How I Won a Costume Contest by Leya E. '30

I love Halloween. It’s the only time of year where it’s socially acceptable to put an enormous amount of effort into your outfit. And put an enormous amount of effort into my outfit, I did!

Let me take you back to days of Halloweens past. I have always been a bit of a Halloween tryhard. In my junior year of high school I was the best Sanrio character of all time, Cinnamoroll! Then senior year I was the second best Sanrio character, Kerokerokeroppi.⁠01 we all have to address him with his proper name because it’s so cute

But this year I decided that I no longer wanted to be cute. I wanted to be scary! Well scary and cute. So I went as the Queen of Hearts!

I also put a lot more work into this year’s Halloween costume than my past ones. The last two were mostly just closet cosplays⁠02 ie. I did not buy anything new that was meant for the costume and I only made small pieces like Cinnamoroll’s ears, but this time I got the crazy idea in my head to try and make all of it! So here’s a totally accurate list of all the steps I took to make my super cool costume and super win a costume contest.

Step 1. Goodwill!

Obviously the best place to gather materials for a costume. I took a little solo trip to the Goodwill in Central Square and scoured the aisles for materials. The main problem is that for the Queen of Hearts you really need red clothes and I simply do not own anything that is red. So that was my main goal. I also wanted a black skirt so I could do the fun layering stuff you’ll see later. It seemed like everything was too big or too small until I found a red cropped hoodie and some sort of very long cardigan. And I knew that somehow I could make something of it.

Step 2. Glue?

Originally I had the ambitious idea to sew the parts of my costume together, but quickly was too hosed to do anything other than use glue. But what glue? I was walking around Concord Market⁠03 the grocery store in the student center and found Elmer’s Glue All. I had never used it before, but it claimed to glue cloth so that was good enough for me!

Step 3. Deck of Cards!

Throughout my short time here at MIT I have already been exposed to so many decks of cards. There’s HackMIT cards, Coop cards⁠04 The store that sells MIT merch , quant cards, just so many different cards! Which is lucky for me, because I needed a deck of cards for my costume! I used a free deck I had gotten from The Coop at Academic Expo because they were the closest to a “traditional” deck that I had.

Step 4. Put it together!

I played around with the pieces I’d gotten from Goodwill for a little to figure out how I was gonna put them together, and discovered that the black skirt I got was actually a black dress, which made layering a lot easier. I also decided to cut the hoodie part off of the hoodie so it was mostly just like a cropped sleeve thingy. It’ll make sense when you see it.  I was more open to altering the red parts of the outfit because I am not a fan of wearing the color red in non-Halloween contexts, and also I really liked the black dress once I discovered that it was a dress.

Intermission: Run to Target

Related to the fact that I do not like wearing the color red in non-Halloween contexts, I remembered right before Fall Fest⁠05 a festival put on by the Student Activities Board that features live music, free food and lots of fun stuff! that I simply did not own any red makeup. So I had to run to Target to get some before it was all gone. It was the most expensive part of my costume.

Back to Putting it Together!

Once I had the makeup I needed I could return to focusing on putting my outfit together. I camped out in the 2e lounge⁠06 my wing of Next House and laid out everything. I was going to glue cards to the collar of my red shirt thingy, the bottom of the red cardigan(which I was using as a skirt), and also to a belt I found! I also decided that I wanted cards to come from behind the dress, and used the severed hood to create that effect! I left it to dry overnight, and decided to indulge in some impromptu Disney karaoke which turned into Just Dance for some reason. Don’t question it.

Step 5. Remember That Your Costume is a Queen and Should Probably Have a Crown

I realized after finishing everything else that I forgot to make a crown. After searching Pinterest for a few minutes I found a tutorial for making a crown out of cards, and tried to do that, and it actually turned out well! Success!

Step 6. Attempt to do Spooky Makeup

Pinterest is really great and had a lot of good makeup ideas, so I smashed them up to create something interesting that I could probably do with the help of my newly acquired red eyeshadow.

Step 7. Put the Costume on!

I put on my entire costume and uh oh it kept falling apart! Apparently Glue All can’t actually glue all. The cards I attached to my belt kept falling off but everything else was sticking and I still managed to get some good pictures so it was fine. Costumes are not always made to be reworn.

Step 8. Profit

In my dorm we had trick or treating in specific rooms from 4-6, and I happily went and collected all my candy. At 6, the costume contest started! And of course, as you can tell from the title of this post, I won!

Okay there are a couple of caveats with this.

1. I won the specific Most Creative category
2. …there were only like 5 people who entered the entire contest.

BUT WHO CARES! A WIN IS A WIN! And I suppose I’ve kept you waiting long enough, here’s my costume! As well as some of the other costumes I saw!

the belt was already falling apart but its ok

I hate blue lock but the costume is fire

Where'd he get that hand from...

This is sick as hell

my prize for winning the contest!

Previous Next

I hope you all had a happy and safe Halloween, and I wish all of you submitting your early apps the best of luck!