Sensory-Appropriate Halloween Costume Ideas for Lazy Aspies?

Post Reply New Topic

I just remembered we are having a Halloween party at work next week and I'm expected to dress up. I hate office parties in general and actually took a vacation day on Halloween last year, just in order to avoid the needless hassle of coming up with a costume. But, I don't think I'll be able to do that this year ...

So, does anyone have a suggestion for a costume that would be:

(a) appropriate for work (ie. not too revealing or potentially offensive to conservative coworkers)

(b) cheap and easy to make

(b) and not itchy, clingy and uncomfortable to wear all day?

Please bear in mind, I'm not too artsy/crafty, can't sew and can't be expected to pull off any complicated hair and makeup crap!

Thanks!!

Meh.

I usually take the easiest way out. Dress normally, and when someone asks, "What are you supposed to be?" tell them you're dressed as a * your job title*.


And, yes, I have done this!

A vampire costume should be fairly easy to do. Just wear black clothes, maybe with some ruffles on your shirt, and wear very pale makeup. If your in the mood, you could even use some black colour for your hair that can be washed out easily.

The big beauty of this idea is that just about everyone has some black clothes in their wardrobe, so it's easily available. You could even toss in some red highlights like shoes or a scarf.

Wear fake teeth or don't - just claim that you're a vegetarian vampire so you don't need teeth to bite people with.

You don't have to be scary. If you have clothes from another decade laying around, go retro. I'm not fond of these costumes but it's easy to do. I'm sure it'd be easy to be a cat or something-- draw on whiskers with makeup and get a head accessory that has cat ears. That way you wouldn't have to worry about a whole wardrobe.

For the past several years, my costume has been a witches hat (bought in the costume section of Walmart or Target or K-mart) and a black skirt and top. The skirt and top being items I already own but don't usually pair together. Simple, easy, cheap, comfortable.

I've actually done most of these. None of them will win you a prize, but I found them to conform the expectation that I wore a costume without making me do anything too expensive, difficult, or itchy.

1) Wear jeans, a t-shirt, and sunglasses. You're a fifties hoodlum! Embellish with cigarette pack in sleeve, hair grease or pony tail.

2) Wear white. Buy small dolls (ideally in international costume) and pin them to yourself. You're the "It's a Small World Ride." Embellish by playing or singing song if feeling hostile.

3) Wear pajamas. Carry a stuffy animal. You're a small child

4) Find a similarly lazy colleague. Wear the same thing as each other-- make it an outlandish color combination or very specific in another way. You're twins!

5) Wear a Superhero T-shirt under your regular work clothes, leaving a couple of buttons undone. You're showing your secret identity!

6) If there is a celebrity you resemble, wearing something vaguely appropriate and a name tag.

7) If you and a colleague look similar enough to each other that people confuse you, go as each other. Again, use name tags.

Go as the color of your choice by buying a can of colored hairspray and dressing to match. If your colleagues are dense, this works best if you go as "The Color Purple."

I feel your pain. I'd rather stick needles in my eyes than go to an office party.

My suggestion is to release your inner bad girl. It could be both fun, cathartic and easy Kind of biker/grunge sort of thing. Lots of dark eye makeup, maybe streaks of color in your hair , a pair of cheap,tough looking sunglasses, jeans and your grungiest t- shirt . Draw on a couple of tacky looking tattoos or get those temporary water transfer type -you get the idea. I think your colleagues would love it.

However - if you use my idea , you have to post a picture of yourself . Unless you don't want to and can live with yourself for letting us all down. Good luck and have fun

You can go as a ghost or someone from a comic strip in the Sunday Paper. They usually just require specialized clothing and hairstyle, no masks or makeup. Going as a celebrity impersonator means not having to have that itchy, uncomfortable makeup all over your face.

decide what you would most like to wear and then find a movie character who dresses like that. e.g.: wear sweatpants and a t-shirt and you can say you're that "Julie Pierce" (played by Hilary Swank) from The Next Karate Kid.

Throw together some stuff that neither looks normal nor suggests a costume. Call yourself an enigma.

Good luck, I hate pre-made Halloween costumes because 1) they're all slu*ty and 2) they are so so so itchy and uncomfortable. I've had to resort to making my own these past two years and since I can't sew for dimes it's usually a huge hassle.

What I think I'm doing this year because I'm too busy to spend a few hours on my costume is I'm going to find/buy clothes in the same colour and then just make a monster hat/hood for the top and go as a Sesame Street monster. I think I'm doing the same thing for my boyfriend's costume- he wants to be a hippo. I'm just going to find grey sweat pants and a grey t-shirt and make him a little hat with ears. Easy!

I remember I was a baby one year and all I did was put on a pair of my pajamas that were childish looking and I carried my baby blanket and put glitter on my cheeks and had a huge pacifier I got at Spencers. Or you can use a real pacifier babies use.

Wear some raggity clothes and say you're a bum. Also get our hair wet when you shower and don't brush it and mess it all up and it will go with your costume.

Buy some white fabric and cut it and use a red or black marker and color on some hearts or spades or clubs and you be a deck of card. My parents made one when I was a kid for each of them.

Find a light blue shirt and wear white sheets around your bottom and you are Tommy Pickles.

Wear a dress that is knit or something and find a fanny pack and wear it around your waist and you are Joon from Benny & Joon. If you know the movie, find a dress that you think it be something the character would wear. Also wear your hair the way she does like have it up in a pig tail or have it down. Ha I wanted to be her one year but it was too cold out so I couldn't.

Wear what teens would wear and say you are a teenager. A girl in my school did that once and I asked where is her costume and she said "this is my costume" and they were her normal clothes and I asked what is she supposed to be and she said "A teenager."

Buy a white sheet and cut two holes in it and you are a ghost.

If there are any thrift stores near you and if they sell brand new costumes, you can go to those. They are usually inexpensive. We have one near me and they sell brand new ones under 20 bucks. I once bought a Poodle dress costume at Wal Mart for one of my Halloween parties my work was having but I hated what went under that dress so I didn't wear it. I only wore the dress. I think few other things went with it too but I didn't wear them because I didn't like the feeling. Or you can go to thrift stores and look at used costumes and see what you can find.

You can find some old worn, roughed-out clothes and go as a hobo.

i hate face paint so i have wear a mask. since the mask gets my face extremely hot so i modded my mask and put a small fan from a old invertor and put it on the bottom of the mask to have air flow when wearing the mask.

I think it depends what sort of work you do. I like gory, but that might not be appropriate. You can make fake blood and oozing wounds fairly easily. Plenty of recipes on the internet. If you have sensory issues maybe you can use some props. The grim reaper with a black sheet and a scythe made from a broom handle and some cut plastic would be good. A zombie would be fairly easy too.

Assuming that is you in the photo, you could probably do the farmer's daughter with pigtails and a flannel shirt, and a piece of rope for a belt. A ball and chain with clothes with vertical stripes and you can be a convict. Mess with your hair and be a rock star, somebody with a bad hair day, or an electrocution victim. Have fun with it. I miss Halloween.