Halloween, or All Saints Eve/All Hallows Eve is the widely known holiday of the 31st of October when “the spirits of the dead rise from their graves”.

The holiday lends to its roots largely to the early Gaelic festival Samhain, translating roughly as “summer’s end”, when an event would be held to commemorate the shift of the weather- quite similar to the modern ritual of setting the clocks back. The time of the change was believed to weaken the barrier between this world and the “otherworld”, allowing any manner or number of spirits to travel between the two. The practice of donning elaborate costumes is thought to be in effort to repel the harmful spirits which crossed into “our world”, for example (and Wikipedia informs me) that Scottish citizens adopted masked, veiled or blackened face-masking techniques. It is interesting to read up about this, and learn that similar practices took place all through England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Perhaps it derived from the annual stock-taking which also occurred at this time in rural Britain- vegetation and livestock was put into storage for the winter, whilst unwanted materials, including the bones of slaughtered livestock were set alight to, creating huge bonfires.

All historical references aside, whenever I think of Halloween, I think of Hocus Pocus, toffee apples, that distinctive smell of pumpkin. Not forgetting Shakespeare’s Macbeth scene of the three witches- “double, double toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble”. But most of all, I associate Halloween with that annual task of trying to find the best costume for trick-or-treating.  However, Halloween isn’t just about attempting to look as menacing or creepy as possible anymore. It is more or less treated as an ample chance to have a party and have fun dressing up in costumes of favourite film characters or music icons. As displayed in the Hall of Fame, Devoted2Vintage’s clothing is used with great effect for this purpose; its not a bad alternative to buying throwaway costumes.

If you are attending a Halloween party this weekend, it is definitely worth looking at the site, at least for some inspiration for an unmatchable costume. Practically any outfit I can think of could be twisted in a creepy, bloody kind of Halloween way, for example using this ’60s tennis dress the stance could be based upon a “zombie tennis player”- admittedly absurd, but fun nonetheless!

A few other ideas- if your career requires you wear a suit, create a realistic look by perhaps adopting a vintage suit and a pair of fangs- an instant and plausible transformation from everyday businessman to vampire victim! Otherwise, dressing up as a character from Grease could be an interesting twist on the scary nature of the party.

Happy Halloween, however you celebrate the holiday!

Sophie Horwood