Kings of the Wild Frontier: An Analysis of Music-Related Halloween Costumes

Mick Jagger or Boy George?

I tried to find pictures of people dressed as Jagger, but I got Boy George instead. Actually my favorite was one of a little girl dressed as Boy George but I felt bad about reposting images of children, so have these two instead. Boy George: a hat and colored dreads on legs.

Prince

Okay okay, one Prince, because it’s the only one I could find; Prince fans are apparently also all about hoarding everything. The moustache is great and the buttons on the trousers are so spot on. All Prince costumes I’ve seen are actually Purple Rain costumes.

Looking Flash and Grabbing Your Attention

It’s interesting how the popular musician costumes —like Adam Ant—are actually about the make-up rather than the costume itself. Clothes seem to be secondary: Adam Ant’s Kings Of The Wild Frontier make-up has a tribal and ritualistic background; the Aladdin Sane make-up Bowie used is also based on both Kabuki and pagan symbolism.

Halloween was originally a pagan festival, similar to carnival in that people would dress up in scary costumes so the demons and ghosts that came down would not be able to distinguish the mortals from the dead. This masquerade is another way in which costumes and make-up help us to switch and play with identities, with roles and history. It’s liberating to go back to being savage for one day, and disguise yourself in a costume that holds an ancient meaning. If we use clothes to separate ourselves into tribes of fans and followers of a certain lifestyle, it is not so strange to see ritualistic and symbolist costumes worn with so much popularity and pride.

It’s something the fashion industry—yes Fendi, I’m looking at you with your $25,000 gold-dipped mink coat and all those anorexic model photo spreads we are so tired of—ought to watch out for.

Click to see images of. . .

Adam Ant
Bowie and Bolan
Boy George and Prince

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