For many, Halloween is a time to show off — show off how clever, how funny, how creative or even how attractive you are. For people running around Bellingham during the Halloween season, it’s no different.
Here are a few locals’ costumes, their inspiration and how much they spent.
Katie Fryberger, Freyja Stangeland and Aspen Cole as Minions
“We had overalls already so we thought it would be easy,” Stangeland said.
“We didn’t want to be hot. We wanted to be funny,” Cole said.
Cost: Around $25
Key elements: Bald caps, overalls, glasses, yellow shirts and yellow paint from Spirit Halloween
Gretchen Leggitt as the sandworm from “Dune”
“I think it is a hilarious costume with many subtle, comical innuendos. My team are the riders of the worms, so it was a great opportunity for a group costume.”
Cost: $30
Key elements: Children’s play tunnel, used broom, zip ties and insulation tubing
Clayton Wangbichler as the ocean
“I’m a free diver and a surfer. I just love the ocean and wanted to incorporate that into the costume, So I’ve been the ocean for the last three years. It grows every year. So my idea is that for the next 15 years, the ocean is going to become more beautiful and more beautiful, and then, unfortunately, decline. Maybe some trash and some oil spills towards the end of that 15 years, but I’m still in the beautifying phase. This year, I added the octopus.”
Cost: Around $100
Key elements: Blue jumpsuit, octopus, shark toys, coral reef on helmet
Victor Bjornsson, Jeff Roper, Amber Finley and Brian Rand as the lost cow Mabel and her cowboys
“I’m the lost cow, Mabel, that was lost over by the theater for two months, which we all thought was ridiculous. We saw this amazing picture of her, so we decided to be the Mabel and the people trying to catch her,” Roper said.
“We’re just trying to wrangle her up,” Bjornsson said.
Cost: around $30
Key elements: Missing cow poster, udder, ears, cowboy hats, mustache, blow-up hobby horses, rope
Olivia Theilemann as a swamp witch
“I’m a high school teacher and one of the things I do is all the dances and stuff. Last year, it was ‘Once Upon a Prom’ so I was kind of a gothy-queen-chaperone look. I had the flower crown and dress from prom. Then, I added the spooky makeup, which is makeup I had to buy when I was a theater major 11 years ago. So, hopefully it doesn’t give me a rash or anything.”
Cost: Under $40
Key elements: Face makeup, black dress, flower crown
Magdalena Vrbova as Mary Poppins
“It’s [a] Mary Poppins/Anne of Green Gables period piece. I wanted an excuse to wear a flowy dress.”
Cost: $50
Key elements: Parasol, lace shirt, straw hat, skirt
Tucker Stark, Anna Fischer-Byrne, Kelend Hawks and Christine Dern as Vikings
“We have a little costume bit at our work. We work for Transition [Bikes]. We just kind of dug in there,” Hawks said.
“They like to party,” Stark said.
“We have six bins full of costumes,” Hawks said.
Cost: $0
Key elements: Faux fur coats/pelts, suit of armor, face makeup, crown, mask
Pike Bennett-Velka with a mask and lightsaber
“It is a costume, but it’s a DIY costume, it’s not really based on any one thing. It’s just … me. I know the [singer and internet personality] BoyWithUke, and he wears a mask like this. I wanted to wear one. I [also] just have a lightsaber.”
Cost: $30 for the mask and $110 for the lightsaber
Key elements: Light-up mask, lightsaber, all-black outfit
Hailey Hoffman is a CDN visual journalist; reach her at haileyhoffman@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 103.
