The most popular fall into a few different categories. There are the most popular of all-time and those costumes that are bound to be the most popular costumes for this year. Another thing to deliberate when thinking about what would be the an appropriate costume is the type of event or reason for the costume.
Some costumes have gained their popularity over the years as traditional Halloween garb. Witches, ghosts and scary monsters fall into this realm of costumes and remain among the most popular costumes for Halloween. As other fictional monsters like Frankenstein and Dracula hit the bookstores and movies, these too have become great costumes for Halloween.
Yet not all of the all-time most popular costumes for Halloween fall into the category of being scary. Some of the most popular are of lovable fictional characters like Alice in Wonderland(C), Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz(C), and some of her sidekicks, the Tin Man, the Lion and the Scarecrow have all become quite popular Halloween Costumes. Costumes like this have retained their popularity along with the books and movies.
Movies still continue to influence choices for the most popular Halloween costume of the year. Especially after the release of a Disney Pixar (TM) movie, certain characters climb the charts in costume fame. For instance pirate costumes though everlastingly a popular costume choice became even more sought after following the release of the Pirates of the Caribbean(C), movies. Princess costumes became more popular after the Disney Princess(C) movies.
Yet, it isn’t just Disney (TM) movies that have influenced the popularity of certain costumes. Star Trek characters, Star Wars characters and many other costumes spawned from popular movies. Characters that originated in comic books such as Superman(C) and Batman(C) reclaimed their rights to fame in the list of all-time most popular costumes after the release of newer movies.
The year’s most popular costumes seem to coincide with the year’s most popular movies, but let there be no mistake about it: sometimes the popularity is short lived and when the magic of the movie has worn off, so has the popularity of the costume. It could be argued that characters such as Sponge Bob Square Pants(C), Strawberry Shortcake(C), or even the Little Mermaid(C) fall into the category of lost popularity though some masses would argue that they will always remain popular.
On the opposite end of the spectrum are characters like the Phantom of the Opera(C) that have remained popular for years. These costumes and Phantom of the Opera(C) masks continue to be best sellers and seem like they will never go out of style. As it is, this is the longest running play ever on Broadway and so the fascination for the Phantom of the Opera(C) was not just a passing infatuation as some other fictional characters have been.
For masquerade balls the popular costumes remain those of a true gentleman in his ruffled shirt, a cummerbund and suit and his lady in a flowing gown or dress with a full skirt and petticoat. Yet for other types of costume parties, the popular costumes tend to be fashioned after historical or fictional couples. For instance, Anthony and Cleopatra, Bonnie and Clyde or even Fred and Wilma Flintstone are popular Halloween party costumes.
Deciding which costumes are the most popular costumes depends on whether you are speaking in terms of all-times or for just the current year. Costumes that retain popularity usually coincide with fictional characters that have remained popular though the hands of time, whereas popular costumes of the year are sometimes merely fads that fade away after the popularity of a movie dies down. If you are looking for a costume that will remain popular, focus on character costumes that have been around for years.
