On a Halloweekend marked by mercurial weather, Middlebury students donned meticulously planned (or thrown together at the last minute) costumes to celebrate October’s spookiest holiday. Students could be seen sporting funky hats, face glitter, inflatable suits and everything in between. Celebrities and wizards intermingled, mermaids walked on land and there was an abundance of everyone’s favorite environmentalist: the Lorax.
Group and duo costumes were very popular this year. Many people dressed up as construction workers in neon worker vests, hard hats and maybe even a road sign. Fairy costumes were also plentiful; people wore whimsical dresses with wings and decorated their faces with plenty of gems.
Sky Roberts-Salvador ’26 was one of many fairies, but she still found a way to make her costume unique. Roberts-Salvador dressed as the tooth fairy and was seen wearing a tiara with fake wisdom teeth glued on and an entire necklace of teeth. Beyond her creative interpretation of a traditional fairy costume, Roberts-Salvador made all of her accessories herself. She described creating the fake teeth out of self-hardening modeling clay, which she then strung with fishing wire and hot glued to a tiara.
Roberts-Salvador was not the only person unafraid to get crafty this Halloween. One student dressed as the beloved Wordle in a costume that was completely self-crafted, and went around having people write in letters to guess the word.
Alongside Roberts-Salvador was Lily Charkey ’25.5, who also dressed up as a fairy. Charkey wore a pink slip dress with floral detailing, ribbons in her hair and, of course, fairy wings. Charkey was mainly excited about the group aspect of her Halloween costume.
“I have a couple of friends who are also fairies,” Charkey said. “I think that this costume really brings us all together.”
Charkey and her friends all wore makeup coordinated with their dress colors. Many other students experimented with fun cosmetics; some skeletons, for instance, painted bones onto their skin themselves.
Dermot McMillan ’25’s Halloween costume reflected his close relationship with his twin brother, Aidan McMillan ’25. The brothers were Thing 1 and Thing 2 from Dr. Seuss’ “The Cat in the Hat.” Only, they hadn’t coordinated beforehand, so both of the shirts they made said Thing 1.
Dermot described how his costume with his brother was heavily inspired by their childhood. “My whole life I’ve always been referred to as Thing 1 or Thing 2,” Dermot said.
Of course, the annual Halloween costume array would be incomplete without a few pop culture references. Students dressed up as Yung Gravy, Justin and Hailey Bieber and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
Zach Taylor ’26 dressed up as Sia, wearing a bob wig, sunglasses and long gloves. Taylor spent the night giving his many fans autographs.
Arsema Lecko ’26 dressed up as one of their favorite album covers, “Negro Swan” by Blood Orange. They wore all white and the signature angel wings that appear on the album cover. The costume reflected Lecko’s love for music and also their creativity to think of a unique costume that was also meaningful to them.
Couples costumes also made an appearance. Graham Gordon ’26.5 and Emma Hoover ’26.5 were dressed as the iconic pairing of Remy the rat and Linguini from “Ratatouille.” Gordon dressed in a chef outfit with a very tall hat while Hoover wore mouse ears and painted whiskers on her face.
“We just had to cook ,” Gordon said, in reference to their costumes being well-received. “And Remy the rat actually cooks!”
In addition to the “Ratatouille” crew, many other students dressed up as movie and TV show characters. Isla Mitchell ’26 decided to honor one of her favorite movies, Wes Anderson’s “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou,” by dressing up as Steve Zissou, played by Bill Murray. Mitchell wore a blue vest, blue shorts and Zissou’s signature beanie.
Turner Britz ’24.5 dressed up as PBS’ “Arthur,” wearing his iconic glasses and yellow sweater. Princess Mia from “The Princess Diaries” was also a popular costume that featured long white gloves, sunglasses and headphones. Additionally, there were many versions of Batman from both comic books and movie adaptations.
Perhaps the most unusual costumes were the inflatable ones. One student wore an “Among Us” inflatable costume. Another student went as the Pillsbury doughboy, a costume as hilarious as it was humongous.
In a similar vein, Ahmed Akoad ’26 and Hobart Swan ’26 dressed up as Barack Obama and Joe Biden, wearing masks of the Presidents and full suits. What’s more, their friends made sure to refer to them as “Mr.” and “Sir” when speaking to them.
Ultimately, students at Middlebury this past weekend certainly did not disappoint with their commitment to their Halloween costumes, which allowed for a festive celebration of the spooky holiday campus-wide.
Editors’ Note: Sky Roberts-Salvador is a visuals contributor for The Campus.
