Will you be going as Cowgirl Barbie or a Roman let loose from the empire?

Whether you want your Halloween costume to be the talk of 2023, or you aren’t sure what to go as yet, there are some cool and unusual pop culture moments that could impact what’s popular in the world of spooky fashion this year.

With views on the hashtag #HalloweenCostumeIdeas amassing over 311 million worldwide in the last 30 days[1], greetings card marketplace thortful (thortful.com/cards/) halloween up with fashion expert Raymond Lam to predict who, or what, we may see trick or treating this year!

Raymond says: “Alongside the usual Halloween costumes of witches, vampires and ghosts, pop culture outfits are expected to be a huge influence this year. Costumes that we are going to see a lot of include:

Taylor Swift - After one of the most talked about tours over the summer, it is highly expected that the trend of dressing up like one of Taylor Swift’s eras, as started by concert attendees, will continue into the Halloween season. This will be a relatively easy costume to DIY, or you could recycle your concert outfit if you were lucky enough to attend. Additionally, this will likely be a popular group costume, with each member of the group dressing as a different ‘era’.

Searches for ‘Taylor Swift Eras outfit inspo’ have gone up a staggering +12,900% in the past year thanks to the star’s world tour.

The Little Mermaid - Following the release of Disney’s live-action adaptation of the beloved animated film, mermaids are likely to become a popular choice for Halloween-ers this year. This costume will probably be popular amongst adults as well as children.

Barbie - This was arguably a popular costume last year after set images were leaked, but after the success of the film following its release in July, many other Barbie variants will inspire outfits. The most popular Barbies are predicted to be Cowgirl Barbie, Roller Skating Barbie and perhaps even Weird Barbie, with the Barbie and Ken expected to be the source material for many couples’ costumes.

Western Barbie seems to be a really popular choice since the movie’s release, with searches for ‘Barbie cowgirl outfit’ having gone up by a whopping 7,300+% in the past year, and ‘weird barbie’ +141,000.

Barbenheimer - Even though Barbie is already expected to be a massively popular costume this year, the viral content that stemmed from Oppenheimer being released at the same time may inspire more creative fans to make mashups of the two.

Wednesday Addams - Although Netflix’s show Wednesday was released last year, this was not until after Halloween. Having been one of the biggest shows of 2022, many people may be ditching their usual Wednesday Addams costume to instead dress like Jenna Ortega’s portrayal of the character. The dress the character wears in the viral ‘Goo Goo Muck’ dance scene may turn out to be more popular than the more stereotypical depictions of Wednesday. Additionally, fans of the show may opt for matching costumes by dressing as Wednesday and her eventual friend Enid.

Super Mario Brothers - There will probably be a surge in demand for costumes of various characters following the release of The Super Mario Bros. Movie this year. These costumes will also be a good choice for couples or groups, involving characters such as Mario, Luigi, Peach and Bowser.

Spider-People - Another popular film this summer was Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse. We will likely see the many different spider-people introduced in this movie, with some of the most popular costumes expected to be Spider-Gwen, Miles Morales and Miguel O’Hara.

Ellie & Joel - The Last Of Us has been one of the biggest TV shows this year so far, meaning that we will see many people dressing as main characters Ellie and Joel this Halloween. Certain fans of the show may opt to dress as infected characters, such as the Clickers.

Beyonce - One of the other most popular tours this year came from Beyonce, who drew in crowds with her Renaissance shows. Fans may try recreating her various on-stage looks from the show by donning silver clothing paired with statement sunglasses and hats.

Beyonce’s Renaissance Tour bee costume seems to be a fan favourite, with searches for this outfit having gone up by +26,900%[4] in the last year.

Blue Ivy - After dancing on-stage at her mother’s Renaissance tour shows, Blue Ivy rapidly increased in popularity on the internet. For Halloween, Beyonce fans may recreate Blue Ivy’s on-stage outfits instead of her mother’s, such as her red jumpsuit or one of her head-to-toe silver ensembles.

Nepo Baby - Following ongoing debates around ‘nepo babies’ online, the internet went wild when Hailey Bieber was seen wearing a ‘nepo baby’ t-shirt back in January. This is likely to be a popular outfit as it is easy to recreate and DIY yourself.

Roman Empire - given the recent viral Roman Empire trends, it could be expected that this will go on to inspire many Halloween costumes from toga party vibes to Roman legionaries. This is a fantastic choice for Halloween enthusiasts looking for a legendary and powerful costume.

‘Travis I’m Pregnant’ - couples who are looking for easy, DIY costumes this year may choose to dress as Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker, inspired by when she held up a cardboard sign announcing her pregnancy at a Blink-182 concert earlier this year.

Käärijä - Eurovision fans may decide to dress up as fan favourite Käärijä this year, who gave us Finland’s entry of ‘Cha Cha Cha’.