Ainsley Harris ’26
Staff Writer
Halloween can be an uncertain time at the 5Cs. Are all the official 5C parties going to be shut down? Are you going to make it into Rocky Horror? However there’s always one constant: fantastic Halloween fits. Don’t make the mistake of thinking Scrippsies’ fabulous fashion is just reserved to streetwear! This post-Halloween column highlights several spooky, silly, and sexy costumes that debuted at Scripps this Halloweekend.
Although my friend group was not nearly coordinated enough, group costumes were prominently featured this Halloweekend. Eva Lagrant ’28, Winnie Dong ’28, and Lily Bretana ’28 kicked off their first Scripps’ Halloween with a group costume inspired by the video game Hades.
Lagrant (left) dressed as the goddess Selene in a long, shimmering, silver dress with moon earrings, a headpiece, and body stickers. Dong (right) went as the goddess Artemis in a short green dress accented with a leather belt, horned helmet, fur-lined cloak, and an arrow an
d quiver. Bretana (not pictured) was the main character, Melinoe, in a short orange dress with a felt-leaf headpiece.
Curating these detailed costumes required a combination of thrifting, the Makerspace, and, naturally, a little bit of Amazon. “It’s about finding the right balance between money and time,” Lagrant said.
Making their dresses would have been far too time consuming, so the trio went to DeeLux in the village to thrift Dong and Bretana’s dresses. Lagrant re-used a dress she already owned. Once they found the base elements, the group turned to Harvey Mudd’s Makerspace for the accessories.
“A lot of these are 3D printed. Winnie found online that someone had made 3D designs of Artemis’s accessories so we just printed those out. It can sometimes take a really long time, but it’s all free. The 3D Printing is free, the felt is free, the paint is free; it reduces the cost of making a costume so much,” Lagrant said.
Other elements of their costumes including jewelry and Dong’s cloak were ordered from Amazon and embellished at the Makerspace. Lagrant utilized Hypafix: an adhesive that people with diabetes use to decorate their insulin pumps, as well as heat transfer vinyl for their shimmering, skin-safe body stickers.
To any upperclassmen like myself who have been to the Makerspace exactly once (or not at all), we need to take this as inspiration to utilize its resources before graduation!
Of course, first-years are not the only Scripps students with Halloween spirit. As a last hurrah for Scripps Halloweens, Skye Curren ’25 (pictured above, center) and her friends did a group costume as Erin, Michelle, Orla, and Clare from the iconic TV series Derry Girls. Curren dressed as Erin Quinn in burgundy corduroy pants, a striped collared T-shirt, jean vest, and clogs.
Derry Girls, or more specifically, Rock the Boat, became part of Curren’s friend group lore last fall.
“We rewatched Derry Girls throughout the semester, and we watched this one episode where they danced Rock the Boat. We were like this is the most iconic thing ever, and started learning the dance. It just seemed like an obvious costume choice,” Curren said.
For Curren and her friends, sustainability never takes a back seat, especially not for Halloween. In fact, it was a driving factor in how and what they bought for their costumes.
“We just went to the thrift store one night. We wanted to get stuff that we would continue to wear. We didn’t want to go for their classic school girls outfits cause that’s not the most friendly for our earth. We just went for their more everyday clothes – things we thought they would wear,” said Curren.
Curren notes a certain flexibility is required to remain sustainable during the Halloween season. “You need to be able to embrace imperfection. If you have your mind set on one exact thing then it’s harder to find,” said Curren.
Though they embraced imperfection, their costumes definitely captured the Derry Girls vibe and were cute to boot!
A group costume can also be your friends all going as the same character. Ellen Chapman ’27 and her friends sported Magic Mike costumes this Halloween: black ties and unbuttoned jeans, white tank tops, Calvin Klein underwear, red bras, and backwards baseball caps. The look was completed with (very clearly!) fake money poking out of their clothes. “We’re all Mike,” Chapman told me.
In a striking pivot from last year’s Strawberry Shortcake group costume and initial Wizard of Oz idea for this year, Chapman and her friends decided to go for a more unprecedented costume route. “We kinda wanted to do something both funny and a bit risqué which is how we landed on Magic Mike,” Chapman said.
Like many featured in this costume column, Chapman and her friends were mindful of ethical consumption throughout the costume curation process.
“All the elements of the costume are like normal clothing that we’re gonna rewear. We’re not going to spend a lot of money on something that you’re never gonna rewear. Buying something you’re never gonna wear again is just too wasteful,” Chapman said.
Students aren’t the only members of the community to showcase their Halloween costumes at Scripps. Denison Library goes all out for Halloween with elaborate decorations, Spooky Spines rare book events, and costumed staff. Jennifer Martinez Wormser ’95, the Denison Library Director, and Cecilia Contreras, the Denison Library Archivist, both wore costumes to Denison on Halloween.
Martinez Wormser (pictured above) dressed as the Statue of Liberty in an oxidized-copper-green gown and crown. The outfit was completed with a rubber torch and a tablet, painted to match her dress, that read July 4, 1776 in Roman numerals. The costume is timely with the presidential election happening just five days after Halloween.
“It’s an election year and since the library has a current exhibit about artist books and politics I thought it seemed appropriate to come to work dressed as the Statue of Liberty,” Martinez Wormser said.
Dressing up for Halloween at work is a longstanding tradition for Martinez Wormser, and one she plans to continue.
“I love to dress up on Halloween at work,” Martinez Wormser said. “I worked at a few libraries where people didn’t dress up and that was very sad. A few years ago I decided I would always dress up on Halloween no matter what. Even if no one else was doing it. If it’s a way I can bring a smile to the students’ faces then it’s all worthwhile.”
Contreras dressed as Enoch from Over the Garden Wall, a little black cat who masquerades as a giant pumpkin person. The top half of Contreras was the cat – a black long sleeve shirt, face-paint whiskers, and a cat ear headband. Held up by suspenders was a giant paper mache pumpkin with a felt face. Light and dark green strips of felt hang from the pumpkin head making the pumpkin person’s body. This elaborate costume was made entirely from scratch.
“I saw a video on Instagram of someone making a paper mache soot sprite, and I took that to make my costume. I got a 36-inch balloon and wrapped it in paper mache to get the shape. Then, I let it dry and cut out holes on the top and the bottom. I covered everything in felt and then I created the details with felt. I braided yarn to make the suspenders,” Contreras said.
Contreras is famous at Denison for her love of Halloween. She was the driving force for many of the decorations that adorn Denison. “There’s something about the spookiness of Halloween – there’s this nostalgia,” Contreras said. “Every year as it comes around, the way a kid feels at Christmas that’s how I feel at Halloween.”
I hope everyone had a fantastic Halloweekend and that this snapshot of a few Scripps costumes brings back that Halloween festivity as we move into the more brutal academic weeks to come!
Photo Courtesy: Ainsley Harris ’26
