Halloween Costume or Halloween Avatar?

On the subject of Halloween costumes in SL...

I think of it as a fun challenge to dress my avatar in a Halloween costume, rather than just putting on a complete pre-made avatar.

On the other hand, I have lots of fantastic pre-made avatars and never enough occasions to wear them all.

What do you think? What distinguishes a "costume" from an "avatar"? Do you have a preference?

Hmmm. Let's see. A costume is something one can don on one's own avatar.

I'm frantically trying to come up with a costume for tomorrow!!!

Costume, because your avi is still recognizable. Or should be. It's too easy to just slip on a whole new avatar.

ETA: Unless, of course, you are trying to hide from the Pod People over in that necro voice thread. In which case, whatever hides your identity best, and makes you most resemble a robotic plant-loving zombie.

I was thinking about this today myself as I was looking for a costume for a party.

Yesterday I picked up a freebie furry avatar and for a minute thought I'd use it as a costume. But then people might think, "Why didn't that furry girl wear a costume?"

Then some cat-like costumes caught my eye. But I thought, "Nekos dress like that all the time!"

I skipped all the costumes that were complete avatars (skin, shape, clothes) because hardly anyone knows what I look like. I want a costume that's a costume but I still want to look like me.

Finally I broke down and bought this Ironman outfit. It was beautiful. I figured that even if it was made for guys, it would take my shape when I put it on and I wouldn't wear the helmet.

Unfortunately, the pieces were all prims. They just chunked up around me and I could barely peek over the chest plate.

In the end I got a costume. A real costume, a superheroine. So it isn't an avatar, it's a costume, even though it comes with a shape, hair, and skin. I didn't wear them though. I just wore the outfit.

Costume. I have only one avatar

I'm going as one of Tod69 Talamascas' zombie chicks this year. Was very fun putting together all the clothing and accessories and stuff, getting the particular look ironed out, etc... Pieced together my own AO for it, I even combined several animations/sounds into a homemade gesture guaranteed to scare the u-no-wat outta somebody.

Might I recommend Lady Godiva?

Wow - are we all on the same page today or what? I was thinking along the same lines. I turn into other things all the time. Rhinoceroses, prehistoric fish, robots, etc. But I'm liking the idea of dressing up my human avatar in a costume -- mostly because as a beagle I can't dance.

I am torn between two very different time periods and effects though.



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Definitely costume!

To me, it feels like using a totally different avatar is sort of cheating. It used the bug the sh** out of me at costume events when someone walked in as a dragon or something off the wall in a whole avatar....and won! Meanwhile...I searched high and low and did all kinds of funky stuff to my original character to create a 'costume' It seems like using a complete avatar character is more of an RP thing than a costume thing, or should be.

It's also the element of creativity that I like.....there's nothing particularly creative about throwing on a demon avatar that's pre-made and ready to wear. I like the 'process' of finding the right accents, clothes and hair to appear to be in costume. I loooove halloween because of how it allows us to express ourselves in imaginative ways. Same goes for SL costuming.

You could go as one of these....

You could always try Bare Rose. Reasonable Desires has some nice costumes if you want to be a maid, burlesque dancer, cigarette girl (used to sell cigarettes in the theater) and also a nun costume....

I ended up making my own costume.

Adorable!

Thanks!

I agree with this totally... it is fun!

But then, some of the complete avatars I've picked up along the way are so great, I also want to wear them... guess I will have to have a "crazy avatar party" just for that!

Yeah, that's exactly what I mean, I wanted my costume to really LOOK like a costume.

I had modified an adult witch costume for myself, and it was all right, but I wanted something that really looked right on a kid, and homemade just like I always had to do in RL. That's why I made it a hoodie and put a hairband for the halo.

Thanks to this thread (and a little nudging from Amara) I'm all set for the party (or parties). It's most definitely a costume though I did permit myself to change skins. It's still the human me underneath.

I wore a costume and not a complete avatar.

I went as my RL self

And may I say, you cut quite a dashing figure in your circa 16th(?) century nobleman's attire!

Also a very cute do -- in curlers and bathrobe!

I like it.

I went as a female version of the Punisher.



(Picture was taken by Feline.)