With Halloween just around the corner, it’s time to play dress up. Being a witch may not be enough to win you the “scariest” prize, but neither will the most elaborate and store-bought one fetch you one, we are told. With prize money going into thousands of dirhams now, what would then count as a winning costume?
“I mean there are so many costumes that are really scary, but we find people who stay in character are the ones who really stand out,” said Tim Derry of Think… Events, who are the organisers of the Halloween party at Zero Gravity. With Dh50,000 distributed into prizes for eight categories — best male, scariest male, best female, scariest female, best couple, scariest couple, best group and scariest group — just wearing a costume is not really enough, Derry tells us. Also what’s important is creativity.
“We kind of reward ingenuity and creativity and people who have spent time creating their own costume. Anyone can go on the internet and buy an elaborate costume, but that’s not necessarily going to be the winner,” Derry said, citing the example of a man dressed as a robot the year before last.
“I personally was reluctant to give a prize to him because it was so good and he was actually scary in the way he moved around and talked. I mean, it was so good I thought it must have been bought. But the guy — he’s not a costume maker but a very skilled craftsman — showed us various photographs taken during the creation of the costume. We then realised it’s totally handmade, just of such high standard that it looked as if it was off-the-shelf. We had to give him a prize”.
Dave Cattanach, general manager of the popular Irish Village agrees that they too judge costumes on originality and the time and effort spent in creating the costume.
“It is still very fun no matter what [the prize and competition may hold], but people are more and more spending hundreds of dirhams on costumes. There are large sums of money that can be won in some competitions across the region, so there are different levels of competition, something for everyone,” said Cattanach.
While some people like to go the traditional way and come as witches or zombies, others come as cartoon characters or superheroes. And then there are those like Zarina Fiodarava who go wild and come up with a mix to create a really scary outfit.
“I’ve noticed that people prefer wearing famous movie characters or simple outfits which can easily be bought in party shops. For me that’s boring,” said Fiodarava, a Dubai-based customer service agent of a real estate agency who “loves to participate” in Halloween contests and has won several prizes in Dubai since 2008. “So I realised if you can use your imagination and create your own character, you don’t have to be like others. For me first and foremost my character should be an unusual one, then I pick a theme and then start to adding details and style. Honestly speaking it takes couple of months from the conception to the actual costume, but the process is really interesting.”
And Fiodarava will come up with another “never been used idea by anyone” again this year.
“It is a movie character, related to vampires. The outfit will be totally handmade by me and I hope people will find it outlandish,” is all the hint she gives.
Roberto Renteria, who won the couple prize with his friend Damien Wheldon last year, says he looks forward more to having a fun time rather than winning. Keeping it simple, the friends picked up two 4XL T-shirts from a costume store near their gym and sewed them together. They then added skulls with mohawks and sunglasses and called themselves The Club Heads, the conjoined twins.
“The rest is history,” laughed Renteria who works for a private aircraft engineering and maintenance group in the UAE. “My costume this year will be more funny than scary. Let’s just say he doesn’t play well with others but he doesn’t know any better either”.
As far as popular choices go, Derry says they’d find a lot of zombies and witches again this year because most people are just there to have fun than. Moreover, for the competition he says, what’s important is the uniqueness.
“Just because a costume wins one year, we’ll see two or three of the same this year. People start thinking that’s kind of the winning design, but we try not to award similar costume in following years,” Derry said. “One year there was this guy who looked like he was walking upside down, although he wasn’t. He created his own head, and his legs were his arms and arms were his legs. Which is an amazing kind of competitive costume but since then we’ve seen two or three of the same kind”.
Cattanach, however, has his choice of this year’s “scariest” costume quite clear.
“I believe everyone should come as Donald Trump. Really scary!” he said.
Tips on creating that winning costume
Zarina Fiodarava and Roberto Renteria tell us what to keep in mind.
Fiodarava: In my experience, people love to see something new, unusual and fresh, especially if it’s made in a good quality material. So use your creativity, unusual ideas, more fictional characters, costumes and good quality makeup.
Renteria: Do not spend all of your money on expensive prefabricated costumes because most people have seen them before. Be original as much as possible. It’s ok to take parts from costumes but its best to make your costume from scratch if you want to stand out. Most importantly be something you feel comfortable in. Halloween should be fun for you, not a job!
