How to Make Couples Halloween Costumes

By Vanessa Raymond

RISMEDIA, Oct. 14, 2008-(MCT)-Appearing in costume as couple only adds to the fun of Halloween. Here are some couples costume ideas to help you celebrate Halloween a deux.

Dressing as an already well-known couple is an easy place to start since their iconic status does some of the legwork for you: Because people know what to expect, they fill in the blanks themselves. Think Homer and Marge, Shrek and Fiona, Austin Powers and Felicity Shagwell.

You can take pretty much any theme and make a male and female version of it:

Home Improvement: Nut and bolt
Foods: Chips and dip
Beverages: Rum and coke

Playing with people’s expectations in this particular costume category can give your costumes some extra oomph: Have the woman dress as the hot dog and the man as the bun.

Remember that pairs don’t have to be male-female or even romantically involved. Think Harry Potter and Hermione. Or Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. Nor does the pairing have to exclude inanimate objects. Think Emeril Lagasse and garlic or Lance Armstrong and a bike.

Current events provide plenty of costume ideas. Election season suggests John and Cindy McCain or Barack and Michelle Obama. And political figures often make good targets.

A humorous twist can breathe new life into a hackneyed theme. For example, if a man is dressed as a magician, then his female assistant could dress with stitch marks through her middle.

Of course couples costumes can be conceptual: ball and chain, rock star and groupie, lock and key. One of the best couples costumes I ever saw was pure concept: A man and a woman each wore plain black pants. The left leg of one was tied to the right leg of the other, as in the game, “Three-Legged Race.” Together they wore a giant oversized t-shirt that provided the punch line: “Co-” read her side; “Dependent” read his.

If you want something truly original, you’ll probably have to think of it yourself.

But hopefully these ideas have jump-started your creative thinking so that you can create couples Halloween costumes that suit you and your better half (wait, that just gave me an idea. …)

For more info on this or explanations of how to do many other things, go to www.HowToDoThings.com.

Vanessa Raymond is a senior editor at www.HowToDoThings.com.