It’s here, everybody: our 5th annual costume contest! It’s still the same lo-fi contest it’s always been, but this year we’ve added a separate professional division for you cosplay types with your latex and blowtorches and whatnot. For everybody else, haul out your helmets made from tinfoil roasting pans! Send your photos to contest@takebackhalloween.org, and […]
They’re here! The winners of our 2015 Costume Contest! Our contest was huge this year, and we were astounded by not only the number of entries but the quality and variety. They’re all in our Facebook album, which I invite you to marvel over: 2015 Costume Contest Album. And if you need a refresher on […]
UPDATE 11/9/2015: Thank you, everyone, for your amazing entries! This year’s contest is our best yet, and we are thrilled by all the terrific costumes. We plan to announce the winners on Monday, November 16. In the meantime, be sure to look through our Facebook album to see the incredible creativity of all our entrants: […]
They’re here! After much agonized sifting through the many amazing entries, we have finally settled on the winners of this year’s costume contest. If you need a refresher on the rules and what the whole deal here is, check out our original contest announcement post. The level of quality in the entries was incredible this […]
Our costume contest last year was a blast, so this year we’ve added even more categories and prizes. (Check out last year’s winners to see what kind of costumes won and why.) Our prize fund is much bigger this year: a total of 12 Amazon gift certificates ($25 each) have been donated for the winners. […]
Actually we have 6 winners. The results of the 2014 Costume Candidate vote are in, and first of all we want to thank everyone for participating. So many votes! So much enthusiasm! We had only planned to do 5 additional costumes, but there were 6 that were so popular we couldn’t narrow it down. However, […]
It’s that time of year when we ask our fans and Kickstarter backers to vote on which new “wild card” costumes they’d like us to do. The wild card costumes, or TBD costumes, are the ones that backers get to pick. They’re extras on top of the regular costumes already promised as part of the […]
Exciting news! We’ve been working super hard for the past month on our 2014 season of costumes, and we’re extremely proud to unveil an important new addition to our project: Take Back Arbor Day. It’s become increasingly clear in recent years that the rampant sexualization of Arbor Day has changed the character of what was […]
It’s only two and half weeks away! Yesterday we published our new Esther costume, and though it looks dramatic as all get-out, it’s actually very easy to put together. The key items you need for this look are a fez and five yards of fabric. We used china silk polyester lining fabric—which, despite the name, […]
Black History Month is an important season here in the costume world, with lots of school activities, living history demonstrations, and even some fancy-dress galas. Historical costuming is a wonderful way to learn and celebrate history, and we’re always thrilled to help out with DIY costume ideas and resources. If you’re still in need of […]
Greetings from the depths of winter! As I write this there’s a thick blanket of snow on the ground and ice on the windows. But it’s cozy here in my workroom, which is draped in chiffon and velvet as I plot out the costume designs for the new season. We have a very big year […]
We had over 200 entries to our costume contest this year, which was way more than we expected. That’s the kind of response big newspapers and magazines get when they run contests, though I daresay the level of quality of our entries was higher. But that just made the judging harder. To make it manageable, […]
