2023 Costume Trends

As you can guess, we love dressing up! Nowadays, schools provide so many fun opportunities for kids to get dressed up that it’s sometimes hard to keep up. Here are a few of the school dress-up days you might find on your calendar:

• School Sports – dress in your house colours
• Footy Day – dress in your team colours
• Harmony Day – cultural dress or dress in orange
• Superhero Day – come as your favourite superhero
• 100 Days of School – for the littlies to dress as old people
• Easter Parade – Easter hats or bunny costumes
• Book Day – dress as your favourite book character
• When I Grow Up – dress up as the occupation you want to have
• Pirate Day – Talk Like a Pirate, and dress like one too!
• Olden Days – historical costumes from ‘back in the day’

 

Grown-ups get lots of opportunities to dress up too! Whether you’re doing a couples costume for Valentine’s Day, playing the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, or Santa Claus, donning the green for St Patrick’s Day, planning a costume party for a special birthday, New Year’s or just because, there are plenty of opportunities to step into someone else’s shoes and shine!

 

Pop culture conventions are also an amazing opportunity to dress up for kids and adults alike! With Cosplay competitions and celebrity guests to meet, it’s the perfect opportunity for a day (or even a whole weekend!) of fun. Check out the dates for Armageddon Expo in your neck of the woods:

• March 25-26 Tauranga
• April 22-23 Wellington
• April 29-30 Christchurch
• June 3-5 Auckland Winter
• Aug 5-6 Palmerston North

 

There are also special days around the world that we can celebrate. Here are some of our favourites:

9th March – Barbie Day

10th March – Mario Day (MAR10)

19th March – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Day

28th April – Superhero Day

2nd May – Harry Potter Day

4th May – Star Wars Day

5th May – Cinco de Mayo (Mexican Day)

6th May – Comic Book Day (first Saturday in May)

1st June – Dinosaur Day

12th June – Superman Day

1st August – Spider-Man Day

4th August – International Beer Day

8th September – Star Trek Day

16th September – Batman Day (third Saturday in September)

19th September – Talk Like a Pirate Day

17th October – Villains Day

2nd November – Day of the Dead

19th November – My Little Pony Day

 

A sporting event, concert, or festival is also a great excuse to get dressed up. Whether you put on a coloured skivvy to see The Wiggles, a Teletubby costume for the cricket, or lederhosen for Oktoberfest, we’d love for you to share your costume adventures with us on our socials!

 

A growing number of schools in NZ are now celebrating book day to encourage our kids to foster their love of reading. If your child already has a favourite book, why not get in early to avoid the rush? We have a great range of book-related kids costumes. The best of 2022 included Harry Potter, Bluey, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (with new costumes just released and Charlie Bucket coming soon!). Hands down, the hottest new range of 2022 was our Bad Guys masks – the perfect ‘quick and easy’ costume!

 

 

Halloween is the chance to dress up and become someone different. While most people love to dress up as something that scares them (or has the potential to scare someone else!), there’s also a growing trend to dress up as someone cute or cuddly! This year we’ve got new options coming to cover all of these bases.

A continuing trend in 2023 is the fresh take on childhood favourites. The hottest show at the moment, and a guaranteed hit for Halloween 2023, is the Netflix show Wednesday. People are snapping up Addam’s Family costumes already, and we’ve got new costumes coming soon.

Other costumes following this trend and coming soon include He-Man, Care Bears, Gumnut babies, and Strawberry Shortcake. Along with the new The Little Mermaid film, Shazam 2, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, it’s going to be a big year for sequels and reimaginings and we can’t wait!

 

After nearly six months off the shelves, we now have some of your favourites back in stock, including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Lady Gaga, My Little Pony, Guardians of the Galaxy, Fortnite, Paw Patrol, Shimmer & Shine, Dora & Diego, Blue’s Clues, Betty Boop, Star Trek, and Spongebob – just to name a few! To top that off, we’ve also got a great range of licensed pet costumes back and ready to ship out. But hurry, stocks are limited and won’t last long!

 

As you can see, 2023 Is going to be a big year, and we’re super-excited to get started!