Musicians and actors embraced Halloween over the weekend with a wide range of costumes, from tributes to cultural icons and film characters to elaborate original creations. Harry Styles, Lily Allen, Janelle Monáe, Lizzo, Zendaya and Wolf Alice were among the stars who shared their looks.
One of the main themes was paying tribute to other celebrities. Lizzo and Rita Ora both dressed as Dolly Parton, who died in August aged 80. Lizzo recreated one of Parton’s glamorous 1970s outfits with a blonde wig and sparkling yellow clothing, while also sharing a personal tribute to the singer. Ora adopted Parton’s blonde hair and country-inspired style at a Halloween party in New York on October 30.
Styles revived his “Harryween” tradition with two concerts at Madison Square Garden. During the first show, he appeared as Elvis Presley before changing into the outfit he wore for his X Factor audition in 2010. He performed Stevie Wonder’s “Isn’t She Lovely”, the song he sang at that audition, and repeated his well-known line, “I work in a bakery.” His band and dancers dressed as different versions of Styles from his career.
Allen opted for a self-deprecating costume based on a Ticketmaster seating map covered in blue dots. Her outfit referenced “blue dot fever”, a phrase linked to disappointing ticket sales after she downsized several venues on the North American leg of her “West End Girl” tour. She wore a white puffer jacket and bodysuit decorated with blue dots, along with a thermometer.
Monáe presented several elaborate creations at her annual Wondaween celebrations in Los Angeles. One was The Amazing Phish Boy, a human-fish hybrid with scales, fins and oversized eyes combined with a vintage circus costume. She also introduced Mother Creature, a monstrous character featuring extensive prosthetics and gruesome details.
Heidi Klum made one of the weekend’s most elaborate entrances at her annual New York Halloween party, arriving as a giant severed hand modelled on her own left hand. The prosthetic included red-painted fingernails, rings, veins and exposed tendons, while Klum’s face was concealed inside it. Bloodied assistants accompanied her, and she said the costume took around six hours to put on after months of preparation.
Keke Palmer and her three-year-old son Leodis recreated the black-and-white futuristic looks worn by Janet Jackson and Michael Jackson in the 1995 music video for “Scream”. Paris Hilton continued her tradition of dressing as Britney Spears by recreating Spears’ 2001 MTV Video Music Awards performance of “I’m A Slave 4 U”, including the snake.
Olivia Rodrigo incorporated Halloween into her “Unraveled” tour show in Columbus, Ohio. She appeared as Marie Antoinette in a period-inspired costume and wig, and also included skeleton and zombie ballerina looks in the concert.
Other musicians also joined in. Turnstile shared a Halloween photo featuring pointed elf ears and a mixture of outfits, including an Ireland rugby shirt and pink-patterned jeans. Wolf Alice paid tribute to the 1987 vampire film The Lost Boys while performing in Columbus, adopting its punk-influenced vampire aesthetic with teased hair, leather jackets, fangs and bloodied make-up.
Yungblud chose a classic vampire costume, wearing a black suit and sunglasses with pointed fangs and fake blood. Zendaya recreated Halle Berry’s outfit from the New York premiere of X-Men in 2000, including a patterned bikini top, low-rise trousers and short hair.
Sabrina Carpenter drew inspiration from Hairspray by dressing as Penny Pingleton, while Perrie Edwards transformed into Disney villain Cruella de Vil.
Sources: NME.