Fashion people have a reputation for being somewhat negatively inclined. If there’s any truth to the generalisation, Halloween should be to fashion people what Christmas is to normal people. It’s pretty much a holiday in the name of gloom. Of course, it doesn’t make it any less appealing to said segment that Halloween is all about the outfits. (After all, Christmas is all about food, which – staying with the generalisation – is hardly very fashion.) I am a huge Halloween geek, enough so that I keep a list of The Top Five Best Halloween Costumes In Film And TV In Recent Years. And in honour of Halloween, gloomy fashion kids, ghosts, ghouls and not least, all Americans (without whom none of this would be possible), I give you this very list:
5. Joy Lauren as Danielle Van Der Kamp on Desperate Housewives, season 4, episode 6, 2007
To her mother Bree’s dismay, Danielle falls pregnant and has to be kept indoors so that Bree can hide her pregnancy and pass it off as her own. At a Halloween party on Wisteria Lane, Danielle turns up dressed a pregnant Bree, complete with Bree’s signature red hair and lines such as, “No hugs, please. I’m uncomfortable with needless displays of emotion”. (On another brilliant note, Bree’s gay son is dressed as Cher.)
4. Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg on Buffy The Vampire Slayer, season 2, episode 6, 1997
In the show’s first Halloween episode, everyone turns into the characters they’re dressed as. Buffy somehow manages to persuade Willow to dress up as a slut, but before she leaves the house, she’s overcome with shyness and puts on a ghost sheet costume, which is what turns into… however still wearing the slutty outfit. It all prompts this classic exchange of lines between Willow and Giles: Giles: "And-and your-your costume?" Willow: "I'm a ghost." Giles: "Yes. Um, a-a… the ghost of what, exactly?"
3. Lindsay Lohan as Cady Heron in Mean Girls, 2004
Mean Girls was the film that taught us that – in the words of LiLo’s character, Cady – “Halloween is the one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it.” Preach! Cady, of course, turns up at the town’s most coveted Halloween party dressed like a zombie bride, and the frumpy kind at that, triggering this deadpan question from a pricelessly blank Karen, played by Amanda Seyfried: “Why are you dressed so scary?” Long pause. Cady: “It's Halloween.”
2. Emma Caulfield as Anya on Buffy The Vampire Slayer, season 4, episode 4, 1999
Anya was my favourite character on Buffy, and her bunny phobia is one of the great references of TV history. It was introduced in the show’s second Halloween episode, in which Xander suggests that Anya should dress up as something scary. She turns up in a bunny costume because bunnies are the thing that terrifies her most. The scene paved the way for so many brilliant Anya moments, including her lyrics in the musical episode in season 6: “Bunnies aren't just cute like everybody supposes / they got them hoppy legs and twitchy little noses / And what's with all the carrots? / What do they need such good eyesight for anyway?”
1. Tori Spelling as Donna Martin in Beverly Hills, 90210, season 2, episode 13, 1991
The original 90210 was so pioneering, most of the above TV moments and costumes probably wouldn’t have happened were it not for this show’s legendary Halloween episode, in which Kelly Taylor dresses up as a major slut and Donna Martin’s choice to dress as a mermaid leaves her unable to move all night at the West Beverly Halloween ball. Donna’s costume went down in history as one of those things people reference to each other as if it actually happened in real life, and it’s perhaps one of the best parallels ever made to compromising fashion in general – Halloween or not.
On a final note, I have to mention last week’s Halloween special of Pretty Little Liars, which is too young to make the list but nevertheless one of those episodes I just know I’ll watch over and over again for the next many Halloweens. Evil Alison and scheming Jenna both as Lady Gaga, teacher whoring Aria as a witch, lesbian boho Emily as a Native American, amazing all American Hannah as Britney Spears, and smarty pants Spencer as Mary Queen of Scots (no one knew who she was dressed as). It was a perfect Halloween episode!