Hansel and Gretel

As children we are all generally told the same stories before bed, or read similar things in books. But story book costumes aren’t just for children, because most of these tales were quite different before Disney, or other outside forces watered the darker parts down significantly. This Halloween, try being a story book character, and informing your family, friends, or co-workers as to how the original tale went.

There are a lot of different stories to choose from. For example if you were going to be going to the party with someone of the opposite gender, you could easily be Jack and Jill. The person who chose to be jack could wear a crown, and Jill could hold a pail (though you really wouldn’t have to fill it with water). This costume would work well for a brother and sister trick-or-treating also, since the bucket could act as a candy-bag.

You could also be little red riding hood. (They sell sexy versions of this costume) If you had a friend or two they could come with you as the wolf and grandma. Or humpty dumpty and wear blue overall shorts, and attempt to find tall things to sit on top of throughout the night. Perhaps use make up to simulate a crack or two going across your face. Maybe paint your face entirely white first to make it more egg-like.

Another one you could do if you were going with someone of the opposite gender is to be Hansel and Gretel. One of you could have a basket of different types of bread, though I wouldn’t recommend leaving breadcrumbs throughout your friend’s house because after the party it will be one heck of a mess to clean up. If there were three of you going to the party together, you could get plastic pig noses and go as the three little pigs. Just make sure that nobody blows you down.

Little women in Geisha costumes are beautiful entertainers, trained for years to walk, speak, dress, and play in specific traditional ways. If a woman wishes to be a geisha and she is over the age of twenty-one she can not participate in the Maiko stage where she would apprentice to an older geisha, follow her around, and learn from her example. She must be invited to the geisha community and go through a training stage.

geisha

Once a woman becomes a geisha, whether she began as a Maiko or not, she will have the same duties and way of dressing. Geisha in current times are more scarce then they were before the 1930’s. A loss of interest in traditional things, and the price for the services of a geisha in a different economy have caused the number of working geisha to dwindle from 80,000+ to an estimated one or two thousand. Many women finish school on some level (middle/jr high/high or even college) before they begin their career as a geisha, whereas in the past this was not the case. Currently the majority of geisha reside in specific districts in Kyoto and are known as Geiko.

All geisha are single women, and should they choose to marry they must retire immediately from the profession. As flirting with the people they are entertaining is sometimes part of the job (though prostitution is not) it would be unwise for a married woman to continue her career as a geisha.

These women are easy to spot, dressed in elaborate and beautiful layers of silk kimono, with perfect traditional hairstyles and carefully done makeup. The entire face and neck is painted white, while a “w” shaped patch of skin is left unpainted at the nape of the neck for sex appeal, mainly. The lips are painted red, as well as some of the area around the eye. Some Maiko even paint their teeth black so that the white of the makeup will not in contrast make their teeth look yellow and unpleasant. Instead the black is supposed to make the teeth seem invisible and blend into the dark of the inside of their mouths.

Their elaborate clothing must be worn just-so, and there are specific rules on how to stand, sit, move and act while dressed that way. Imagine if your salary depended entirely on your ability to portray yourself as the perfect woman. They are not just entertainers in Japan, they are artists.

May we reconvene under the blood red moon,
-Black Widow

Ninja costume

One of the main appeals of a guy in a Ninja costume, is that they are surrounded by mystery. There are hardly any records kept about what exactly the job description entailed, and it’s hard to say what effects they had on history. But what this really tells us is that they must have been doing their jobs well to so seamlessly blend into the folds of time. Some very major assassinations could quite possibly have been the work of hired ninja, as well as overthrows and the winning of certain wars.

The way we think of ninja today is that they are spies and assassins who sneak through the night to either collect information or take out their target. They wear black from head to toe, and often have their faces covered to ensure that they will not be recognized when they carry out their normal daytime routines. They strike in complete silence and leave without a shred of evidence that they had even been there in the first place. So needless to say, dressing as a Ninja for Halloween would make for a very cool costume.

The best part is that if you have absolutely no money, you can still be a fairly decent looking ninja. A Mr. Vern Reid as cleverly come up with a way to turn an average black t-shirt into a ninja head covering [Directions are Here] without ruining the t-shirt. After you’ve completed those easy steps, you can put on a black long sleeved shirt, black pants, and you’re good to go!

If you did have a little cash to spend this Halloween, there are also some really cool varieties of ninja costume ready-made and easy to put on; for men and women. As well as plastic double-swords to put on your back, throwing stars, or nunchucks. The nunchucks also come in foam, for the added pleasure of beating your friends with them without the worry of taking someone’s eye out and getting sued.