⏱️ 9 min read
There was a time when dressing up for Halloween meant one thing:
Don't let the spirits recognise you.
Fast-forward a few hundred years and apparently we've decided the best way to celebrate Halloween is to become a glamorous witch, a seductive vampire, a leather-clad superhero or, increasingly, a “sexy” version of almost anything you can imagine.
Sexy cat?
Obviously.
Sexy nurse?
Classic.
Sexy witch?
Basically Halloween royalty.
Sexy lobster?
Apparently, yes. 🦞😂
But how exactly did we get here?
The history of Halloween costumes is actually much more fascinating than you might expect. What began with disguises, folklore and supernatural beliefs gradually became associated with parties, masquerades, fantasy, Hollywood, pop culture, changing attitudes towards sexuality and eventually an enormous commercial costume industry.
And somewhere along the way, Halloween became one of the few nights of the year when people could say:
“Tonight, I'm going to be someone completely different.”
And honestly?
We can see why that's appealing.
🎃 It Started With Disguise, Not Décolletage
Halloween's costume history reaches back centuries, with traditions associated with Samhain and later All Hallows' Eve.
Samhain marked the transition into winter and was associated with supernatural beings and the returning dead. Traditions of disguise or costuming developed around the idea of navigating this supernatural world - in other words, looking like something other than yourself had a purpose.
The earliest costumes weren't about flattering silhouettes or finding the perfect pair of stockings.
They were about disguises.
Animals.
Spirits.
Monstrous figures.
Masks.
Things that looked sufficiently strange to confuse whatever might be lurking around.
So, technically, Halloween has always involved a little bit of roleplay.
We've just upgraded the wardrobe.
🖤 From Spirits to Suitors
As Halloween traditions evolved and became mixed with Christian celebrations such as All Saints' and All Souls' Days, dressing up became increasingly connected with community celebrations and customs such as guising and mumming.
People would dress up, perform, recite verses or visit homes in exchange for food or treats.
And here's where things start getting interesting.
Halloween wasn't always exclusively about frightening things.
Over time, the holiday also became associated with romance, fortune-telling and the possibility of future marriage.
By the 18th and 19th centuries, Halloween traditions could involve young people gathering, flirting and trying to discover what the future might hold romantically.
So perhaps Halloween wasn't quite as innocent as the pumpkin-and-lollies version we imagine today.
The flirtation was already there.
🎭 Enter the Masquerade
Long before someone invented the “sexy nurse”, there was another place where dressing up and flirtation happily collided:
The Masquerade.
During the 18th and 19th centuries, masquerade balls became popular in Europe, offering people the opportunity to hide their identities behind costumes and masks.
And when people are temporarily anonymous?
They tend to behave a little differently.
Historian and fashion expert Valerie Steele has pointed to masquerade culture as an important historical precedent for today's sexy costumes, with some 18th- and 19th-century costumes involving more revealing silhouettes and playful disguises.
The fascinating part wasn't necessarily how much skin was showing.
It was the permission to behave outside the usual rules.
You could become someone else.
You could flirt.
You could be mysterious.
You could wear something you wouldn't normally wear.
Sound familiar?
👻 Victorian Halloween Wasn't All Doom and Gloom
When Halloween became increasingly popular in 19th-century America, costumes were still generally spooky or whimsical rather than overtly sexy.
Ghosts.
Bats.
Witches.
Animals.
Fairies.
And occasionally more exotic or romantic characters such as Egyptian princesses.
TIME's history of Halloween costumes notes that Victorian Americans were fascinated by Halloween's ghostly traditions, but costumes could also have an element of glamour and escapism.
And that word - escapism - is important.
Because even when the costumes weren't revealing, dressing up allowed people to step outside ordinary life.
You weren't simply Mary from next door.
For one evening, you could be a mysterious Egyptian princess.
Or a witch.
Or a fairy.
Or someone nobody recognised.
The costume was becoming less about hiding from spirits and more about imagining another version of yourself.
📜 The Early 20th Century: Homemade Halloween
By the early 1900s, Halloween costumes were still often homemade.
People used whatever materials they could find to create masks, characters and disguises.
Paper.
Fabric.
Old clothes.
Make-up.
A little imagination.
And sometimes, let's be honest, probably a very questionable wig.
Halloween wasn't yet the enormous commercial machine it would eventually become.
But that was about to change.
📺 When Pop Culture Joined the Party
The mid-20th century completely changed Halloween.
