Halloween Fancy Dress Ideas - Costumes and Accessories

  is that time of year again when you need to start planning your Halloween costume. Whether you plan on Trick or Treating or hosting your own Halloween party you're going to need some scary Halloween fancy dress ideas. You might want to buy a complete costume or create your own with the addition of a few accessories, but first of all you're going to need some good ideas.

Here are just a few Halloween fancy dress ideas for men, women, teenagers and children.

Halloween Costumes for Women

There are plenty of traditional Halloween costume ideas for the ladies, including wicked witches, sexy little devils, corpse brides and Burlesque Victorian vampires. You can create your own costume based on one of these ideas and accessorise to add your own twist, or you can easily buy complete, ready-made costumes.

Also see Dazzling Halloween costumes for all ages

Some other womens Halloween costume ideas include gothic brides, ghostly ladies, fallen angels, dark fairies, gothic nymphs, good witches, black widows, and film characters, such as Morticia or Wednesday from The Addams Family, the Wicked Witch from The Wizard of Oz, Mrs. Lovett from Sweeney Todd, a female Death Eater from Harry Potter, a dark Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, or even a Miss Krueger costume based on Freddie Krueger from Nightmare on Elm Street.

Halloween Costumes for Men

Traditional mens Halloween costumes include skeleton suits, werewolves, vampires and zombies, as well as any costumes with lots of fake blood and gore. You can be as creative as you feel like if you use your imagination and some accessories like Halloween make-up and fake blood packs.

Other Halloween fancy dress ideas for men include the Grim Reaper, ghostly gentlemen, bloody surgeons, Voodoo priests, evil jesters, Lucifer, killer clowns, a mummy or a mad monk. Some film character ideas include Hannibal Lector, Edward Scissorhands, Freddie Krueger, Michael Myers, Frankenstein, Voldemort, a Dementor, Hellboy, Dracula, Barnacle Bill, a Ghostbuster, The Joker, Sweeney Todd or a Donnie Darko rabbit.

Halloween Costumes for Teenagers

Many girls Halloween fancy dress available to buy are the same as adult costumes but less scary and for teenage girls often not as short or sexy. They also come in smaller sizes obviously, but they can be suitable for petite adults. Also teenagers have some different film idols and current favourite characters, such as Edward Cullen (Rob Pattinson), Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) and the rest of the Twilight and New Moon crew.

As well as vampires and werewolves other popular costume ideas for Halloween for teenagers include evil fairies, punk and biker zombies, glittery witches, bat pixies, devil girls, zombie pirates, Harry Potter, maidens of darkness, South Park Satan, Lolita, Jason and Scream stalkers. Teen costumes also include many other film characters, especially current horror films.

Halloween Costumes for Children

Children are also catered for in the Halloween costume market as there are loads available to buy, but you can make your own if you prefer and kids particularly love face paints to help make a fancy dress costume. Some kids' costumes are just as scary as adults but it's important to think about the age of your children and the other kids they'll be mixing with as some costumes can really frighten children. Keep their costumes fun and without scary masks.

Some kids Halloween costume ideas include colourful witches, pumpkins, little devils, vampires, werewolves, skeletons, mummies, zombies, ghosts and ghouls. Some popular Halloween characters for kids are based on the much-loved Harry Potter characters, and pirates from the popular Pirates of The Caribbean films.

Halloween Accessories

Accessories can really make or break a costume. If you want to stand out from the crowd on Halloween, then make sure you accessorise well! Accessories can also help to make a costume if you are on a tight budget or creating your own costume rather than buying a ready-made one.

Some of the best accessories include Halloween wigs, which are absolutely essential for most good Halloween costumes, special Halloween make-up and fake blood, vampire teeth, witches broom sticks, hats and cauldrons, and face paints, as with some face paints you can create almost any character and really change your appearance.