How 18 Fashion Designers Created Their Favourite Halloween Looks

Some of the best Halloween parties are those thrown by fashion designers, walking around in the most outlandishly creative costumes imaginable. This should come as no surprise: they’re the ones with the skills to turn fantasy into reality. Working with found objects (chairs, fig leaves, random bits of fabric), low-cost materials, or harnessing their sourcing know-how to craft intriguing looks, we asked 18 designers to send us their favourite Halloween costume that they’ve made or worn. From Academy Award-winning costume designer Sandy Powell to fresh BFC NEWGEN face Yaku Stapleton, here’s a dig into their archives. Move over Playboy Bunnies.

Thebe Magugu

“This is from my friend Rich Mnisi’s party in 2020. I went dressed as a ‘generic supporting character’ and my title was ‘American Waitress from any Quentin Tarantino film’. I got a red pinafore dress and added white flounces to it. Then I carried an entire plate of American Breakfast all evening balanced on one hand and a bottle of syrup in the other, which was later replaced by a cigarette. I couldn’t fully let loose and dance because I had to commit to the role!”

Hillary Taymour, Collina Strada

“As a Leo, I don’t think I have ever topped this costume. I wore it for two years in a row because it was my favourite thing ever. I really felt in my element.”

Conner Ives

“Nobody had any idea who I was: JFK Jr. at JFK Sr. funeral. Fair enough. It made so much sense in my head, but obviously it was lost to anyone who didn’t know me or my obsessions well enough. I have no regrets! The photo is blurry as we were at my best friend’s wedding, which was during Halloween weekend in 2022, and I think we were already drunk when I put the costume on. Kate Moss told me I had great legs.”

Alexandre Arsenault, KNWLS

“1995, I think I was 6 years old! The best bit is the chocolate bar outfit under the costume.”

Sindiso Khumalo

“Back in 2013, I dressed as Marie Antoinette and my best friend Joseph was a dictator.” 

Yaku Stapleton, YAKU

“All I needed was an old carpet and my job was done. I cut a circle with a craft knife and boom: Aladdin’s carpet. The outfit is wicked until you’re looking for your mixer, that’s in your bag, four doors away. Also a hindrance to dancing.”

Luke Derrick

“Internship Oppenheimer, 28/10/2023. Achieved via: eBay’d 1970s St Michael jacket, E. Tautz Oxford bags from an internship in 2016, a Brioni tie stashed from another internship, and a Zara shirt, designed in Spain on yet another placement from 2017 – a CV curveball. Topped off with my girlfriend’s Maison Michel hat, from her own 2018 internship with Chanel, under oath that it doesn’t get touched by a single drop of rain. And a discount umbrella, to ensure the above.”

Sandy Powell

“This is from an event in 2009, Dine With Death, organised by my designer friend Simon Costin, who has been running it every two years since 1997. Usually hosted in his own home for 13 guests, this all-black dinner has occasionally been experienced elsewhere such as an empty church and in this case at the Victoria & Albert Museum in South Kensington. Simon based the dinner on a passage from À Rebours, a novel written by Joris-Karl Huysmans in 1884.”

Yonathan Carmel, Vautrait

“In 2017, my friends and I organised a series of parties in Tel Aviv. This photo was taken just before one of them started. I am on the left, wearing a deconstructed wedding dress I made. The dress, no longer a coherent whole, reflects the fragility of the structures and meanings we assign to marriage. It plays with the tension between form and formlessness, tradition and disruption, challenging the assumption that marriage – like the dress – must be pristine, seamless, and unequivocally bound by a piece of paper. In its fragmented state, I invite the viewers to reconsider the ‘truths’ we take for granted about love, commitment, and legality.”

Mike Eckhaus, Eckhaus Latta

“I’m gay (2021).”

Faith Oluwajimi, BLOKE

“In a Halloween tribute blending fashion and heritage, I channelled the spirit of iconic North African designer Azzedine Alaïa, while Jacqueline, my muse, steps into the role of Alaïa’s leading lady.”

Anton Belinskiy

“In Ukraine, Halloween isn’t celebrated. I rarely put on any costumes myself, and if I do, it’s a mix of random, strange items, like in the photo: a crossbow, ketchup, a shirt with Biden fading out and my friend’s mask. Lately, though, with everything going on in the world, I’ve been feeling like dressing up as a white angel. But as the inscription on King Solomon’s ring says: ‘This too shall pass.’ And that thought brings me peace.”

Goom Heo

“It was in 2021 when the movie Dune came out and I wanted to be Gaius Helen Mohiam. She was my favourite character. I wore a black vintage dress from the 80s, made a headpiece with a veil and wore beaded gloves from our SS21 collection. My friend and I spent the whole day painting them all black in our studio. At the end of the night I had to leave the head piece at the party — I couldn’t wear it any longer as it was too heavy to take home!”

Yoon Ahn

“Joker meets Siouxsie Sioux (2016).”

Marine Serre

“For Halloween, the black catsuit is the perfect costume, drawing from a rich history of heroines like Catwoman, Trinity, Black Widow, and even the French heroine Fantômette. These women show that the black catsuit is more than just a costume – it’s a symbol of adaptability and strength. It allows women to embrace different aspects of themselves, moving between roles with confidence and poise. For me, it isn’t just about emulating these heroines; it’s about stepping into a powerful tradition of bold, empowered women who are unafraid to take charge of their identities and futures.”

Georgiana Huddart 

“Growing up, I remember watching my mum getting dressed up in her Hunza G Pretty Woman Dress (the very same one that Julia Roberts wears in the film Pretty Woman) and always wanting to wear one myself! Years later, the dress has actually become a really iconic Halloween costume and I couldn’t think of a better excuse to get dressed up in it than on a recent trip to Mallorca, where we celebrated Hunza G’s 40th Anniversary.”

Zoe Gustavia Anna Whalen

“A short history of costumes that include many bodysuits made of old sheer tights:

In 2016, I wore my first full bodysuit made of about 10 pairs of sheer nude tights, and an empty litre Coke bottle propped under my hair to hold it all up. Not pictured are the eyelashes I drew around my eyes.

In 2020, I was a half-assed Little Red Riding Hood, as an excuse to wear this bright red 80s prom dress I thrifted, thankfully captured awkwardly by my digilent friends as I ate red jello in a kitchen.

2021 saw the return of the tights as Eve (a couples costume, but my look is the only important one). I used a fig leaf from a tree in the backyard of my local laundromat, spotted three hours before the costume party, ran a piece of wire through an apple and hooked the chain from my chatelaine to create an apple bag, and wore a laurel of fake flowers taken from my living room decoration.

For 2022, I was an angel, wearing POSTER GIRL I coveted from an SSENSE sale, vintage lingerie pieces and wings and a halo crafted from wire earlier that day in my studio.

For this year, this photo is my starting point… Do I go as a living room set, featuring my wearable chair? Or do I wear a parody of my own look, bringing back the tights and figuring out how to put an Ikea chair on my body? (I think I prefer the latter, being a true DIY girly at heart.)”