A do-it-yourself guide to Princeton Halloween

There were always those kids on Halloween whose mothers went all out and created elaborate outfits involving sequins and way too much felt: the pirates, Marie Antoinettes, the Sultans. You get the idea.

And then of course, there were the sheeted ghosts.

Though I like to think of myself as somewhere in between these two extremes — I was an Ellis Island immigrant one year, Jacqueline Onassis another — I generally make my Halloween costumes myself out of whatever I happen to have in the house or can find easily at a thrift store or other local shop. This year, home has shrunk to my dorm room, and the internet has replaced my local thrift store. Yet, I still prefer to create my own costume out of everyday materials rather than take the easy route at partycity.com or the even easier route to Party City on Route 1.

While I'm not allowed to tell you my idea for Halloween this year — my friends have sworn me to secrecy — I can provide you some alternative ideas for handy, last-minute costumes you can make out of items in your dorm room Thursday night when midterms have drained away your last ounce of creative spirit.

1) Drying Rack: Male or female, everyone you meet will say "nice rack." This, however, is a relatively simple idea that pretty much anyone on campus can do. Though it did feel like I was wearing industrial-strength braces when I tried on my drying rack, it was surprisingly easy to maneuver in. Part of the costume is what you hang on your rack: towels, jeans, lingerie, clown pants — whatever look you're going for.

2) Whitman-Man: I don't know about the other residential colleges, but here at Whitman we have quite a lot of college pride. So much that the administration is constantly throwing college apparel at us. I often see people wearing these items one at a time, but for Halloween, why not go all out? That's right, I'm talking Whitman towel as skirt/cape, Whitman T-shirt, disgustingly ugly Whitman hoodie, Whitman baseball cap, Whitman pin and, of course, incorporated somewhere into the outfit, a Whitman seat cushion. A blue, white and orange vision.

If you have a bit more time to kill and maybe an extra hour to go exploring, here are some costumes you can create from within walking distance of your dorm.

1) U-Store Bag Lady: Costume designer Lizzie Gardiner wore a dress to the 1994 Australian Academy Awards made entirely of gold American Express cards. She looks very uncomfortable in all the photographs, but she made me think of our own indispensable resource: the U-Store. Take a bunch of the U-Store bags lying around your room, your hall mates' rooms and the U-Store itself, and create a dress from them. With some tape and scissors — and hopefully a slip underneath — this idea might take two hours at the most to pull together and, with some ingenuity, might actually look sexy and sleek.

2) A cello: I personally do not play the cello — my musical talent is equivalent to that of a howling cat — but, as this is Princeton, it's certainly not difficult to find someone who does. Cutting two holes in the bottom of the case for feet and two in the middle for arms and opening the zippers enough for your head gives you an easy costume that takes less than half an hour to create. A nice touch might be to draw strings on your face with makeup and, for girls, to put your hair up in a bun resembling the scroll of the cello.

For those of you who do plan ahead for Halloween, or intend to do so next year, shopping online greatly reduces the stress involved in searching for costumes. As far as buying the individual pieces, nothing can beat eBay for selection and low prices. For those too feint-hearted to bid, however, there is also a wide assortment on online flea markets and vintage stores. On somelikeitvintage.com, I found a vintage stewardess coat for $95, which may seem a tad expensive for a Halloween costume, but it was wearable after Halloween as a regular coat. Rustyzipper.com has an unbelievable selection of hippie dresses, many of which look old fashioned enough to be Revolutionary War-era costumes as well. Old-clothes.com has a beautiful selection of dresses from the '20s and '30s as well as coats and jackets.

Halloween is a time to display to the world our most creative and outlandish style. When we were younger, our mother defined this style for us. Now that we are college students, it is time to grow up and get creative with our Halloween costumes — even if that means wearing a U-Store bag or wiggling into a drying rack.