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Girls' Sexy Halloween Look Spooks Some

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By CLOE CABRERA | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 29, 2007

Video: Parents, Children React To Provocative Costumes
Halloween Events, Photos

TAMPA - Diana Rodrigues noticed something frightful about the Halloween costumes aimed at her teenage daughters: They're shorter, tighter and a lot more revealing.

"Unfortunately, this is what all the girls are wearing," said Rodrigues, 42, as she perused Party City's offerings one evening without her daughters, ages 15 and 13. "It's shocking. They didn't have costumes like this when I was a teenager. I won't let my daughters wear anything like this."

Sexy is trumping scary this Halloween, and looks that would fit nicely in a Frederick's of Hollywood catalog have become the norm at many costume shops. Teens and younger girls are being seduced by witch, pirate, fairy and superhero costumes, but most of them are preceded by the words "sexy," "hot" and "luscious."

"We're definitely seeing a lot less material than we have in the past," said Johnny Rodriguez, manager of Party City in North Tampa. The costumes are getting "skimpier and skimpier. But this is what teenagers like. This is what they are buying."

Raggedy Ann still has yarn for hair, but her minidress and thigh-high stockings would make brother Andy blush. Supergirl is supersassy in a two-piece belly-baring ensemble. There's even a sexy Dorothy from "The Wizard of Oz."

Last year when Party City introduced Playboy's line of provocative Halloween attire, the costumes blew out of the store, Rodriguez said. This year the line's "Racy Referee," a short, clingy, lace-up number, is among the best-sellers for teens.

At Features Costumes in South Tampa, sales of skimpy costumes are on the rise.

The best-selling guise for girls this Halloween is "anything sexy," said Tim Fore, an associate.

This year, the trend for teens is to dress more like adults than they should, Fore said. "We have a lot of nice costumes in the store, but they're bypassing those and going straight for the sexy ones."

Features, which carries more than 18,000 costumes, keeps pictures of its sexiest looks in an album clearly marked "no children under 18." Still, Fore catches many underage girls browsing the book and visiting the store's "adult sexy" costumes room.

That's where you'll find midriff-baring, thigh-skimming, cleavage-popping, skintight get-ups galore.

Among the more notable offerings: "Army Girl," a two-piece camouflage-print shorts set that makes a pair of Daisy Dukes's shorts look demure; "Hot Flash," a nurse uniform that's a skintight minidress with a plunging neckline sure to raise temperatures; and "Luscious Lady Bug," which comes with a black vinyl corset, a barely there tutu, thigh-high stockings and panties (which will show even if the wearer doesn't bend over).

Fore said he doesn't mind steering teens toward less risqué offerings, but he wishes more parents helped them shop.

"I don't see as many parents coming in with their kids as we would like," Fore said. "And if the costumes are too sexy, and they're under 18, we don't let them try it on."

He doesn't sell provocative costumes to girls planning to wear them to a school-sponsored event. "We have a good relationship with Hillsborough County schools, and we want to keep it that way."

"I think a lot of this is peer pressure," Fore added. "They think all of their friends are dressing this way. You get one that dresses this way, and the others want to get the same thing."

That thought frightens Nancy Rue, a best-selling author of juvenile and adult books. Rue said sexually provocative costumes are piggybacking off current fashion trends, where teens and tweens are bombarded with sexy images from clothing makers, and Halloween is no exception.

"Girls are being sexualized younger and younger," said Rue, whose latest book is "Girl Politics: Friends, Cliques and Really Mean Chicks" (Zonderkidz/HarperCollins, $7.99). "Teenagers are looking more and more like twentysomethings, and tweens are begging to look more like teenagers. And older translates to sexier."

Gone are the days of creative, fun, homemade costumes, Rue said. "Halloween is the perfect time to express your dreams and fantasies. I really don't think girls want to be prostitutes."

But to many teenage girls, Halloween is the one time you can get away with going a little crazy.

"Only on Halloween can you wear something that you wouldn't dare wear any other time," said Marianne Culver, 18, a Hillsborough Community College student, who was eyeing a "Fairytale Fantasy" costume at Party City. "Halloween is about make-believe."

Raquel Torres, an 18-year-old University of South Florida student, agreed.

"This is the one day you can step outside your comfort zone," said Torres, who bought a sexy corrections officer get-up at Party City. "Yes, it's short, and it's revealing, but it's Halloween."

"Now, I do plan to wear something underneath it," Torres said.

If your teenager is bent on wearing a sexy Halloween outfit — and you're bent out of shape about it — use it as a teachable moment, Rue said.

"Parents should ask their daughters why they want to be sexy for Halloween," said Rue, a speaker with Virtuous Reality Miniseries, a national ministry that provides tweens and teens coping tools for today's culture. "Does she really want to look like a tramp for the evening, or is it because everyone is going to look like that? Most likely, they have no idea why they want to look like that. They don't really know what kind of image they are projecting."

Establish boundaries, Rue said. How short is short enough? How low can the neckline be? How many sizes too small is permissible?

"Don't just say, 'You're not going out looking like a tramp.' Boundaries can be a relief for a young girl who feels uncomfortable wearing a revealing costume," Rue said. "She may be thinking, 'I have to wear this to be cool.'"

It's also a good thing to encourage a group of friends to get onboard with choosing cute over come-hither hoochie mama.

"Girls need to be the age they are, and they need to be authentic to themselves," Rue said. "I would like to see parents guide their girls back to that."

Do you think Halloween costumes such as "Racy Referee" and "Raggedy Anne" are too sexy for teen girls? Tell us what you think at TBO.com, keyword: Halloween.

Reporter Cloe Cabrera can be reached at (813) 259-7656 or ccabrera@tampatrib.com.

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superhero costumes • halloween attire • skimpy costumes • hollywood catalog • frederick s of hollywood • costumes halloween • halloween costumes • thigh high stockings • halloween events • brother andy • party city • minidress • johnny rodriguez • costume shops • daughters ages • younger girls • south tampa • north tampa • s line • teenage daughters

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