Gadling

While Catherine has Halloween costume ideas that reflect different types of travelers–(there are more ideas coming throughout today), and Heather previously posted on how to dress up like an awesome flight attendant, here are other costume ideas. These wander into the unusual–possibly the obscure.

Each are based on travel and incorporate souvenirs you may have brought home with you, particularly if you have problems passing up purchases. All were thought of at the last minute for a past Halloween and were worn at a party.

As a note, you may have to explain what you are, although the responses to each were positive.

Also, as you travel this year, think of costume ideas as you go. In this picture I see items that might come in handy. Read on.

Costume 1: A Homonym

Costume 1 may or may not need an explanation. It depends upon how much people understand language. It’s easy to do.

If you purchased some sort of robe on your travels, dress like a homonym by doing this: My husband wore a colorful striped robe that he purchased in Bhutan and leather sandals. He made a tablet out of cardboard and painted it to look as if it had the Ten Commandments written on it. He carried that in one hand. The idea was to look sort of like Moses. Around his neck, he wore a chart showing the Dow Jones on an up trajectory.

Prophet–Profit. Get it?

Costume 2. A Souvenir Stand: If you purchased a large straw hat–mine was purchased in Mopti, Mali, turn it into souvenir stand by doing this. This costume seemed to look vaguely familiar to the party guests. People did like to look at it.

You’ll need strong thread, small objects that you bought during your travels and small price tags. Affix the objects to the hat by tying one end of a piece of thread to an object and then threading a needle with the other end in order to pass that end of the thread through the hat.

Tie a knot to attach the object to the hat. Keep adding objects around and on the brim. Then, add price tags. Name your souvenir stand and make a sign with the name on it. Put the sign around your neck or at the top of the hat. You can label where the objects are from as well.

Other ideas: You could alter this costume to be a museum exhibit. Or a postcard rack.

Costume 3. A Rain Forest. This one definitely is an attention grabber and people will know what you are. It is easier to create if you live near a rain forest, but it is doable if you live elsewhere. If you live right next door to the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve in Singapore, you won’t have any problems finding a few large leaves.

What you will need, in addition to leaves or some sort of palm fronds: rubber or plastic insects, snakes, flowers or what ever else you can think of that might be found in a rain forest. We added bananas and a stuffed animal monkey.

A small tape player with a tape of birds singing. We also had wooden instruments from Vietnam that sound like crickets and grasshoppers when clacked together. A rain stick would work for your audio portion of this costume.

Affix the leaves to your clothes–we wore black tee shirts and pants. Next, attach the other items in various spots. We used string and safety pins.

My husband slipped the tape into his pocket so when we arrived at the party, the birds singing and the instruments’ insect sounds created quite the entrance. We won 2nd prize.

If you don’t have large leaves, make some out of construction paper. I’m sure you could come up with a clever hat. I think we wore baseball caps with rain forest type things affixed to them.