DIY pop culture costumes

Russ Marshalek, guest blogger for Pop Candy

A cold-stricken Liz is annoyed by the people around her flouting the rules of life in New York. One night, she gets lazy and doesn’t change out of her her 'TGS' crazy old lady costume before going home. When her appearance and coughing end up getting her a subway seat, she decides to continue her rule-breaking experiment until she devolves into the Joker from Batman. (Season 6, “The Tuxedo Begins”)

If I haven't made it jarringly obvious yet, I love Halloween. A lot. But something that gives me an immense amount of anxiety is costuming. My girlfriend loves it, but I find it to be unnecessarily stressful. It doesn't help that often the ideas I want to convey through a costume are subtle at best, obtuse at worst. Well, the folks at Flavorwire have come through this year, pulling together DIY costuming guides for how to be your favorite characters from TV, books and music. Some of the best, taken from them:

MUSIC:

The cover of Bat for Lashes' The Haunted Man

The cover to the new Bat for Lashes record The Haunted Man is one of 2012′s most striking images, shot by photographer Ryan McGinley and (sadly) attracting a whole lot more attention than the album itself — although, in fairness, this may be because The Haunted Man isn't especially memorable. Anyway, this is quite the striking costume, although you may want to catch a cab to wherever it is that you're going.

The costume:

Body stocking (assuming you don't actually want to nude up) — $29.50, Discount Dance Supply

Dark-haired bob wig — $6.60, Blockbuster Costumes

Charm necklace — $14, Polyvore

Inflatable dude to throw over your shoulder — $19.99, Spencer's Online

BOOKS:

Cheryl Strayed on the PCT

If you want to be a total badass this Halloween — and be the best friend of everyone whose costume does not include pockets — we suggest channeling Cheryl Strayed circa 1995, when she hiked the PCT. Wild, her memoir about her journey, was so awesome and inspiring that Oprah resurrected her book club to give it a high five.

Hiking boots — $89, Zappos

Hiking backpack — $35, Overstock

Oprah Book Club 2.0 Sticker

TV:

Liz Lemon as the Joker, 30 Rock

Why come up with your own pop-culture mashup costumes when 30 Rock already has you covered? Liz Lemon's slow transformation into The Dark Knight's Joker made for one of the funniest episodes of last season. How better to celebrate the show's final season than to pay homage to one of its best moments?

The costume:

Purple wool coat — $44, Overstock.com

Wet 'n' Wild Stoplight Red lipstick — $2, Drugstore.com

Black Radiance Truly Black eyeliner — $2, Drugstore.com

Wild Zombie wig — $20, Costume Kingdom

So there you have it. For more options check Flavorwire http://www.flavorwire.com and let me know what you're going as for Halloween.

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