Witches, skeletons, and ghosts may have been the stuff of nightmares when we were children, but for those entering young adulthood, the folk villains of yore seem to have lost their menacing edge.
That’s why this Halloween, Smiffys fancy dress has announced a new line of Halloween costumes aimed to embody the darkest fears of those aged 18-30.
‘Externalising all my abstract fears into a succinct, material expression of festivity is way better than putting on a stripy shirt and saying I’m Where’s Wally again,’ says Ray, aged 20, holding a beaker of vodka cranberry and donned in his new costume, “Intrusive Thoughts About Your Parents Dying”.
‘I was originally going to go as part of a group,’ Lacy tells us. ‘We were also going to go as slutty cats. Then after some introspection I learned that the thing that truly keeps me up at night is that one Margaret Atwood quote about how, under patriarchy, women will always be objectified, no matter what we do or wear. So I decided to go dressed as the “Inescapable Panopticon of the Male Gaze.” – it’s actually not so different to my slutty cat costume.’
Other costumes include: “Accidentally Committing Tax Fraud,” “Losing Your Deposit Because You Used Blu-Tac,” “Diagnosing Yourself With Severe Personality Disorders at 2am,” “Childhood Friend Getting Married,” and “Not Having a Savings Account.”
Photo by Sabina Music Rich on Unsplash