Thankfully I had an awesome mom and grandma. I got to be Cindy Lauper / She-Bop, A t-rex, catwoman (the scary michelle pheifer version), a werewolf and a myriad of other costumes. The ones on the shelves were always super boring to me as they tended to be all of the things I *didn't* want to be.

Well, scary, we can do, but the school is prohibiting scary costumes due to the kindergarteners this year. Dani is very tomboy, and I'm sure, if she'd have thought about it ahead of time, we would have had an opportunity to do something really spiffy.. granted, she's 7, and just hadn't thought about what she wanted to be a whole lot. Rachael, at 10, had her costume planned and thought out completed over 2 weeks back. 8)

I totally agree, the best costumes are the ones you make yourself, but when you're down to the wire (her school parade/party is tomorrow, and you've been trying to find *anything* that meets the school rules, your options become limited)

Argh, don't get me started on sexism things like that.

I don't know how you women do it.

We don't. :/ I've been forced to buy small sizes of men's garments for several years now in order to get the right colors and something decent. And I'm talking about everyday clothing, not costumes.

The stores should get the point that not everyone's going to wear pink glittery gauze, especially in -20°C weather.

That's what I do/did too. If I didn't have something already in mind (I generally do), then I'd shop the boys stuff as well as the girls. Fortunately when *I* was growing up, there were a ton of cartoon characters easily purchased at KMart.

Fortunately, except for a clown costume, Ian always wore hand made stuff. As he got older, he came up with the strange stuff.

Unfortunately, as you get older, the pre-made costumes for women don't actually improve. You just add "slutty" to the front of the costume label and voila. :P

I noticed that.

there is apparently some requirement that if you're female, you can only use the same amount of fabric as a child costume, so they just get more and more revealing...

Yes, I get more and more unimpressed every year.

I dunno, slim pickings for both here. The worst though is the costumes are getting sluttier and sluttier. Not downright sleazy (yet) but the bigger girl costumes have fake corsets, shorter skirts, cut in a way meant to entice. (I saw pictures, it was a long thread elsewhere.) I don't see that as a problem for boys.

Boys round here, all they seem to have is pirate or superhero. Or grim reaper.

Oh, I've seen some outright sleaze, sadly. Have you seen the thongs and g-strings for pre-teen girls? Or even just the jeans with 'flirt' across the butt in sizes obviously meant for pre-teens. *twitch*

Ugh. Any visit to the mall or toy store these days tends to include me going off on a rant.

I was lucky mom made my costumes. However when I got old enough to purchase one I bought a playing card. The next year I bought an Elivra costume which was a little too low cut for my mom, she made me trick or treat with a mask on. I'm typically a vampire since I have special made teeth and you can practiclly throw anything together and accesorize. But this year I'm going a completely different route... I hope it works out.

This is the price you pay when you decide to shop this late in the season for a costume. Back in early september when costumes first appeared at Target and Wallys, I saw an equal number for both sexes.

Though the oddest was a Beer Keg costume for a kid whos 5-8.

This is one of the perks of being a costumer. I noticed that in stores around Halloween, the only costumes for women are very revealing. I mean really, what does the industry think of women? And I remember last Halloween, the local mall had trick or treating and seeing underage girls wearing those skanky costumes walking around with their butts hanging out made me quite horrified.

*nod* totally with you on that.. the objectification of young girls these days is appalling. There are no Bratz or similar toys/videos in my house for a similar reason.

But I'm truly irritated by the Sleazy adult costumes too. Bonus, if you wear anything larger then 12/14, you are plain old SOL on women's costumes period.

Oddly enough, I'm going as a Naughty Minx this year in a costume I made myself.

...I thought it was funny.

Dude, you can always put the girl in a "boy's" outfit. Cross dressing is the bomb!

I have a girlfriend who is going as Jack Sparrow...mustache, beard, and boobs. Take that, society!

She didn't want one of the boy costumes, I checked with her. I'm not that rigid...

Maddie went as a soldier last year.
It was pretty cute!

So far, mine has been a dragon every year.

Meh, at least you guys have Halloween to play in costumes.

Althought, in Finland, costumes tends to happen during May Day, but nowhere near to the level of your parties. But the weather tends to be nicer, no sub-zero C frosting...

Cosplay is gaining ground here, though, and those costumes can be awesome. (Tried it once so far myself, I think I have shown my Rude from FF7 costume?)

Considering doing Hitman/Agent 47 costume next, but I'd need someone to do the barcode on the back of my head.

But one of the big problems with Finnish cosplayers is the average age is so damn young, makes me a real freak... Maybe 3 percent of them are over 30, and even over 18 is only around 23% from what I have heard.