In college there is a lot of pressure to have the perfect Halloween costume. The weekend of Halloween is one of the most anticipated of the year for college students, and with that comes the need to buy typically multiple costumes. Students spend weeks or even months curating their costumes and collecting the pieces necessary to achieve it.
This pressure to find multiple perfect costumes often leads people to purchasing clothing from websites like Shein. According to the BBC, Shein breaks Chinese labor laws, which limit laborers to a 40 hour work week, while Shein employees often work up to 75 hour weeks. Their low prices are what attract people to the website, so they can save money on costumes they will likely only wear once.
Many people also use Amazon to buy pieces for their costumes. Like Shein, the pieces people buy on Amazon and such websites are not often reused. They’re worn once on Halloween and never again. In a survey posted to Woof Magazine’s Instagram, 38 students answered questions about their Halloween costumes. 50% recorded that they purchased parts of their costumes from Amazon. “Personally I bought one piece of my costume from Amazon, but I plan on reselling it so that it gets used again,” said an anonymous survey participant.
If you used fast fashion to curate your Halloween costumes, one of the best ways to repurpose those pieces is to donate them. Donating clothing to local homeless shelters, Goodwills or other thrift stores, or simply to a friend, are all good ways not to let those pieces of clothing go to waste. 63% of surveyed students said they would consider donating their clothing from their Halloween costumes, while 81% said they would wear them again.
Although Halloween is over, it’s always good to keep in mind how to improve your costume shopping for next Halloween. One of the best ways to sustainably shop for costumes is thrifting, borrowing from friends, or using what you already own. “Me and my roommates made a conscientious effort to repurpose old clothes to create costumes, and it was so much more fun trying to make a costume out of what we already had than just buying everything online,” said another anonymous participant of the survey.
The next Halloween is always just around the corner, so get creative, and put together your costume sustainably next year.