Halloween is a balancing act between committing to the role, not spending ridiculous amounts of money and retaining some integrity for you look when you go out in public.
Grace Woodward shares her style tips/ Credit: Simon Harris
Grace Woodward has shared some hints and tips for styling your Halloween costume out of items found in the back of your wardrobe or found in a charity shop to ensure you still look stylish and of course, don't spend a fortune.
> How to create creepy costumes from shwopped items;
1. Old tights with snags in are a dream for Halloween - cutting the toes off and wearing as a top provides the perfect basis for any costume - be it a black 'sexy' cat (stuff one for the tail too), black Witchy arms and legs with an old skirt or as the canvas for a skeleton with white painted on bones. 2. For a Hulk or Frankenstein look, take any old, out of shape Tee and make upward cuts all around the hem and sleeves. Pair with any old trousers, yours or someone else's, and cut up the legs into ribbons too. Shoes that are knackered and too big are brilliant for this look. 3. For the best 17th century horror look I suggest raiding your Grandma's drawers for her drawers! (Or petticoats to be precise). These tucked up at the front with fishnet tights and a basque make a great halloween look. Just think underwear as outerwear for this one, anything goes really. 4. A classic Zombie look is old pajamas, cut upwards into tatters and even rolled in garden mud are great.> Grace's hints for clearing out your closet;
Shock Horror! There's a monster in my closet!! Oh no its not, its a big bundle of unfolded clothes that just never seem to fit anywhere. Halloween is one of the best times to give your clothes the Evil Eye and think can this be resurrected or is it time for the true death. 50 Shades of Grey might be hotting up for the sexiest film release but if your whites and blacks are anywhere on the grey spectrum then they need to face the cut.
We tend to impulse buy new tops as they are an easy feel good purchase but they are hard to store well and keep in good condition so that's where I would start.
Also, we tend to stock pile jeans for some reason, those ones that you keep as 'you'll fit into again one day', time to have a screech in your own ear, it might never happen and if does celebrate by updating to a more current style.
With coats and jackets, these are bigger purchases so we always tend to keep to many for a storage to be able to cope with, giving them to charity not only frees up your space but gives your halo a little extra glow too!
Marks & Spencer to launch 'Little Shwop of Horrors' with Oxfam
As research from the retailer reveals we're a nation of fancy dress hoarders with closets full of fashion skeletons, Marks & Spencer (M&S) announces plans for a Halloween fashion Shwop
Where: Marks & Spencer, Marble Arch, 458 Oxford Street. London. W1C 1AP
When: The Little Shwop of Horrors Boutique is open from 8am - 9pm from Tuesday 28th - Wednesday 29th October 2014
Entry: Free - but bringing an item of clothing to shwop is encouraged!
To celebrate Halloween, Marks & Spencer (M&S) is launching the Little Shwop of Horrors, a petrifying pop-up store in collaboration with Oxfam as part of its Plan A programme, which aims to give clothes an afterlife of their own.
M&S and Oxfam's Shwopping collaboration urges shoppers to donate - or 'shwop' - an unwanted item of clothing that will go on to be re-sold, re-used or recycled by Oxfam, cutting waste while raising much-needed funds for the charity.
Joanna Lumley will open the Little Shwop of Horrors, which will be live from Tuesday 28th - Wednesday 29th October at the retailer's Marble Arch store. This one-off secondhand store will sell a frightful selection of ghoulish garments, including items found at the bottom of fancy dress boxes and the horrors hiding in the depths of our wardrobes, donated by the UK public and a selection of celebrities.
Perfect for those requiring costume inspiration, the Little Shwop of Horrors will be a one-stop shop for Halloween fancy dress, allowing visitors to scour the shelves in search of the perfect costume. Shoppers can also create their own style scares out of fashion horrors which have been donated through the Shwopping initiative.
Since its launch in April 2012, Oxfam has received 8.9 million items of clothing thanks to Shwopping, worth an estimated £5.9 million for the charity. All money raised by Shwopping is used to support Oxfam's projects around the world working to alleviate poverty.
The public can show their support by shwopping items in any M&S store and sharing their biggest fashion fears on social media mentioning @shwopping and the hashtag #ShwopOfHorrors. All proceeds raised from the Little Shwop of Horrors will go towards Oxfam, whose work aims to help people and communities around the world lift themselves out of poverty for good.
Research by M&S has shown that only half the population (52%) would re-wear items they brought for fancy dress and nearly two thirds (62%) of these costumes end up forgotten at the back of wardrobes or at the bottom of a rubbish bin. Parents particularly struggle to get rid of their children's fancy dress with one in five (20%) admitting that they cling on to their children's old costumes because of the memories that they hold.
Designed to encourage shoppers to do a grim reap of their wardrobes, exorcising both their fashion demons and their old or unused fancy dress, entry will be free, but visitors to the Little Shwop of Horrors will have to shwop - hand over an unwanted item of fancy dress or clothing, using old or unused clothes - as their ticket to the exclusive sale.
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