Great Group Costumes: A Guide

Exceptional group costume ideas are not easy to come up with, but can be well worth the hassle, and are far better than individual costumes—if you are exceptionally creative and come up with a really unique idea. Let's start by defining group costumes. A group costume is a costume for a group of individuals, and their costumes are all related or complement each other in some way.

There are two basic methodologies for group costumes, which are dependent upon the number of people. The first method is decide to dress up as a particular group, and then find a number of people equal to the number of people in the group. The advantage of this method is that it allows you to select individuals who physically resemble the people they will be dressing up as. The second method is to have a predetermined number of people, say a group of best friends, who decide they are going to execute a group costume. This is much harder because the size of the group of friends must exactly match the size of the group chosen for the costume. Also, the physical attributes of the friends may not match the physical attributes of the characters they are emulating.

Let's cover some the more common group costume categories, to help you and your friends brainstorm in case you are thinking of trying a group costume.

Sports teams. This gives flexibility, in that the group size can vary. In football, women can always be included as the "tight end." Basketball, football, hockey, and baseball teams are tried and true choices. One can also exercise creativity. For example, a guy could go as Tiger Woods, and a bunch of women could go as his mistresses. In general, the sports team approach favors men, as there are more renowned male athletes.

Everyone in a group doesn't have to dress up as a person. One male could go as Clinton, a partner could go as a protractor and measure the curve in his junk. Three people could be the JFK Assassination. One would be JFK, another the sniper, a third the Grassy Knoll. A fourth could be Jackie O, a fifth could be Oswald. In my freshman year in college, we got dragged off to a party on the spur of the moment, and had about 28 seconds to come up with a costume. Two guys were attached a third guy with two pieces of string. We wore signs which said Mike, Mike's Left Nut, and Mike's Right Nut. At that same party, a tall and short dude went as a priest and the child he molested. Everyone howled. Except Catholics.

Bands and superheroes are also great choices.

Ideally this got your juices flowing and helped you come up with some original group costume ideas for the next part you attend.