For Fort Lewis College, Halloween comes as an opportunity for students to show their creativity through their costumes, and this year is no different.

One example of student creativity is Zoe Corbine, a theater major, who’s costume references the cover of children’s book Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon.

It took Corbine up to 45 minutes to an hour to paint the stripes on her face, while she ordered the matching sweater and socks online, she said.

“I really love Halloween,” Corbine said. “It’s fun to express yourself without judgment.”

While some students dress up as childhood favorites, other people have dressed up as characters they like, assembling their costumes in different ways.
 

Nova Mollett, a biology major with a minor in music in their second semester, wore a custom-made tall blonde wig and school uniform with shoes they dyed to dress as Teruki Hanazawa, a character from the anime series Mob Psycho 100.

Halloween is one of Mollett’s favorite holidays because it is close to their mother’s birthday and a time where it can be normal to dress up as a character, they said.

Another character costume comes from Jackie Lawless, a junior history major, who is dressed as Katarina Claes from the series My Next Life as a Villainess.

Lawless likes Halloween because she enjoys the outfits and dressing up as characters, she said.

Her costume, while bought online, was bought for Halloween two years ago, but it did not come on time, Lawless said.

As some students dress as characters from shows, others have dressed as characters from other mediums.

Christine Simpson, a computer information systems major, dressed as the Phantom from the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical The Phantom of the Opera. She bought most of her costume from a thrift store while the mask came from Spirit Halloween, she said.

“I don’t know if I’m necessarily a big Halloween-head, but I really like seeing other people get excited for it and the effort that a lot of people try to put into their costumes,” Simpson said.

The effort can be seen from students who made their own homemade costumes.

While not dressed as anything specific, Shayden Riggs, a sophomore theater tech major, customized a pair of wings with the rest of the outfit coming from other costumes from previous years, he said.

“In growing up, me and my mom would nerd out over Halloween and she’d make all of her own costumes, so I kind of got that,” Riggs said.

Along with creating their costumes with different methods, students also planned to celebrate in the evening.

Corbine planned on watching The Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Durango Arts Center and participating in the Zombie Crawl downtown, she said.

Since Lawless attended the anime costume contest and party on campus the night before, she planned on going to a small Halloween party, she said.

Mollett planned on watching the annual on-campus Halloween drag performance, they said.

Simpson planned on spending the holiday with friends in costume, she said. 

“I am either going to go to the drag show, or I am going to go home,” Riggs said