With Halloween just a few weeks away, a familiar child’s character is making a late charge as the go-to costume for adults in 2012.
This week, ABC News reported that sales for the “sassy Big Bird” Halloween costume rose 500 percent after Mitt Romney mentioned the popular Sesame Street character during the first presidential debate.
The costume is a yellow dress with orange and pink knee-high socks with a tiny Big Bird face-hat.
For those who’d like to step off of Sesame Street, but still want to dress up as a familiar character, superheroes are a popular choice, especially thanks to “The Avengers” film.
“When new movies come out, those costumes become very popular,” said Rebecca Dror, manager of Halloween Explosion in the Palisades Mall. “This year, we’ve seen a lot of superheroes.”
And that’s not just for adult males.
“We’ve gotten a lot of women coming in asking about Wonder Woman and Catwoman costumes,” Dror said.
Halloween Explosion is located on the fourth floor of the mall right outside Target. The store has a lot of superhero costumes on display along with plenty of accessories from Captain America’s shield to Iron Man’s mask.
Dror added that even families are getting into the superhero theme this year, with kids and parents all dressing as superheroes together. She also added that for men, iconic horror movie characters like Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees are still popular.
For women, Dror said people come in looking for accessories so they can dress up like real people, such as Lady Gaga and Katy Perry.
However, not all adults will be donning the superhero tights this year. Each year for the last five years, Lasdon Park in Katonah has held an adult Halloween costume party with a different theme. The themes have ranged from monsters with a botanical theme to characters from “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” This year’s theme is “The Walking Dead.”
Ted Kozlowski, a Westchester county forester, said he expects a lot of zombies, as well as characters from “The Walking Dead,” a comic book turned TV show on AMC.
The party is on Oct. 26 and already sold out, Kozlowski said.
“I think the reason it’s so popular is adults want to go to a place where it’s just for adults,” he said. “There’s so many events this time of year, but not that many for just adults.”
Kozlowski said the costumes over the years have included a wide range of topics.
“We don’t usually get political figures or things like that,” he said. “The people tend to spend a bit of time on their costumes instead of running to the store to buy stuff. Even if it’s something like a bumblebee or scuba diver, they’re costumes people are making themselves.”
Kozlowski said they give out prizes each year, including tickets to a Broadway show. This year, they’ll give out prizes for best zombie, best “Walking Dead” character and best overall costume. He added the costumes that usually are most popular are the ones people make themselves.
“We’ve had some really cool ghouls, vampires, Draculas,” Kozlowski said. “A while ago we have people come dressed as a hedge fund. It was two people dressed in shrubbery with dollar bills hanging on them. That was a really popular one.”
