Last-minute Halloween costumes you can still get from a charity shop today

It's Saturday 31 October, the party is tonight, and anything you order now probably won't arrive in time. That leaves a supermarket witch's hat or the charity shop, and the charity shop wins. Here are eight costumes you can put together from the rails this afternoon, for less than the price of a takeaway, that don't look like you threw them together at four o'clock.

Go sooner rather than later. Charity shops keep shop hours, not pub hours, and the first thing on your list is rarely in the first shop you try.

Patrick Bateman, American Psycho

Start on the menswear rail. You want a grey or navy suit, a white shirt and a plain tie, and the suit doesn't need to fit perfectly because Bateman's were roomy anyway. Charity shops are full of suits that went to one wedding and one job interview.

The bit that makes it is a clear plastic mac over the top, the one he wears in the film's most famous scene. If the shop hasn't got one, a rain poncho from a pound shop does the job. Slick your hair back, carry a business card, and tell anyone who'll listen that it's bone, and the lettering is something called Silian Rail.

The Grady twins, The Shining

This one's for two people, and it's the best couples costume going because it's creepy without any make-up at all. You need two pale blue dresses, as close to matching as you can find. Look at bridesmaid dresses, nighties and anything with a white collar or puffed sleeves. They don't have to be identical. White knee socks finish it.

Then stand very close together, hold hands, and say nothing all night except "come play with us". People will move away from you in the kitchen, which is the point.

Carrie

Every charity shop has at least one prom or bridesmaid dress that was worn exactly once. Pink is best, because Carrie's is pink, and something with a bit of sparkle helps. A plastic tiara if they've got one.

Then the blood. Supermarkets sell fake blood in their Halloween aisle, or you can make it with golden syrup, red food colouring and a spoonful of cocoa to darken it. Do the pouring in the bath before you leave, not at the party. Syrup goes everywhere and the dress won't be going back to the shop, so buy the cheapest one with a decent shape.

An undead Sloane Ranger

The most charity-shop costume there is, and best done if your local shop is in a posh postcode. Wax jacket, quilted gilet, a string of pearls (fake is fine, fake is better), a silk headscarf, cords and loafers. Then grey make-up, dark rings round the eyes and a smear of mud from the garden.

A dog lead with nothing on the end is the finishing touch. It's a costume that needs a second to land at the door, but once people get it, they really get it. It's also the only one here where you'll want to keep half of it, because a good wax jacket is worth having anyway.

The ghost of Christmas jumpers past

Christmas jumpers turn up on the rails in every month of the year, because everyone gets given one and nobody wants it back. Buy the most tragic one you can find. A reindeer with a bobble nose is ideal.

Then go full ghost with it. White face, grey lips, dark eyes, a bit of cobweb in your hair, and a length of tinsel round your wrists and dragging behind you, like Marley's chains in A Christmas Carol. Spend the night haunting people about Secret Santa.

Wednesday Addams

Black dress, white collar. That's most of it. If there's no dress with a collar, put a white shirt under a black jumper or pinafore and pull the collar out over the top. Two tight plaits, dark lipstick, no smiling.

Plenty of people will be Wednesday tonight. The ones who pull it off are the ones who commit to the deadpan, not the ones with the best dress.

The Babadook

You want the longest black coat in the shop, from either the men's or women's rail. A top hat if there's one in the fancy dress box (some shops keep one by the till in October), otherwise a party shop. Black gloves with paper claws taped to the fingers, a white face and black around the eyes.

The costume is easy. The performance is standing very still in a dark corner and not answering when people talk to you.

The charity shop mannequin

For when you've really left it too late. Pick one outfit off the rails that doesn't quite go together, then leave the price stickers on, or write prices on luggage labels and tie them to everything. A cardigan at £3.99, a skirt at £4.50, a scarf at £1. Stand stiffly with one arm bent and your face blank.

It's the cheapest costume here and the volunteers will love it.

Where to look in the shop

Most of these come from three places: the formalwear and bridal rail, the menswear suits, and the coats. In October some shops also put out a basket of fancy dress and Halloween bits near the till, so check there first and ask the volunteers. They know what's in the back, and they'd rather sell it today than keep it out the back for another year.

Make-up is the one thing to buy new, from a chemist or the supermarket. Don't buy someone else's half-used face paint.

Why not just buy one in a bag

A bagged costume is mostly plastic. When the charities Hubbub and the Fairyland Trust looked at Halloween costumes from 19 retailers in 2019, they found 83% of the material was oil-based plastic, and pointed to estimates that seven million costumes get thrown away in the UK every year. Every costume above is just ordinary clothes, worn oddly.

Keep the tinsel and the long black coat well away from the candle in the pumpkin, though.

On Sunday, wash what you bought and take back what you won't wear again. Someone will want that Bateman suit for a wedding.