So Over Sexy: Some Seek Less Seductive Costumes

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By MEGAN FINNERTY The Arizona Republic

When 18-year-old Karely Castaneda exchanged an overly revealing costume at Easley’s Fun Shop in Phoenix two weeks ago, she had no idea she was part of a somewhat surprising national trend. But, after a dozen years of sexy nuns, sexy cats and even sexy hamburgers, Halloween this year is looking decidedly more demure.

Sexy costumes are still selling, of course; about half of the women who dress up will do so as something “attractive,” according to a national survey by Savers secondhand stores. But sexy just isn’t sizzling quite like it used to.

While a record 45 percent of all adults will dress for Halloween this year, according to the National Retail Federation, Yahoo! searches for the phrase “sexy Halloween costumes” have dropped 47 percent since 2010.

Even pop culture observers are fatigued by too-flagrant fashions:

“Showing off your navel is a little too try-hard/Why not just be Bruce Willis from ‘Die Hard,’” two New York comedians rap a video gone viral called, “Things You Can Be on Halloween Besides Naked.” Later in the song by Shamikah Christina Martinez and Molly Austin, who run the EmotiStyle blog, a Tim Gunn character exclaims, “If you’re dressed as a working girl, you’re not making it work.”

The new view

So what’s making us slightly more modest in 2012?

There have always been women who shun sexy Halloween costumes, finding them inappropriate for their age, weight, station in life or sense of propriety. But there’s something else happening this year. Maybe women are tired of how Halloween serves to turn them into sexual objects. Maybe women are stymied by the lack of self expression available to them when the choice in the costume aisle seems only to be “sexy or un-sexy.” Maybe after years of so many women using the holiday to express sexual fantasies, the transgressive fun of all that flesh-baring is gone.

Or, it could be a lot simpler than all that:

Sexy costumes are boring, said Amy Odell, editor at BuzzFeed Shift, the women’s lifestyle channel at the website BuzzFeed in Manhattan.

“People know that Halloween is just an excuse to dress sexy,” she said, but noted, “…It’s like the most obvious thing a woman can do. If someone wants to show off their body, more power to them.

“But I think it’s the least-interesting thing you can do.”

Psychologists have long said Halloween gives adults permission to safely live out parts of their fantasies in public, but experts observe that these roles, when seen in the aisles of a Halloween superstore or the pages of a costume website, feel narrow and traditional.

Typically, younger women choose sexualized versions of costumes, and young men choose superheroes and other powerful, masculine figures, said Annette Lynch, director for the Center of Violence Prevention and a professor of fashion and apparel design at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls.

“It’s so been-there, done-that; it’s not new,” said Lynch, whose research includes analyzing photos young people post to Facebook after Halloween. “We are so inundated with sexy costumes that you really want to look for some other alternative, something new this year. I think more people are challenging the perceptions of sexually objectified roles.”

Or maybe it’s just that we know a trend is over when Yahoo! reports this year’s most searched kind of sexy costume is “sexy Big Bird.”

Keeping it under wraps

Castaneda was at Easley’s on the first day the store extended its hours to accommodate late shoppers. She was returning an Indian costume she’d bought online that didn’t look so revealing in the pictures.

“I was like, ‘I am totally not wearing this,’” said Castaneda. “It was all cut out along the back, barely covered my butt. It was too slutty. This one covers my legs, covers my butt; that is the most important thing.”

Although Easley’s has a no-returns-or-exchanges policy, owner Debbie Easley said she felt obligated to give Castaneda something more modest. (Debbie also trains her staff to recommend tights instead of thigh-highs, and tank tops or turtlenecks when teens and tweens pick out costumes with short skirts or low-cut tops.)

Debbie and her mom, Carol, walked the sales floor, pointing out that of the hundreds of thousands of costumes they see every year at buying conventions, they make a point to only choose those that cover the whole torso and upper thighs.

“Let’s put it this way, if it comes with a thong or bra as part of the costume, we don’t buy it,” said Debbie.

She’s talking about a category of costume most in the industry describe as “bedroom,” but in cities with robust nightlife culture and warm October evenings, these looks are rarely left behind closed doors.

Boredom with ‘bedroom’

The bedroom-costume trend started about 12 years ago, when lingerie and hosiery manufacturer Leg Avenue developed a handful of looks. Now, dozens of companies with names like Lip Service and Music Legs make ensembles ranging from as modest as corsets and skirts to bra-and-micro-mini sets.

For a few years, these costumes followed traditional “sexy” tropes: nurse, schoolgirl, barmaid. But by about 2009, adult stores were hosting costume fashion shows in night clubs and anything could be made sexy, including Snow White, Care Bears and border patrol agents.

“Now, everything is sexy,” said Carol Easley. “I’ve probably seen more than 40 French maid costumes just this year. And how different can they all be?”

The National Retail Federation says of the $8 billion Americans will spend on this Halloween, $2.87 billion will be on costumes, most store-bought.

Choosing a Halloween costume has always involved a number of factors. Women consider their age, body type, personal style and who they’re going out with — whether carting the kids to a neighborhood get-together or joining friends at the clubs. But this season, women are talking about avoiding the sexy costumes they assume so many will be wearing.

Kate Moodey, 23, looked for costumes at Easley’s while considering a few extra factors this year. Moodey will be in Hawaii for the holiday, and wants something setting- and temperature-appropriate.

“I want (the costume) to ride a fine line; I don’t want (it) to be too big and bulky to pack; and I want to be pretty,” Moodey said.

“I think about it every year. You don’t want something too, well, you know, slutty. Some of the costumes, you might as well be wearing a bathing suit.”

That said, she and her friends are considering going as characters from the TV show “Baywatch.”

“But I can wear boy shorts with it still, you know?”

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