For one weekend each October, Penn State students ditch their typical clothing for creative, funny, and sometimes even spooky Halloween costumes. In recent years, social media has had a huge impact on costume trends, particularly when it comes to platforms such as TikTok and Pinterest. Halloween in Happy Valley never disappoints, and the costumes this year certainly didn’t either.
This Halloween, many students chose to dress up in iconic looks worn by various celebrities, including Julia Fox, Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton and Pamela Anderson. Pamela Anderson was a particularly popular costume, which is likely due to the release of the Pam & Tommy mini-series.
Creativity came out to play in new ways for many of the couples’ costumes this year. Chase Sanford, a fourth-year student, and his girlfriend Emma, came up with the idea to be Remy and Alfredo Linguini from the animated film, Ratatouille.
“We got the idea because Emma and I met at working at a restaurant and we thought it would be funny to do a restaurant-themed costume,” says Sanford.
Popular movies and TV shows fueled the inspiration for many duo costumes this year. Black Swan, a 2010 film starring Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis, made for a creative and stylish costume for pairs of friends, with one being the white swan and one being the black swan.
“Despite never seeing the movie black swan, my roommate Alex and I have been wanting to do this costume for over a year now because we’ve seen it all over our Pinterest. We finally decided to go for it because this is our last year at Penn State and we wanted to go all out,” says Maddie Quinn, fourth- year student.
Some students took their costumes to the next level and created something completely unique. Cheyenne Livelsberger, a fourth-year student, had the idea to dress up as a popular new social media app, BeReal. Throughout the night, she snapped photos of people with a polaroid camera, mimicking the feature of the platform.
“At the beginning of October, I sat down to create a list of potential Halloween costumes. As I was scanning Pinterest and struggling to come up with anything creative or new, the BeReal notification went off for the day…impeccable timing honestly! I was instantly inspired and knew I wanted to try and be this new and on the rise social media platform,” says Livelsberger.
Even though Halloween is often labeled as a fun holiday for kids, it is also a reflection of what’s popular at the time, whether it be a person, a movie, or even an app. Movies and shows from the past have become the inspiration for popular costumes today, and the icons of our generation have become the fuel for some of the most creative and unique costumes. Whether or not you love this holiday, the creativity Penn State students have with their costumes is always something to be appreciated.
What did you dress up as this Halloween? Tweet us your looks at @VALLEYmag!
