Editor’s Be aware: Delving into the archives of popular culture historical past, “Remember When?” is a CNN Type sequence providing a nostalgic have a look at the superstar outfits that outlined their eras.
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If Halloween had a style handbook, the occasion scene from the 2004 basic “Mean Girls” would take up a complete chapter. Twenty years have handed for the reason that authentic Plastics stomped their kitten heels into film historical past, however the (now, somewhat outdated) remark Lindsay Lohan’s outcast-turned-”it lady” Cady Heron makes about “lady world” neatly summarizes the dichotomy of dressing for this most complicated of holidays.
“In lady world, Halloween is the one night time a 12 months when a woman can gown up like a complete slut and no different women can say the rest about it.”
Within the film, after all, Cady learns this far too late. Rocking as much as a home crammed with the cool children from faculty, she makes an important early 2000s teenage lady error: Carrying an excellent spooky costume for an excellent spooky vacation.
Donning pretend tooth, a poofy marriage ceremony gown and veil, and simply sufficient face paint to look completely deranged, Cady attends — not as a “zombie bride,” as her crush Aaron Samuels guesses — however an ex-wife.
“Why are you dressed so scary?” her common pal Karen Smith gasps when she sees her. Karen might have been borderline illiterate within the film, however she nonetheless acquired the memo and caught some mouse ears on prime of a black negligee.
Cady mumbles by her bloodied gums, “It’s Halloween?”
And thus, the 2 extremes of the Halloween costume spectrum got title: In 2004, you have been both a sexpot with “some type of animal ears” or an undead hag. (In fact, this didn’t apply to males. Aaron arrives to the occasion dressed as generic soccer participant man and nonetheless scores with the women.)
Instances have modified. However because the over-sexified power of the early 2000s has considerably chilled, the ghosts of the horny mouse and the ex-wife nonetheless hang-out some younger girls each autumn. Like an angel on one shoulder and a satan on the opposite, they whisper:
Be horny! — No, be a bathroom witch! — Attraction to the male gaze! — No, hex all of them!
Within the twenty years since “Imply Women,” got here out, the Halloween costume spectrum has crammed with extra selection — and lots of creativity.
Take Heidi Klum, who has made a sport of debuting crazier and crazier costumes each October. In 2002, the mannequin dressed up as fictional bombshell Betty Boop by donning a black, curly wig and figure-hugging crimson gown. By 2022, she was a disturbingly lifelike worm — breaking part of the sexy-scary scale ceaselessly. Conversely, horny can be served with a wholesome layer of irony, assuming “horny” means very tiny items of clothes. The attire firm Yandy, a mecca for Halloween costumes since 2007, has perfected the artwork of creating folks suppose, “Oh no, am I interested in this?” with an intensive lineup of racy (insert actually any noun right here) getups. Sizzling this 12 months? A figure-hugging Stanley Cup costume.
On the identical time, being a haunted bathroom witch has by no means been hotter. Dressing up horny for Halloween has been happening for many years, however extra folks additionally appear to be embracing various aesthetics for the season. “Sizzling Woman Summer season” now provides option to “Spooky Girl Fall,” and lots of girls can’t be bothered so as to add platform heels to a horny taco costume when there are heat potions to sip and arcane rituals to carry out.
That makes Cady Heron’s ex-wife of Frankenstein costume much more of a basic. Within the authentic 2004 film, Queen Bee Regina George (Rachel McAdams) steps out in a bang-on Playboy Bunny outfit. Within the 2024 film musical, Regina (Reneé Rapp) picks a dramatic, but much less revealing look that resembles an elaborate fowl of prey. The film’s costume designer Tom Broecker says the change highlights the deadly crafty that lurks beneath the character’s magnificence.
“We knew that with Reneé’s model of Regina, the Playboy Bunny (costume) — the sexuality of it simply didn’t appear present,” the film’s costume designer Tom Broecker told Buzzfeed.
And but, 2024 Cady nonetheless reveals up with horrifying dentures and a ballooning white taffeta; a zombie bride amongst a horny model of Joan of Arc, a husk of corn, and nonetheless — many animals.
Possibly that’s one other lesson for the Halloween handbook. Attractive comes and goes, however scary and off-putting is ceaselessly.