Ghosts of Halloween Past

The problems with the supply chain are big and serious. And petty as well.

There’s the pop culture homage — Marilyn Monroe, Tony Soprano, The Matrix.

Then there are the festive ways to embody the zeitgeist, a socially acceptable method for donning an outfit that says “look at me, I am clever” — a meme costume, an obscure reference or a Netflix phenomenon nobody saw coming (looking at you, “Tiger King” and “Squid Game”).

It was already getting hard to predict and procure an of-the-moment costume, since viral trends often outpace manufacturing timelines. This year, with supply chain woes keeping shelves empty, topical trick-or-treating is harder than ever.

Concern for stores that survive by selling holiday wares, including costumes for Halloween, particularly after a year of lost revenues that will never be made up, is entirely understandable. What exacerbates this problem is the difficulty of know what will be the hip and cool costume of the day.

The supply chain is not well equipped to handle trends, especially when a show or image becomes unexpectedly popular overnight — “Ted Lasso,” for example, the resurgence of Britney Spears or Kim Kardashian’s Balenciaga Met Gala full black bodysuit.

“The trends move on really quickly,” Professor Niederhoff said. “They come out of nowhere, so we have very little advance notice and very little staying power and that makes it very hard for large-scale production around a tight timeline like Halloween or Christmas.”

Of course, there are always the old stand-bys,

Mr. Shea said he visited a Spirit Halloween store and was able to find some of the classics — cowboys, doctors, “sexy nurses.” He saw some pop culture costumes, but they were more evergreen than topical, like outfits inspired by the ’90s movies “Hocus Pocus” and “The Nightmare Before Christmas.”

Why there aren’t “sexy lawyer” costumes has always been a mystery to me, but I digress.

As noted in the article, there remains an entirely available opportunity for any costume you want. Make your own. Whether it’s a ghost or a football player, put in a little effort and imagination and, boom, you have a costume. Not that it helps the retailers who sell costumes any, but when did making your own costumer, and more importantly, making your children’s costumes, become reliant on what was on some store’s shelves?

As a child, I never had a store-bought costume. I knew they existed because other kids got them, but it was an expense my parents couldn’t afford. And yet, there I was, at the costume parade at the Mildred B. Moss Elementary School (formerly the Washington School until first grade), proudly strutting my stuff as a soldier.

Notice the size of the bag? Wearing a costume that wasn’t bought in a store didn’t prevent me from going house to house until it was overflowing. It was joyful. And in case you’re wondering, my favorite candy cars were the ones with peanuts. I was never big on chocolate, though I would suffer it.

It’s understandable that some people feel strongly that about dressing as Ted Lasso for the day (as opposed to a Squid Game costumer, which should be repugnant to any parent who cares about their child’s mental health). For some, nothing matters more than showing others how your up on the coolest meme of the moment. Heck, even my son dressed as Rimmer from Red Dwarf for this Halloween, though he made his own costume, and my daughter dressed in an apron, making her either a barista or a Progressive Insurance salesperson. I’m not sure.

But if the store shelves are bare, that doesn’t mean your day is ruined. Be a ghost. Be a condo on public beachfront. Be a kid and enjoy the day, even if your parents can’t get you a Kim Kardashian Balenciaga bodysuit.