The Cambridge Creepies: A degree told in Halloween costumes

Everyone loves a good fancy dress party. If they say they don’t, then they’re probably lying to themselves.

And if they actually don’t, I wouldn’t touch them with a barge pole. People who don’t like fancy dress are not to be trusted, and often turn out to be some of the most boring people you will ever meet.

Costume choice for a fancy dress party can say a lot about a person. Is it funny? Is it spooky? Is it even perhaps… sexy?

Yet in my professional opinion it is a field of study that has been grossly overlooked in academia thus far, and so it is with great pleasure that I present you with the inaugural study into Halloween costume choice: A Girl and Her Costumes: A scientific examination of Halloween costume choice.

I will be the first to admit; my scientific method is not the most sound. It is in fact doubly flawed. There is only one research subject (me), and only one researcher (also me).

But hey, I’m a humanities student – the results may not be flawless, but I can sure as hell make them sound like it.

Disclaimer: not all these costumes are from Halloween, as if that were the case there would only be two. But luckily I am a serial fancy-dresser, and so have lots of material from which to derive my results.

Exhibit A: Halloween, Michaelmas 2020 – Ursula

I was purple for a while (Image credits: Lily Wright)

Do not let my smile fool you. I was not a happy gal in this picture. As much as I love fancy-dress, it really takes over my life in the week leading up to an event.

Precisely two hours previously I had panic-bleached my hair silver (how it didn’t fall out I do not know, praise be to all the fancy-dress gods out there), scoured the whole of Cambridge for a black skirt (I do not wear black. Ever), and spent a good half hour crying in the mirror trying desperately to paint myself purple, wrestling against the tears that kept leaving trails of peach in my otherwise violet exterior.

A month of starting uni, Covid restrictions, and probably a smattering of PMS left me dead behind the eyes, and an hour later I was weeping on my flat mate’s bed, crying at how ‘unlovable’ I was. Ah, good times.

Exhibit B: Eurovision 2021 – Sweden

At the time I was not aware I was matching with the door (Image credits: Hannah Daniels)

She’s beauty, she’s grace, she’s an IKEA Billy wardrobe. One of my more rushed costumes perhaps. I had just been invited to a Eurovision watch-party, halfway through Easter Term of my first year.

Despite what this article may suggest I used to be incredibly shy, and the thought of turning up (admittedly to a minute six person Covid gathering) without my fancy-dress armour was an absolute no go, and so the last minute rush for a costume ended in this delightful sheet/box pairing.

I was happier here, I had resigned myself to a life of lockdowns, PCRs, and general hermitude, relishing in the luxury of going to bed at 9:30 every night, and having nothing to get up for in the morning (online lectures were good for some things I suppose).

This one social event was enough to last me a year, and I cherished the opportunity to get dressed up once in a while.

Exhibit C: Halloween 2021 – Sally from Cabaret

My hair changes as quickly as the seasons it seems (Image credits: Catriona Harrison)

What’s that Mean Girls quote again? Jokes aside, this is probably one of my favourite costumes I’ve ever created. Because it’s just so perfect to the original. So perfect in fact, that I wore it twice. First to a friend’s musicals themed birthday party, and second to this Halloween bar night.

The first time round, I even had a black wig and a proper bowler hat, not the papier mache construction atop my head in this picture. Yes, you heard me right. It seems my thirst for fancy dress knows no bounds, and I spent a week creating a papier mache bowler hat, all in the name of penny-pinching. And a fine bowler hat it was too, if I do say so myself.

I felt sexy, I felt confident, all was good in the world. And then I lost the papier mache hat at Revs and life was never the same again.

Exhibit D: 7 Deadly Sins Bop – Jeffrey Bezos

How anyone could ever look at Mr Bezos with such love in their eyes I shall never know (Image credits: Gwilym Hubbard)

No, it’s not a Pitbull costume. I’m more original than that, please give credit where credit is due. This costume was the comeback queen of all costumes. Having been in Covid isolation, I thought I had missed this bop, a tragedy of great proportions, as I had already had this costume planned for AGES.

Luckily, due to a mini panny D outbreak situation at my college, the bop was postponed, and I was able to don my bald cap in all it’s glory and dance the night away.

Despite the look of pain on my face, I actually had a fantastic time in this costume. The power trip I got from dressing up as one of the world’s least sexy men was immense, and after the bop had ended I boldly sauntered into Mains in search of chocolate, bald cap and eyebrows galore.

Honourable Mentions – Covid-induced pyjama Peter Pan

I think Rapunzel tower Stockholm Syndrome had started to kick in at this point (Image credits: Melody Lewis)

Now that we have reached the end of the study, there comes a time for the honourable mentions.

Now, I am not proud of this moment in my life, but let me set the scene a little for you: it was day seven of my Covid isolation. I wasn’t even ill anymore. I was starting to feel a little too much like Rapunzel, locked away in my attic tower room. Hysteria had descended upon me, time had lost its meaning. And it was from such hysteria that the pyjama Peter Pan was born.

In hindsight, this was actually a rather innovative costume. It is at least somewhat recognisable, and my favourite witchy hat was a perfect fit. Perhaps there are some things that are best left to Covid madness, away from the public eye, but hey, I’m a chronic oversharer, what can I say.

And so with that, I conclude my findings. As I am not a scientist, I am not entirely sure what my findings are. I was hoping to find a link between effort of costume and mid-term unhingedness, but alas, all of my costumes are sights to behold, regardless of my level of mental clarity.

But what I hope you have learnt, is that whatever the occasion, a good bit of fancy dress will (almost) always brighten up your mood!

Featured Image Credits: Ujjal Sunuwar

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