As television, movies, comics and celebrities became increasingly influential, people didn't just want to dress as generic ghosts anymore.
They wanted to dress as characters they recognised.
Superheroes.
Cartoon characters.
Movie monsters.
Television stars.
And this is where companies such as Ben Cooper became hugely influential in the American Halloween costume market.
Ben Cooper, founded in 1937, became one of the major costume manufacturers of the mid-20th century, producing inexpensive costumes and licensing popular characters. By the 1950s and 1960s, costumes inspired by television and pop culture were becoming increasingly common.
Suddenly, Halloween wasn't just:
“What scary thing can I pretend to be?”
It became:
“Who do I want to be?”
And that was a pretty major shift.
💋 Then Hollywood Added Some Glamour
While the commercial costume industry was taking off, popular culture was also changing ideas about beauty and glamour.
Hollywood.
Pin-up imagery.
Fashion.
Television.
Film stars.
The 1940s and 1950s brought increasingly glamorous female imagery into mainstream culture, and later costume trends drew inspiration from that aesthetic. By the 1960s, the influence of pin-up culture and television characters was becoming particularly visible.
Then came one very important woman in a very memorable black outfit:
Catwoman.
Julie Newmar's portrayal of Catwoman in the 1960s Batman television series helped cement the image of the sleek, figure-hugging, glamorous female superhero/villain.
And suddenly the Halloween costume didn't just have to be scary.
It could be powerful, glamorous and sexy at the same time.
🐈⬛ The Catwoman Effect
There's a reason the cat costume has survived for so long.
It's simple.
Recognisable.
A little mysterious.
And incredibly easy to reinterpret.
The same thing happened with witches, vampires, devils and other classic Halloween characters.
They already had an established identity.
So all you had to do was change the styling.
A traditional witch could become glamorous.
A vampire could become seductive.
A cat could become sleek.
A superhero could become dramatic.
The character stayed recognisable.
But the costume became an opportunity to experiment with how you wanted to present yourself.
And that's where Halloween began moving into a very different territory.
🔥 The 1970s Changed Everything
If there's one decade we should probably thank for the modern adult Halloween costume, it's the 1970s.
The sexual revolution had changed attitudes towards sexuality, fashion and self-expression.
Adult Halloween celebrations were becoming increasingly visible.
And in cities such as New York and San Francisco, Halloween became an opportunity for outrageous, creative and sometimes deliberately provocative self-expression. TIME's history of the sexy Halloween costume identifies the 1970s as the point when truly sexy adult costumes began to emerge in force.
🌶️ The Sexy Costume Wasn't Just About Sex
Here's where the story gets more interesting.
It's tempting to look at the modern sexy Halloween costume and think:
“Someone just decided Halloween needed more cleavage.”
But the cultural story is much bigger than that.
Costumes have always offered a degree of freedom.
When you're dressed as somebody else, you're temporarily stepping outside your everyday identity.
You can be bolder.
More theatrical.
More glamorous.
More outrageous.
And Halloween gives you an enormous social safety net because everyone else is doing it too.
You're not necessarily saying:
“This is who I am every day.”
You're saying:
“This is who I'm playing tonight.”
That distinction is part of what makes dressing up so appealing.
🖤 From Sexy Witch to Sexy… Everything
Once the sexy costume became commercially successful, things got a little bit ridiculous.
In the best possible way.
The basic formula was simple:
Take something recognizable.
Add a shorter hemline.
Add some stockings.
Add a little lace.
And put “sexy” in front of it.
Sexy witch.
Sexy pirate.
Sexy police officer.
Sexy superhero.
Sexy maid.
Sexy nurse.
Sexy devil.
And then, eventually…
Sexy lobster.
TIME documented this increasingly surreal expansion of the sexy costume market, where practically anything could become a provocative Halloween character.
At that point, Halloween had officially stopped asking:
“What are you dressed as?”
and started asking:
“How can we make that costume sexy?”
😂
🎃 The 1980s & 1990s: Horror, Hollywood & Everything In Between
While sexy costumes were developing, Halloween was also becoming increasingly influenced by film and television.
The horror boom of the 1970s and 1980s gave us an entirely new collection of terrifying costume possibilities.
Michael Myers.
Jason Voorhees.
Dracula.
Werewolves.
Freddy Krueger.
At the same time, fantasy and science-fiction films created another wave of recognisable characters.
Star Wars, E.T. and countless other movies became Halloween costume inspiration.
