More Great Last Minute Halloween Costumes

This year’s Halloween costuming has been a bit of a saga, starting this past summer with a boxed-in promise to deliver a great idea to all you Halloween lovers who are also major planners. Two weeks ago, I cooked up a few more ideas for Halloweenies, including my personal favorite: A Legend of Zelda costume of a Like Like monster consuming the game’s green-hatted hero.

However, not everyone out there is a Martha Stewart style planner, and not everyone has loads of time on their hands to sit down and craft a costume to wow. That’s why today, I’m plotting out a few last minute Halloween costume ideas for those of you who still want to look great without spending much time or a single dime. Thrifty procrastinators, rejoice!

Here are two zombie costumes that you can make in under 10 minutes with stuff you already have:

Idea 1: Business Person Attacked by Zombies (who is gradually mutating into a zombie).

• Materials needed:
• Old business clothes you don’t mind cutting up
• Proper undergarments to preserve modesty (or not)
• Scissors
• Dark eye shadow, any color you want
• The Story: You are a business person at the office when the world’s first massive zombie attack begins; when heading to the parking lot, you were attacked from behind. You look normal from the front, but your back is in tatters. You are gradually becoming a zombie and will mutate over the next several hours.
• The Costume: Put on your business clothes and have a friend take scissors to the back of them as if you had been clawed from behind. The best way is to cut small holes in the fabric and then rip by hand, which looks more realistic. Start the evening normally, and gradually add increasing degrees of eye shadow under your eyes (you are slowly “becoming a zombie”). As you apply more shadow, try to appear more disoriented and groggy. If you begin to hunger for human flesh, don’t worry—that’s perfectly natural.

Idea 2: Looter Trying to Make Good on Zombie Crisis. A great zombie costume for women.

• Materials needed:
• Fancy outfit—a dress or sharp suit, nice shoes or running shoes
• All the shiny stuff you can find to wear—jewelry, anything treasure-like. Glitzy and sparkly things are best.
• A rolling pin, baseball bat, or golf club
• The Story: You are an opportunist who is using the zombie crisis to loot all the treasure you can find. As a gold digger down on your luck, a world of mayhem provides you with dozens of unlocked homes and bank vaults to grab all the glitz you can carry.
• The Costume: Don your finest finery and go to town. Since you have no home to rest your head, you have to layer up as much jewelry as possible on yourself. You may wear fancy shoes or running shoes since you’re on the lam. You should have a weapon, but since you’re obviously a bit of a dreamer and more focused on shiny things than the reality of danger, it should be something like a rolling pin or golf club that you could get your hands on easily.

There you go, kiddies. Trick or treat!