Senior Jonathan Williams and junior Joseph Vankat dress as Liberty Mutual’s insurance duo.
Courtesy | Jonathan Williams

The plight of creating a yearly Halloween costume sometimes leads people to dress up in recognizable costumes made with thrifted pieces or Amazon finds, while others hunt far and wide for the perfect enhancement to their extravagant costumes. This year, some Hillsdale students followed current costume trends, but others donned costumes from niche movies or campus characters.

If you are even somewhat present on social media, you know the Louvre thieves costume idea was popular this year, and Hillsdale did not escape from that. Many groups of students dressed in the thieves’ outfits, donning all black and jewels to represent the stolen gems. 

Juniors Siobhan Weed, Lydia Marshall, and Olivia Henson participated in this costume, and Weed said that the idea came during homework procrastination a couple of weeks before Halloween. 

“The Louvre had been robbed a couple of days prior, and they had just released photos of the thieves wearing all matching black with safety vests,” Weed said. “We figured the outfit would be pretty easy to recreate and liked the idea of dressing up based on current events, especially because the heist quickly became a pop culture meme.” 

Even though she saw the idea all over social media leading up to Halloween, Weed said they were still excited for the costume. 

“We figured we were going to run into people who had the same idea, but it ended up being really fun seeing how different groups put their own spin on the costume,” Weed said. 

Students also impersonated other famous characters from pop culture, with even the legendary Liberty Mutual insurance duo, Limu Emu and Doug, making an appearance. Senior and Simpson head resident assistant Jonathan Williams said he and his co-head resident assistant, junior Joe Vankat, initially thought of the idea as a joke. 

“I think maybe we were watching football, and the commercial came on, and I threw it out there,” Williams said. “Pretty immediately, though we realized we needed to do it. I remember being on the phone with my sister and bringing it up, and she loved the idea, so that confirmed even more that it had to be done for this year’s Simpson Asylum.”

Williams said that despite not being a Halloween fan previously, his involvement in Hillsdale, especially Halloween culture at Simpson Residence, has helped him embrace the holiday and its traditions. 

“Having Joe and me in the lobby greeting people as Limu Emu and Doug created an extra sense of fun,” Williams said. “Lots of people asked me for insurance quotes, and I think I made about 50 different appointments about bundling home and auto. Hopefully, I got them all on my calendar.” 

Another iconic duo seen around campus on Halloween night was none other than Steve Harvey and Dr. Phil. Wearing suits and bald caps, juniors Sophia Miller and Nicole Masaka adopted more than just the look of these icons; they even took on their personalities, with Masaka asking anyone she could find a random “Family Feud”-style question. 

Masak said she originally had a different costume planned, but scrapped it so she could pair with Miller.

“I love being able to represent icons of our time,” Masaka said. “I had originally wanted to be the girl with the pigtails and nightgown from Polar Express, but I didn’t think anyone would get the reference, so I chose a more prominent icon that I knew I could represent, and I tag-teamed with Sophia as Dr. Phil.”

Although not a pop culture icon, Dennis “Gate Guy” Cook is definitely a Hillsdale cultural figure worth impersonating for a Halloween costume, according to sophomores Elizabeth Christian and Grace Novak. 

Christian and Novak dressed up as Simpson men last year, and to keep with their tradition of dressing like campus characters for Halloween, Christian said she suggested Dennis and his daughter. 

“In the end, I’m not totally sure where the idea came from — it just kind of hit me like a bolt of lightning,” Christian said. “When we were thinking about great figures around campus, Dennis was an obvious choice, since he’s always so happy and welcoming to everyone walking by.” 

Christian said most people understood her costume right away, adding to the fun of the project. 

“I think almost everyone I walked up to that night did a double-take and thought I was a man,” Christian said. “I carried Grace around on my hip all night, and people got it pretty quickly when I’d add in phrases like ‘have a wonderful weekend!’” 

Beyond donning just an outfit, senior Erika Mogelvang transformed into Stanley Ipkiss from “The Mask,” going so far as to learn the dance from the movie to make the persona believable. Despite not being recognized by many people on campus, Mogelvang said that’s not the point of dressing up, in her opinion. 

“Dressing as something wild and crazy on Halloween is such a fun experience,” Mogelvang said. “To embody a character’s personality while also being recognized is one of the best parts of Halloween. Dressing crazy is not a necessity. Dress in what makes you feel best and most confident, but remember not to be afraid to be out there or be something a little bit weird, because being a little weird can be so much fun.” 

Some groups on campus took their costumes to the next level, with many off-campus houses choosing a full house costume or theme. The men of Burt House all chose to wear neon orange jumpsuits to dress as convicts, while senior Izabella Sand said the women of Graceland got their costume idea from one of the house members’ required class readings. 

“We dressed up as characters from Alice in Wonderland,” Sand, who dressed as Absolum the Caterpillar, said. “The idea came mostly from the fact that our housemate, Kat Townley, was reading Alice in Wonderland for her classical children’s literature class, and there was a large enough variety of characters that we could all pick something fun and unique.” 

Sand said in the past, they had done smaller group costumes, but this year, they all committed to this full group costume idea and spent time curating every part of their outfits. 

“My favorite part of dressing up for Halloween is honestly getting the costumes together,” Sand said. “We thrifted a good amount of our pieces, and then traded clothes between us to pull everything together. It definitely forces you to be resourceful and think a bit more creatively about certain characters or costumes, which is a lot of fun.”