The Making of a Halloween Costume

friends in a group halloween costume of the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe

Halloween on campus is—at the very minimum—a weekend-long experience. Everyone seems to bond together over getting to dress up in funny, socially relevant, and aesthetically pleasing costumes. I wore three costumes (shoutout my boxing and Selena Quintanilla costume!), but I wanted to take this blog opportunity to discuss how I came to make my best costume ever.

My friends and I wanted to do a group costume, but one that required some thought. We were thinking of what outfits would be popular this year—Challengers, Charli XCX and the various features on her album “Brat”—and trying to get inspiration from that. At some point, we started listing famous trios or random objects that come in three for inspiration. Alvin and the Chipmunks; rock, paper, scissors; fork, spoon, knife; kiss, marry, kill; the Chipettes. It was a challenge to come up with costume ideas and even harder to get everyone on board. More often than not, we would have two people on board and one person making it their mission to dismiss that idea. I don’t know how we got to this concept, but randomly listing objects made me think of titles with random words. “How about The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe?” Silence… but not the judgmental kind. The collective silence was followed by a collective awe. “YES! We’re doing that!” As quickly as we decided on that costume, we sorted out who would wear what. Chloe would be the witch, Caleb the lion, and I had the great honor of being the wardrobe!

four friends dressed as the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe, and Tumnus from the series, standing in front of halloween decor
The halloween decor has been up since September 1st, also hello Tumnus

Once we decided on the iconic book-turned-movie series, we had to figure out what and how to make this a reality. We were going with a literal interpretation of the title as our costumes. (My friend later joined us as Tumnus.) The internet was little help since my friends and I are too creative and there were two reference photos at most. I didn’t want to wear a cardboard box, so I opted for a more open interpretation of a wardrobe: browns and wooden textures.

I had a rough vision of the costume, and I knew I had to find each component of the outfit. I love thrifting and this was the perfect opportunity to create an outfit from scratch from a local store. The nearest big thrift store known to Yalies is Savers, a 15 minute drive away from campus. Luckily during October Break there were Yale-sponsored shuttles taking students from downtown New Haven to the local mall and thrift store.

I stopped by Connecticut Post Mall to walk around, but I wasn’t going to say no to a wardrobe-esque outfit if I found it here. I landed in Track23, a store I had never heard of before but full of hidden, cheap gems. I found what would become my wardrobe shirt here, a glittery brown long-sleeve top with black zebra stripes. I figured if I told people it’s supposed to be a wood grain pattern that would work; it’s surprising how little clothing exists that looks like wood. I also found my boxing fit here for $3! This was followed by me stopping by Target and buying Chloe her witch hat.

Luna sitting on couch with wardrobe costume on and wardrobe purse full of candy beside her
If you look closely, you can see candy in the wardrobe drawers!

I then stopped by Savers hoping to find my showstopper wardrobe costume component. I was in need of new pants and I found the nicest brown pair, so I killed two birds with one stone. (Fun fact: a well-known professor on campus famously says “fed two birds with one scone” instead in favor of a less violent metaphor). I walked through the house decor section for some inspiration and then I found the cutest mini wardrobe meant for jewelry, I assume. It was $4 and precious. It was surprisingly lightweight, and I had the ingenious idea right then to fashion this wardrobe into a purse for my costume. I also bought a belt to try and make this vision happen. Trust that the following day my wardrobe, belt, and I headed to the Center for Engineering and Design’s (CEID) studio space to put it together. I made the belt fully nonfunctional but I did make a purse that day. Now imagine me handing out candy from my wardrobe purse on Halloween… isn’t that awesome?!

In the final outfit I added my wooden earrings from Nicaragua and some hangers from my closet. The outfit unintentionally represented several parts of the “Yale” I have come to know, and it was extra wholesome that Yale students were complimenting me on it all night long. Ultimately this is a reminder to be creative with your costumes! I’m genuinely proud of it and had fun making it and explaining the concept all night when I was separated from my lion and witch.

Love, 
The Wardrobe