Halloween Hussies

(From The Hartford Courant -- By Joann Klimkiewicz)

Jack-o'-lanterns, candy corn and greasy face paint.
That is THE HALLOWEEN OF CHILDREN.

Fishnet stockings, stiletto heels and cleavage.
That is the holiday of THE HALLOWEEN VIXEN.

While most of the spook-loving public links the pagan holiday to a ritualistic unleashing of the dead, many women -- grown women -- see another annual rite -- the unleashing of their inner harlots.

Put more succinctly in the movie MEAN GIRLS -- "It is the one night a year when a girl can dress like a total slut, and no other girls can say anything about it."

This weekend, countless tubes of red lipstick will be purchased and fake fingernails pressed on. Feather boas will drape from naked shoulders, and false lashes will bat clumsily on eyelids.

Gussied up like no other night, women everywhere will scan themselves in the mirror -- and think -- Perfect! -- before actually leaving their homes dressed this way.

Because it's only a Halloween costume.

They've been coming in to NEW HAVEN'S COSTUME BAZAAR this week, looking for all sorts of scandalous attire. The Farmer's Girl. The Greek Goddess. The sexed-up version of DOROTHY from THE WIZARD OF OZ.

"Halloween is the one time of year that fantasies get to live themselves out," says JEFF RUSSELL, owner of the 40-year-old State Street shop. "You get the shy-librarian type or the office worker who 364 days out of the year has to present herself properly. This gives her the opportunity to strut her wild side."

It gives women legitimate cause to walk, quite literally, in someone else's shoes. A hussy's shoes. And they're strappy 6-inch stilettos.

The just-add-fishnets formula for Halloween sluttery is a simple one.

Tight. Everything tight. And short. Skirts get hiked up a few inches. Shirts are ripped in just the right places. Extra points if you can work in a bra top. False eyelashes, body glitter, stockings and heels. A Halloween costume is born.

Nothing apparently solves a costume pinch like a black leotard, a feather boa and a colored wig -- a popular combination for the Halloween procrastinator who still wants to tramp it up. What exactly this costume is meant to portray is irrelevant. It's sexy. It's sassy. It's something a gal wouldn't wear any other night.

And that, says LORI HOLLINS, is why women partake in this annual ritual. Guys will go for laughs, she says, but women will always go for sexpot.

"It's your only opportunity to dress like that, and people can't judge you because it's Halloween," says Hollins, 21, a freshman at the University of Hartford. "People can't say anything because everybody's dressed like a slut."

This weekend, Hollins and her roommate plan on going to a campus party as cowgirls. And everybody knows cowgirls dress sexy.

That means clingy T-shirts; Hollins' tee says "I Love Southern Boys." They will cover up with Western-style blouses, tied high at their torsos. And they will wear short skirts. "To here," she says, chopping her hand just a few inches below belt-level.

Her sophomore year in high school, Hollins dressed as a HOOTERS' girl. Her friend was "a slutty Red Riding Hood." Last year she and her girlfriends went a slightly more wholesome route, each dressing as one of the Seven Dwarfs. "But we managed to make that into a little promiscuous outfit, too." (Again with the short skirts and torn T-shirts).

And that is the beauty of women's take on this, a child's holiday -- they know how to tramp-ify even the most innocent of costume characters.

For a child, dressing as a kitten means a fuzzy sweater, painted-on whiskers, maybe a long, curly tail. Precious, isn't it?

A Halloween vixen's interpretation? A slinky black nightgown and a pair of kitty ears. Meow.

Because it's not a devil. It's a sexy devil. It's not a cop. It's a slutty cop.

"Society's norms or ways have changed," said Russell, the costume shop owner. "People are willing to express themselves a little bit more and aren't afraid to wear a sexy outfit."

Suddenly, it becomes perfectly natural for a nun to wear a miniskirt and fishnet stockings. A construction worker dresses in itty-bitty shorts, no? Schoolgirls wear blouses knotted just under their busts and pleated skirts low on their hips.

People "feel almost more anonymous on Halloween. Even if they're not wearing a mask, it's like they are," says FLANNERY O'BRIEN, 23, who works as a marketing assistant for an area nonprofit organization. "You can be totally free to be whoever you want to be."

Women's Halloween outfits are getting racier, she said. This season, she saw a party store selling a wet T-shirt costume. "Which I didn't realize you had to buy a costume to make," O'Brien said.

This year, O'Brien is joining the female masses and dressing as a prostitute. But a prostitute of an entirely different kind.

"My party costume is going to be a corporate whore," she says.

That means a white button-down shirt, a jacket, tie and briefcase.

What else?

A short skirt, boots and fishnets. Always with the fishnets.

[God, I love Halloween.]