The Rise and Fall of the Sexy Halloween Costume

Laurie, Maria, Janet, and Danielle in Trick 'r Treat

Sexy Halloween costumes, often referred to by the less polite term "slutty Halloween costumes," are not as popular as they once were. Mass-produced sexy Halloween costumes emerged in the late Nineties and peaked around the years 2008-2011. With the #MeToo movement in 2017, sexy Halloween costumes further declined in popularity, with many people choosing spookier, more traditional costumes. Regardless, sexy Halloween costumes are still popular. In 2024, sales for sexy Halloween costumes were projected to be around 6 billion. Of course, this begs the question of how sexy costumes became part of a holiday known for being spooky or scary.

To understand the phenomenon of the sexy Halloween costume, it would be a good idea to examine Halloween as it has been celebrated through the years. Indeed, to a small degree sex has been a part of Halloween all along. Among the various Halloween traditions were divinatory games centred around marriage. For example, in his poem "Halloween" Robert Burns described how single young people went out hand in hand into the cabbage patch to pull the first stalk they saw. The size and shape of the stalk were thought to be indicative of what his or her future spouse would look like. 

Halloween would be brought to the United States by Scottish immigrants. Initially, a holiday celebrated primarily by those immigrants, the celebration of Halloween began to spread beyond Scottish communities, and by the 1880s many Americans were holding Halloween parties. Of course, costumes were a part of those Halloween parties. In those days, Halloween costumes were home-made and favoured such spooky subjects as ghosts, devils, and witches. 

Of course, with Halloween growing in popularity, it would not be long before Halloween costumes were mass-produced. In the 1920s and 1930s, Collegeville, Halco, and Ben Cooper began manufacturing Halloween costumes for children. These three companies would make on major change in the nature of Halloween costumes by licensing popular characters from comic strips, theatrical cartoons, and radio. Ben Cooper made Halloween costumes based on various Walt Disney properties (including Snow White from the hit movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs). Collegeville made a Lone Ranger costume, based on the popular radio show character. Halco made costumes based on the characters from Thimble Theatre, including Popeye, Olive Oyl, and Wimpy. The post-war years would see the most popular Halloween costumes for children shift from traditional costumes as ghosts, witches, and devils to the latest characters from movies and television.

Of course, the post-war years would see another shift in the celebration of Halloween. From its introduction to the United States by Scottish immigrants in the 19th Century to the 1930s, Halloween had been a holiday celebrated by both adults and children. Following World War II, the popularity of trick-or-treating led Halloween to increasingly become a holiday for children. It was in the 1970s that more and more adults began celebrating Halloween, By the 1980s, Halloween was once again being marketed to adults, including a notable advertising campaign for Coors Light featuring Elvira. The stage was then set for the emergence of sexy Halloween costumes.

Of course, while the mass production of sexy Halloween costumes would come about until the close of the 20th Century, to a degree they were nothing new. From the 1920s through the Golden Age of Hollywood, the movie studios regularly published Halloween-themed pin-up pictures of their starlets in skimpy witch, black cat, and devil costumes. And, of course, throughout the 20th Century, people would wear their own home-made French maid, saloon girl, and other thematically sexy Halloween costumes. 

It would be in the 1970s that Halloween really began to develop a sexy side. In 1974, Greenwich Village's Halloween parade began and would soon become an annual neighbourhood party. The gay community in Greenwich Village took the parade, so that it would feature more and more outrageous drag outfits. The Greenwich Village parade would be followed by similar parades in West Hollywood and The Castro in San Francisco. 

Despite this, it would be some time before a sexy aesthetic in Halloween costumes would become mainstream. Largely due to the cycle of slasher movies popular at the time, the trend in costumes for adults tended towards gore.  It was in 2000 that Leg Avenue, originally a company that made tights and leggings, came out with its first Halloween costume, a scant, cat costume complete with ears. Leg Avenue would not be the only company to manufacture sexy Halloween costumes. Forplay, Yandy, 3 Wishes, and yet others would enter the market.

By 20004, the sexy Halloween costume had become enough of a phenomenon that it was acknowledged in the movie Mean Girls (2004), with several of the female characters dressing in sexy Halloween costumes, although the movie's costumes were actually modest compared to some of the costumes actually on the market at the time. In the movie, lead character Cady (Lindsay Lohan) remarks, "In girl world, Halloween is the one night a year when girls can dress up like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it." Notably, Cady does not dress as something sexy for Halloween, but something scary instead, because "It's Halloween."

The phenomenon of sexy Halloween costumes was also acknowledged in the cult movie Trick 'r Treat (2007). In the film, characters Danielle, Marie, and Janet dress in sexy Cinderella, Snow White, and Bo-Peep costumes, while Danielle's sister Laurie wears a more traditional and more modest Little Red Riding Hood costume. Even so, Laurie complains that her costume is too small. 

With the popularity of sexy Halloween costumes soaring in the Naughts, the costumes themselves became more and more outrageous, and not simply in the amount of skin they exposed. Companies began coming out with costumes that the vast majority of people would never have thought of as sexy. While many might find the ideas of sexy nurses, sexy witches, or sexy firefighters appealing, I think most people would never dream of Mister Rogers, Chewbacca, or Freddy Krueger as "sexy."

Unfortunately, some sexy Halloween costumes are not only bizarre, but also downright offensive and insensitive. There are sexy Pocahontas costumes, sexy mariachi costumes, sexy geisha costumes, and yet other examples of cultural misappropriation. Arguably worse are costumes that exploit real-life tragedy. For years, sexy Joan of Arc costumes have been on the market, despite the fact that Joan is the patron saint of France and died by being burned at the stake.

Of course, arguably the sexy Halloween costume has always been problematic to a degree. Through the years, there have been many who have argued that sexy Halloween costumes tend to objectify women. Yet others have argued that sexy Halloween costumes often demean professions, such as the myriad sexy nurse and sexy teacher costumes. Others have criticized the costumes for only being built for specific body types. While sexy Halloween costumes have their critics, there are those who see them positively as well. Some have argued that the costumes actually empower women to express their own sexuality in the way they choose. 

Sexy Halloween costumes have long been somewhat controversial. And it does seem that they have been declining in popularity. Whether they will completely disappear is a question only time can tell. Regardless, they have very much become a part of Halloween history.