wardrobe department. After they posted their look on Instagram, fans went wild, flooding the comments with excitement.

And then there were the music stars who took Halloween as a chance to tap into their inner superheroes and villains. Megan Thee Stallion embraced the comic book universe with a spot-on Starfire costume from DC Comics. Joining her in cartoon-inspired get-ups was singer Khalid, who gave us a double feature, dressing as both Brock from Pokémon and Gerald from Hey Arnold! Khalid's nod to two of the most iconic '90s characters was perfect for a generation that grew up swapping Pokémon cards.

Creation of a new genre

Halloween isn't just about recreating characters - some stars used it to portray icons, and this year Halle Berry became a whole genre unto herself. She inspired not one but three Halloween tributes from fellow celebrities. Tyla, Halle Bailey, and Coi Leray paid homage to Berry's on-screen roles by dressing up as her characters from The Flintstones, James Bond, and Catwoman, respectively. Berry was clearly touched by the tributes, posting on X (formerly Twitter) that these costumes "made her day."

And let's not forget Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos, who took on one of the most talked-about couples of 2024 by dressing as Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. The pair recreated Swift and Kelce's infamous appearance at the US Open in September, fully leaning into the sports-meets-pop-culture storyline fans have been obsessing over.