In the early 20th century, Halloween costumes were mostly meant to be spooky and they were mostly handmade. Today, they often reflect our favorite movie and tv characters, and the celebrities we admire.
You can tell a lot about a particular era of American history by looking at its Halloween costumes. We’re taking you back to witness the evolution of Halloween costumes through the decade.
1910s
In the early 20th century, halloween costumes were geared towards spooky themes, and were mostly homemade.
A witch costume was one of the easier costumes to make from scratch, which is a reason why many women chose this as their costume.
1920s
In the 1920s, When Halloween became a secular holiday and as trick-or-treating started to become a more popular activity, around the great depression, costumes started out simple and homemade.
The Pierrot clown, with its dramatic black and white painted face, was a popular costume. Other Halloween staples, like witches, gypsies, and farmers, got their start in the 1920s.
The goal of early costumes wasn’t necessarily to dress up as particular creature or character, but rather to canceal one’s identity in a spooky way that evoked themes like ghosts, witches, black cats or the moon.
In the era of the flapper girl, Halloweens during the 1920s often had women incorporating the trends of everyday fashion into their costumes.
this young woman is dressed as a ballerina. But by the looks of her headdress and jewelry, she was obviously influenced by the flapper lifestyle.
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Three girls pose in their masked costumes (a flapper, a clown and a masked boss ) as they prepare for halloween festivities in the college hill neighborhood of cincinnati, ohio, 1929.
1930s
Box costumes were considered expensive luxuries during the great depression era, so most families continued to make their own outfits using costume patterns.
during the Great Depression, particularly after 1933, As parents encouraged community activities for children on halloween, costumes expanded to include characters that children might have seen and enjoyed. This included characters from popular radio shows, comics and movies, like Mickey and Minnie Mouse as in this undated 1930s photo of girl holding a mickey mouse mask.
Because of new licensing deals with Walt Disney, Halloween costumes featuring Disney characters were being mass-produced.
Couples costumes were just now beginning to become popular, and many couples dressed up as the beloved Micky and Minnie Mouse.
1930s, the first mass produced costumes appear – like this Mickey Mouse
1940s:
Spooky skeletons and cute clowns were still all the rage in the 1940s, but one trend that maintains till this day started in the ‘40s: the sexy Halloween costume.
With the rise of pinup girls and sexual liberation, women took classic Halloween costumes like witches and cats, hiked up their skirts, and got sexy all for the sake of dressing up.
The ‘sexy’ Halloween costume first showed up in the mid-1940s
1950s
In the 1950s, mass-produced box costumes became more affordable, so more kids began to use them to dress up as : princesses, mummies, cowboy, clowns or more specific characters like Batman and Frankenstein’s monster.
Children pose as trick or treat with their costumes and masks, 1955.
1950s, Plastic masks rose in popularity in this decade
During the 50s, Western films and television shows dominated pop culture, and many women dressed as cowgirls for Halloween.
1960s
As store-bought costumes became more affordable, parents could suit up their children for the holiday at the last minute.
Halloween masks became more elaborate in the 1960s, as shown by this store display from the decade.
Sometimes a good mask makes up most of the costume, as on this boy, photographed in 1968 as he tries to scare a young girl.
1970s
Movies became popular costume inspirations. Here star wars characters, C3P0 and darth vader, celebrate at harvard square in cambridge, massachusetts, 1977.
The 1970s also saw some more adult changes to halloween costumes. This is the period when americans began wearing politically inspired like presidential masks, particulary the most famous one of all : richard nixon’s shown here in 1978.
‘sexy’ versions of costumes for woman were common from the 1960s on and became an established commercial product in the 1990s.
here a woman dressed like a playboy bunny dances at studio 54 halloween party in new york city, 1979.
Since comic books were also becoming more popular, it was common to see women dressed up as their favorite female superheroes on Halloween.
Wonder Woman was a very popular costume in the 70s. She symbolized female strength and power in a time when women were fighting for equality.
1980s
Halloween costumes in the 1970s and 80s became more gruesome with the rise of slasher horror movies.
Horror movies also cemented michael myers and jason voorhees masks as classic horror costumes. Here people pose as dracula, a skeleton and werewolf at morrisey magic store in new york, 1985.
Major fantasy and sci-fi movies had a big influence, too. Fans dressed up as C-3PO, Darth Vader and Princess Leia from Star Wars, and kids particularly liked dressing up as the titular alien in E.T.
Box costumes were still popular among young children specialy superheroe costumes.
Here two boys, dressed as the thing and batman, are photographed at the annual new york city halloween parade in this photo from the late 1970s or early 1980s.
1990s
The 90s was a decade full of punk rock and rebellion. People used their Halloween costumes as a way to rep their favorite singers, groups and bands.
Since the Spice Girls were at the peak of their fame in the late 90s, a lot of women dressed up as them for a group Halloween costume.
In 1995, the year of the O.J.Simpson trial, costume shops, like this one in new york city, sold hundreds of masks of both simpson and the presiding judge ito.
2000s: Celebrities
As pop culture continued to be all the rage, people started to dress up like their favorite TV characters, singers, or actors. Such as Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez, Michael Jackson, and Hannah Montana.
Harry Potter and his Hogwarts friends were all the rage, as were Spongebob Squarepants, Spiderman, and the Joker from The Dark Knight.
2010s:
Even four years after its release, kids cannot let Elsa, Anna, Olaf, and Sven from Disney’s Frozen go.
Other fictional favorites like Marvel’s Avengers, the Game of Thrones cast, and Harley Quinn from Suicide Squad were (and continue to be) hugely popular.
But of course, who can forget 2013, when everyone dressed up like Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke. or the 2016 election, when folks tried to make Halloween great again by dressing like Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
From 2017, nostalgia and real life will once again be all the rage. We can also see emoji costumes, plenty of Stranger Things kids, and the witches from Hocus Pocus on the streets.
