Costume designer shares quick, budget-friendly DIY Halloween ideas

Halloween officially here, but if you don't have an outfit planned for tonight's parties or trick-or-treating, there is no need to panic or break the bank. Joining us live in studio this morning is Meg Neville. She's a costume designer with TheaterWorks Silicon Valley. Thanks so much for being here and bringing all this in. So last minute, maybe some people weren't even planning to go out and they have some last minute plans. What's something they can throw together in a pinch that counts as a costume? Well, I think almost anything in your closet is fair game. Also, the closets of anyone else in your household. So, for instance, if you have someone in your family who works in tech, I don't, but I did find this. There's the tech bro uniform. The unofficial uniform? Yes. Now, if you want to add a twist to any of these costumes, you add some fake blood from CVS. And some zombie face paint, and you've got a zombie tech bro. So you put white paint on your face. Yes, and some blood. And then you're, anything with white paint on the face is zombie. Anything with white paint is, or it can go clown easily. Oh, okay. Clowns are scary. What about this? So this is something I picked up in a secondhand store. It's an 80s bridal gown. Wow. I love putting on an old. Out-of-date dress, and it also can go zombie if you do the makeup, or you can do it as the period and enjoy being either a bride or a prom date. And you think vintage is a period piece. Yes. Like a historical costume. I also love it when men wear a prom dress or a wedding gown. It's an opportunity. Because the whole point is to be something eye-catching, something out of the ordinary. Yes, something you don't get to be in normal. Unusual, yes. What about this one? Leads to the classic. Rock star. This, my husband was wearing 25 years ago when we met at a Halloween party. Oh, my goodness. Oh my goodness. So it's good luck. So do you always, is it always a good idea to save the wigs from year to year? Always save your wigs. Okay. Have a bag of wigs because if nothing else, you put a wig on, you're set. You're transformed. Yes. These glasses are pretty, they're pretty cool. They're pretty good. Yeah. Do you go to, like, thrift stores to find things like this? I love thrift stores. I go to secondhand stores. Now there's a lot online on Etsy and eBay. But if you're looking the morning of Halloween, then your closet and maybe a quick trip to CVS or Rite Aid or Walgreens will help you along. And you don't have to be something scary, necessarily. You don't have to be scary. You can pull something together using an old bathrobe. One of my favorite things Halloween costumes I ever saw, a woman wasn't going out, but I could see her through her window, and she had a robe on, she had cold cream, she had her hair in curlers, shower cap, she had her clicker, and then a bag of... A bag of popcorn. That can even be part of the costume where you have a little bit of popcorn trailing behind you. This is the Netflix and chill costume. Netflix and chill costume. And even if you don't have a wig, you can just put curlers in your hair. Yeah, you can just put curlers in your hair. Yep, that's it. Why is it so hard sometimes for people to think of these everyday items and objects as something creative and transformative? Well, I think that we get used to being comfortable. And also, there's some fear about being something other than ourselves. But really, we should all lean into it and play with it. And it doesn't matter how you look, it's how you feel. You're a costume designer with Silicon Valley Theatre Works. Are you always kind of keeping your eyes open for something that looks like a costume? A costume you could use in the future? Oh, absolutely, yes. Costume designers are famously hoarders. We have a lot of clothes, and they always come back around. But, for instance, with the... With the Dracula that we just did at TheatreWorks, we created these amazing capes. It's very 19th century. It's still open. It closes tomorrow if anyone wants to catch it. Thank you. Perfect for the season. Perfect for the season. We have punk zombies in the show. We have damsels in distress. It's really fun. Do you have a favorite costume that you pulled together last minute? Do you look back on and you think, that was really creative? Um, gosh, last, uh, I, I think, I think the Rockstar one was my favorite for sure. So it's always a good idea to keep kind of some of those eye-popping clothing items and save them because you never know when they could become a future holiday costume. Absolutely, and always have a spare wig, I say. How many wigs do you have at home? Maybe six or seven. Okay, not enough. All right. Any tricks to putting on the wig, though? It's hard to get those on. It's nice to have a wig cap, but if not, some hairpins will do. Thank you and then just Just check it every once in a while. But, yeah, wigs stay on. All right. They're meant to. What kind of costumes are you expecting to see tonight? What do you think are going to be some of the most popular ones? Well, I'm hoping some Valkyries basketball costumes. I think the sports teams are always great. All right. I wouldn't be surprised if there are some riffs on recent movies, especially in the Bay Area with... The Elizabeth Holmes doc. I was just thinking that. I see on Instagram, all you need is a black turtleneck and a long wig. A black turtleneck and a bowl of eggs to whisk. I've seen references to like lizards, the lizard on the table in that movie. Oh my gosh, it is. It's a whole thing. It's a thing, for sure. So yeah, always find inspiration in what's going on in pop culture. Yes. All right. Yes. Meg Neville, thank you so much for all the advice.