If you’re a college student thinking

If you’re a college student thinking of making group Halloween costumes with friends this year, you’re certainly not alone: dressing up in groups remains a consistently popular idea, and there are always a great variety of themes.

When Syracuse University senior Tonya Bauer and her friends decided they wanted to wear tutus on Halloween last year, they took to Pinterest to find do-it-yourself costume ideas. They chose to dress up as Disney princesses.
GROUP COSTUME IDEAS
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Spice Girls
Disney Princesses
Alice in Wonderland
Shark Week
Explorers
Dress up as each other
Spongebob characters

“In some way, we were fulfilling our inner seven-year-olds,” said Bauer, who studies broadcast and digital journalism and history.

This year, Bauer said she and her friends are looking for ideas to reuse their tutus or might dress up as the Spice Girls. She and four friends previously planned to dress up as the band wearing tracksuits, but since the idea did not work out, they are thinking of trying it again.

“Things are always more fun and more exciting with your friends,” she said.

The Spice Girls appears to be a popular idea for group costumes. Syracuse University senior Ali Bauman was in a group of five girls two years ago who dressed up as the singing group.

“It’s obviously easier with less people, but sometimes our whole pledge class will want to do it, so sometimes it can be 20 in a group,” said Bauman, a dual major in Broadcast and Digital Journalism and Political Science who is a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority.

Bauman said she has seen other friends pull off group costume themes like “Alice in Wonderland” or “Shark Week,” which involved members dressing up as shark attack victims and wearing t-shirts saying different days of the week.

Meghan Rimol, a junior Public Relations and Information Management and Technology dual major at Syracuse University, said she and her friends search for group costume possibilities at Goodwill.
Syracuse University junior Meghan Rimol, right, and a friend dress up as explorers. Photo courtesy Meghan Rimol.

Syracuse University junior Meghan Rimol, right, and a friend dress up as explorers. Photo courtesy Meghan Rimol.
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“We’ll see what ridiculous things we can find there and make outfits,” she said. “Last year, we found these crazy hats and decided to dress up as a group of explorers.”

Rimol’s group has also thought about being the Spice Girls this year, along with other ideas like being a group of historical figures.

Syracuse University senior Jeff Kurkjian says he only likes doing funny costume ideas on Halloween, even if that means doing something different. Last year, he and a group of friends decided to dress up as each other.

“We changed clothes and acted like each other the entire night,” he explained. “It ended up being a fun bonding moment because we went through our closets and thought about what could represent our friends the best.”

Kurkjian said he and his friends are thinking about doing the same thing again one night this year. He also plans to dress up with his girlfriend as Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy from “Spongebob Squarepants” another night during Halloween weekend.

“You’re going to work with what you’ve got,” said Kurkjian, a dual major in Broadcast and Digital Journalism and Political Science. “You’re in college – you don’t have a lot of money.”