Move aside baseball. Wearing costumes is the new American national pastime. The number of Americans who get dressed up for Halloween has increased rapidly in the past decade. Americans spent $8.8 billion on Halloween costumes in 2019, almost double 10 years earlier, according to the National Retail Federation. And those figures don’t even take into account the billions spent on dressing up throughout the rest of the year!
There are two main drivers of this twenty-first century costume boom. The first factor is psychological: adults have discovered that dressing up for Halloween or a party is a great way of escaping from the stress of daily life and rediscovering their inner child. The second factor is accessibility: online costume stores have made it easier than ever to organize an awesome last-minute outfit.
Whether you’re buying a costume for Halloween or any other purpose, an online costume store is the best place to start.
To help, we put together this list of the 10 best online costume stores on the internet:
Let’s be honest, only one website was ever going to top this list. Amazon is the one-stop shop for everything, including costumes. It has a dedicated Halloween Store where you can shop for costumes, candy, outdoor décor, and more. The main reason to choose Amazon is the variety. Click on “women’s costumes”, “men’s costumes”, or “kids’ and baby Halloween”, and you’ll find 10,000+ results from thousands of different sellers. Oh, and Amazon is the only place to get a costume delivered same-day with Prime shipping – making it perfect for last-minute costume purchases.
Spirit Halloween is the number one place for getting into the, well… Halloween spirit. Year after year, this website delivers the trendiest and most-relevant costumes. Just checks out the TV, gaming, anime, and cosplay costumes! Aside from having a massive selection of costumes, Spirit Halloween also offers everything from props to decorations to masks. In these days of social distancing and face coverings, it’s good to know Spirit Halloween has you covered with hundreds of themed face masks.
When we hear the words affordability and reliability, we instantly think of Target. This retail (and now e-commerce) giant has an awesome Halloween shop that it calls the “Hyde and Eek! Boutique”. Target is also an ideal – and affordable – place to look for costumes throughout the rest of the year. It has hundreds of kids costumes for $15, as well as cheap adults’ costumes, pet costumes, and adaptive costumes (for wheelchairs).
Other websites sell couples’ costumes, but HalloweenCostumes.com is unique in that it has an entire page dedicated to the subject. It has classic couples’ costumes (e.g. Adam & Eve, witch and warlock, angels and devils), animal costumes (Deer and Santa, ring master and lion), Disney costumes (Belle and Beast, Pooh and Piglet, Aladdin and Jasmine), funny costumes (bacon and eggs, salt and pepper, wine and cheese), historical costumes (Uncle Sam and Statue of Liberty), and more.
As the name suggests, Halloween Express is dedicated to express shipping your costume to your door. Orders placed by 4pm Eastern Time (business days) ship the same day, plus there are Saturday and international shipping options. Halloween Express has a huge selection of Halloween and non-Halloween themed costumes and accessories. Group and theme costumes are its strength, with everything from superheroes to political to Elvis to steampunk and so much more.
Etsy is the world’s largest online marketplace for handmade, custom, and vintage products – all sold by small businesses or individual sellers. It has more than 1.5 million Halloween (and non-Halloween) costumes, many of which can be altered to fit your needs. Every product page on Etsy has buttons where you can view seller info or message the seller directly. We recommend searching your preferred category first (e.g. costumes, accessories) and then reaching out to sellers with any custom requests you may have.
You don’t have to wait till Halloween to get dressed up. Party City is the place for all your year-round costume party needs. It has an incredible supply of party supplies, theme ideas, costumes, accessories, and more. Party City has 700+ stores all around America, as well as a website that’s super-easy to navigate. It offers same-day delivery and curbside pickup.
Few things get kids more excited than getting dressed up for Halloween or a birthday. Pottery Barn Kids has costumes for three age categories: babies (0-24 months), toddlers (2-3 years), and kids (4-10 years). The folks at Pottery Barn really know what kids love, with unique products like costumes that glow in the dark for up to four hours. Whatever your kids are into – whether it’s superheroes, dinosaurs, or princesses – Pottery Barn Kids has it.
PureCostumes.com has broken costumes down to the bare necessities. It has a range of awesome themes, from Disney to 90s movies to historical to ‘renaissance faire’. The best thing about PureCostumes.com is they’re not at all judgmental about who’s doing the wearing. Most of the costumes are available to all demographics – from babies to boys/girls to men/women and even pets. Check out the Simba costumes for dogs and cats!
Cosplay, a combination of the words costume play, is the biggest thing in costumes today. Brought to America from Japan, cosplay involves wearing costumes representing specific characters from film, TV, video games, cartoons, or anime. EZCOSPLAY has a massive selection of cosplay costumes, with a particular strength in gaming. Thanks to EZCOSPLAY, dressing up as your favorite character from Fortnite, Call of Duty, Pokemon, or any other game has never been so easy.
