Margaret Oliphant
Video Editor
Students will celebrate Halloween in style this October with group costumes and celebrations throughout the month.
Junior Ange Lopolito is buying and crafting their own costumes for every day in October, along with junior Bex Derr, who will be doing themed outfits organized by week.
Juniors Zodiac Ryan, Zaire Bates and Lydia Foss along with senior Jae Ryan plan to show the school their take on “Scooby Doo’s” mystery gang
Lopolito’s costume categories include classics, which will consist of vampires, ghosts, angels, demons. Lopolito is planning to dress up as hairy monsters for the week such as a werewolf, moth man and Cousin It from “The Addams Family.”
Lopolito will also dress up as characters in pop culture including “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Frankenstein” and Deadpool, as well as deity week which includes various deities from different cultures including Nigerian, Egyptian, Greek and Japanese.
Lopolito is also making jewelry, which they will also sell on Depop and at crafts fairs after they are done wearing them for their costume.
Derr will have different themes for outfits organized in the same style. Categories will include slashers from classic horror movies such as Jason from “Friday the 13th” and creature feature Derr’s love of Halloween comes from his love of theater and horror.
“I’ve always had a love for creepy and scary stuff from a young age,” Derr said, adding, “I love an excuse to coordinate an outfit, it’s like an art prompt or a writing prompt it just gets you going. Just as much as anyone else, it’s about having fun,”
For Lopolito, the costumes take on a different meaning. “Because of how I speak and how I look, I can’t be on stage. I want to be the protagonist in my own story,” Lopolito said.
“I want to be myself, in a world full of a ton of other people who want to be themselves. I do believe we are all the protagonists of our own lives, and for me, dressing in a way that gives me confidence and character makes me feel more comfortable with who I am, ‘cause I can’t change my body type or my face shape or my height, but I can change my clothing and reinvent myself everyday with how I express myself in that way.”
Lopolito has a love for the way characters can dress on TV and movies, and wants to normalize different ways of dressing and give everyone access to their own style.
Zodiac, Jae, Bates and Foss will be turning the classic “Scooby Doo” look into a modern version that they would wear. The group costume began as a joke but soon became a plan. The group realized that they wanted to do something special for Halloween together before Jae graduated because in the past.
“It affected us as individuals but we supported as a group,” Jae Ryan said.
Jae’s main goal was to create “Good memories so we don’t associate it with something bad.”
Jae, who will go as Fred, will be using the basic color scheme and turning into someone she described as “some hippie alt chick” and will be going to Goodwill, Party City and Spirit Halloween to find her take on the classic Fred look.
Bates will be doing a “y2k version of Shaggy” using vintage clothes and going to thrift stores.
“All it really takes is buying the clothes and putting them together,” Bates said. The group has been planning its own costumes on its own time and talk about it in person when members see each other outside of school.
Zodiac Ryan will be Daphne, complete with an orange wig, high heels, purple eye contacts and dress and a green scarf.
“I’m excited to have a better Halloween than I have in the past. I’m excited to spend it with the people I love.” Zodiac Ryan said
Foss’ take on Velma will include a vintage striped sweater from the era, 3D glasses with no lenses, a skirt and extra accessories such as hair bows.
“I just think it’s fun, as a kid I was drawn to creepy things, I love dressing up and halloween is the day to do that,” Foss said.
Foss’ love also came from the history of Halloween, starting with the Irish holiday Samhain (soh-wen), where people believed that spirits could cross into our world. People would carve jack o’lanterns out of turnips to protect themselves and dress up as spirits in order to blend in with them.
Foss wanted to give creative takes on the Mystery Gang because she believes it is more fun to put together and for people to see.
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Margaret Oliphant-Video EditorThis will be Margaret Oliphant’s first year on ECHO staff. She made several contributions while taking journalism class her junior year. |
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