Halloween has come and gone, and so have the annual costumes along with it. While many will order costumes online, some with dedicate hours to creating their own costume—and West students are no exception.

Mario 

For this Halloween, Gabriel Conrad ’26 went as Super Mario. While deciding costume ideas with his girlfriend, they decided that Mario and Peach were their favorites. “So my girlfriend and I were trying to think of cute duos, and we’re like, oh, Mario and Peach,” Conrad said.

Conrad used clothes he owned or borrowed from friends to make his costume.

He used a red shirt and hat from his closet to make the costume and made Mario’s signature M from paper, taping it to the front of his hat. For the blue overalls, Conrad would borrow a pair from a friend. “I probably saved, I don’t know how much denim overalls cost, but not cheap,” Conrad said. 

While making the costume, Conrad did face some struggles. “It’s hard to find those costume mustaches. It’s like, you think for some reason they’re like everywhere. Like, ‘oh, they’re at the dollar store or Walmart.’ But only Spirit Halloween had them.”

The costume took him a few days to make. Conrad said his favorite part was seeing all the kids recognize him and his girlfriend as Mario and Peach. 

Rainbow Dash

Jack Overholt ’26 decided that this Halloween, they’d go as Rainbow Dash, a main character from the beloved 2010s cartoon “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.”

For their costume, they wore a white tank top, a blue jacket and some jeans, all from their closet. For the final touch, Overholt thrifted a rainbow tutu and fashioned it into a rainbow tail. For their accessories, Overholt hand-sewed their wings and ears. 

The process to create the costume didn’t take as long as Overholt expected, only taking a few days to make all the pieces. 

Overholt found that it wasn’t difficult to find the materials they needed to handmake the costume. “In the end, the process was relatively easy and inexpensive since the materials were mostly thrifted from Plato’s Closet and locations around Iowa City,” Overholt said.

Overholt encourages students to make their costume if it’s something they care about, even if it takes some trial and error. “[It’s about] thinking really hard about what you’re doing, but also going for it. I like to draw it out, not measuring everything, but I like to draw a character, like, draw myself into [the character], to find out if I like how that looks. [Just be] open to inspiration, and being open to adding more to your costume. Be creative. Do it — if it turns out bad, do it again, or even wear it anyway.”

Nimona

Ayla Bleil ’28 decided to be Nimona this Halloween. Nimona is a character that originated from the graphic novel “Nimona,” but was adapted into a Netflix film in 2023. Bleil decided to dress up as this character due to her love for the book and movie. Given her lovable personality and how much her friends compared her likeness to her and her personality, Bleil knew she had to embody her this Halloween.

In anticipation of a Halloween party, Bleil scoured Amazon for the perfect parts to Nimona’s outfit. She ended up getting a purple skirt, red button-up, black belt, black arm warmers and a sparkly silver undershirt. Bleil found the process of taking a character and crafting a way to recreate them to be very satisfying and rewarding and overall her favorite aspect of her costume.

“I find the end result being that I can recognize the character within what I’m dressing up as to be very satisfying. Because it’s kind of like putting a puzzle together, you know? I like that, yeah, if I have all the pieces, it’s really satisfying to have all the pieces just click,” Bleil said. 

Bleil also emphasized the importance of having fun while creating your Halloween costume. “There’s nothing wrong with buying costumes off of the internet. It can still be a lot of fun. I want to make sure people know that. If you’re gonna try and make your own costume, don’t take it too seriously. If you’re starting out and you’re obsessing over the little details being perfect, you’re not going to get anywhere. You’re just you’re either going to get yourself stuck or you’re not going to have any fun. Just make sure you get the things that you want to be seen, and if you have time, and if you have energy, add on to that, that will make it better, for sure. But don’t stress about it, because it’s supposed to be fun.”

Although this Halloween has passed, Conrad, Overholt and Bleil all used their costumes to express themselves, whether that was to connect with others, exhibit creativity or return to a childhood passion.  What matters most is having fun; after all, what truly makes a homemade costume is the heart put into it.