And then pop culture started moving faster.
Suddenly, Halloween costumes didn't have to come from ancient folklore.
They could come from whatever everyone was talking about right now.
📺 The 2000s: Halloween Becomes a Pop-Culture Playground
By the 2000s, Halloween costumes had become deeply connected with celebrity culture, television, movies, music and internet trends.
The costume wasn't simply about becoming a witch or vampire anymore.
You could become:
A celebrity.
A television character.
A meme.
A pop star.
A fictional villain.
A nostalgic childhood character.
Or a very questionable pun.
And the sexy version of this trend followed right along.
Suddenly, the possibilities were practically endless.
The modern costume industry could take almost any recognisable idea and create a glamorous, playful or provocative version of it.
Which brings us neatly to today.
💋 So… Why Do We Still Love Sexy Halloween Costumes?
Maybe because the real appeal isn't actually the costume.
It's the permission that comes with it.
Halloween gives you a reason to experiment with your appearance.
To wear something dramatic.
To dress up.
To flirt.
To be playful.
To feel glamorous.
To explore a fantasy.
Or simply to see what you look like when you stop dressing for your everyday life.
And that doesn't have to mean showing lots of skin.
Sexy isn't a measurement.
It's a feeling.
A pair of stockings might make you feel amazing.
A beautiful lingerie set underneath your costume might give you a secret confidence boost.
A dramatic silhouette might make you feel powerful.
A mask might make you feel mysterious.
A little lace might make you feel deliciously feminine.
And nobody else needs to know exactly what makes you feel that way.
🖤 The Lingerie Underneath It All
This is where Halloween and lingerie become particularly fun.
Your costume is the character everyone else sees.
Your lingerie can be the little secret you know is there.
A pair of stockings beneath a witch costume.
A beautiful bra beneath a vampire-inspired outfit.
Hold-ups beneath a dramatic dress.
Lace underneath something that looks completely innocent from the outside.
It's a small detail.
But sometimes the smallest details can completely change how you feel.
And that's one reason lingerie and hosiery work so beautifully with Halloween.
You're not necessarily dressing for everyone else.
You're creating the experience for yourself.
And if someone else gets to appreciate the result too?
Well…
That's a rather nice bonus. 💋
🎭 From Hiding Who You Are to Choosing Who You Want to Be
And perhaps this is the most fascinating part of the entire history.
The earliest Halloween disguises were largely about hiding.
Hiding from spirits.
Confusing supernatural beings.
Becoming unrecognisable.
But modern Halloween costumes often do almost the opposite.
They're about expression.
You choose the character.
You choose the look.
You choose how much or how little you reveal.
You choose whether you want to be scary, funny, glamorous, sexy, ridiculous or all five at once.
The costume doesn't necessarily hide you.
It can reveal a side of you that doesn't always get to come out.
And that's a pretty extraordinary evolution.
💋 The Sexy Costume Isn't Going Anywhere
Love them or hate them, sexy Halloween costumes have become part of modern Halloween culture.
And while the styles will undoubtedly continue to change, the underlying appeal isn't particularly new.
People have been using costumes to experiment with identity, flirtation, fantasy and behaviour for centuries.
The definition of “sexy” changes.
The characters change.
The fabrics change.
The fashion changes.
But the desire to play with identity?
That seems to have staying power.
🎃 From Witches to Wow
So the next time you pull on a pair of stockings, slip into a little black dress or transform yourself into a glamorous Halloween character, remember:
You're participating in a tradition that's been evolving for centuries.
From supernatural disguises…
To medieval guising…
To Victorian ghost stories and masquerades…
To Hollywood glamour…
To Catwoman…
To the sexual revolution…
To pop culture…
To today's wonderfully chaotic world of sexy everything.
Halloween costumes have travelled a very long way.
And perhaps that's why Halloween remains so much fun.
For one night, you don't have to dress like yourself.
You don't have to behave exactly like yourself.
You don't even have to take yourself particularly seriously.
You can become mysterious.
Glamorous.
Powerful.
Playful.
Wicked.
Wonderful.
Or simply you - with a little more attitude.
So whether you're going all-out with your costume or keeping things subtle with gorgeous lingerie and hosiery underneath…
Choose something that makes you feel fantastic.
Because the history of Halloween costumes isn't just a history of masks, witches and plastic capes.
It's a history of transformation.
And honestly?
We think that's pretty sexy.
Happy Halloween, LubeLovers. 🎃💋🖤
