Santa Barbara Halloween Swap Brings Costumes Back from the Dead

Americans have developed a scarily wasteful Halloween habit: wearing a costume once and then throwing it away or banishing it to the closet to gather dust forever. 

But what if those costumes could be resurrected?  

That’s the question sustainable fashion advocate Lexy Silverstein is answering through her “Ultimate Halloween Swap,” providing opportunities in Santa Barbara and other locations in California for people to donate old costumes and take home new ones. 

On Sunday, Silverstein and Opera Santa Barbara hosted a community swap meet to facilitate the free exchange of costumes for kids, adults, and pets. “It felt like I was running a lemonade stand, but for costumes,” Silverstein said with a laugh. 

For those who missed it, Opera Santa Barbara will have a costume drop-off box set up at its headquarters through November 7. 

The swap is meant to address the “dark truth” behind the fashion industry that Silverstein learned about while attending school in Los Angeles: It is incredibly unsustainable. Fast fashion uses cheap materials, promotes overproduction, and feeds an already oversaturated market. Halloween is especially culpable.

“I’m a big lover of Halloween,” Silverstein said. “I go all out for it. I do multiple costumes a year, and it’s just it’s always been one of my favorite holidays.” But, she continued, there are two real problems behind Halloween: costume costs and environmental concerns. 

Costumes are the ultimate single-use horror stories. They’re bought for one night, worn once, and thrown away, and most of them are made from synthetic, mixed materials that are hard to recycle, according to Silverstein. Additionally, Halloween costumes have more than doubled in cost in the last two decades, she said.

The swap — now in its second year — was designed as a solution. People give what they have, keeping it out of the landfill, while others reuse it, saving the money they may have spent on a new costume. 

“If you go through the donation box or if you attend a swap, anything that’s available, you’re able to take home to hopefully extend the life of that costume and give it two, three, or 20 more Halloweens to come,” she said. 

Silverstein encourages donating gently used and clean costumes, but people can drop them off in any condition. Costumes that have “seen some things” are still acceptable and can be recycled, Silverstein said. 

Once the donation boxes close, she sorts through everything herself, separating the fits that can still be worn from the chaff that would do better being repurposed as couch stuffing or other things. 

Textile waste in the state is a massive issue — Californians disposed of about 1.2 million tons of textiles in 2021, despite 95 percent of it being recyclable, according to California Senator Josh Newman. 

Newman authored the recently passed Responsible Textile Recovery Act, Senate Bill 707, which will make clothing companies worth more than $1 million fund a program to collect and recycle what they sell. The bill names Halloween costumes specifically. 

But the full program isn’t due until 2030. In the meantime, Halloween can be more sustainable and more affordable, said Silverstein, who wants to eventually expand the program across the country. In its first year, she said she was able to collect hundreds of costumes. 

“It’s meant to keep those costumes in circulation and make Halloween more accessible to everybody,” she said. “I want everyone to be able to celebrate it.” But the costumes don’t need to be used for solely Halloween-related activities. 

“Giving them a new life could benefit a theater organization, a high school production, or a kid who really wanted to be Iron Man and now gets that chance because someone donated a costume,” said Julia Lieberman with Opera Santa Barbara. “There is so much positivity in this initiative, and we thought it would be great to support it and be part of it.”