Celebrities began revealing their Halloween costumes well before October 31, 2026, with tributes to pop stars, family members and cartoon characters leading the early round ups. Halloween fell on a Saturday this year, but many stars posted their looks in the week before the date, and outlets including Billboard, W Magazine and Channel 4 FM tracked the new entries as they appeared. The early looks favoured close copies of a known person or character, with wigs, prosthetics and borrowed poses doing much of the work.
Paris Hilton was among the first names in most Halloween costumes lists. She dressed as Britney Spears performing “I’m a Slave 4 U” at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards, complete with a snake, in photographs shared with Billboard. It was the fourth Halloween in a row that Hilton had dressed as Spears, after earlier looks based on the “Baby One More Time” and “Oops!…I Did It Again” videos. Hilton later shared a second look for 2026, dressing as Belle from Beauty and the Beast with her family, including husband Carter Reum as the Beast and children Phoenix and London as Lumiere and Chip.
For her Halloween costumes, Kim Kardashian took inspiration from closer to home. On October 20 she posted a carousel captioned “Halloween 2026” in which she dressed as her 13 year old daughter North West. The look included a long turquoise wig, dramatic lashes, faux facial piercings, a black grill, spiked nails, a chunky skull and crossbones chain, and a T-shirt bearing the cover art of North’s debut EP, N0rth4evr. Kardashian also copied North’s hand over mouth pose, a gesture North uses in her own photographs.
Halloween costumes swap within one family
North West, meanwhile, dressed as reality star Natalie Nunn, wearing a dark bob wig, a prosthetic chin and a “Baddies” necklace. Nunn then returned the favour by dressing as North, posting photographs in turquoise pigtails and a studded collar with the caption “Uno reverse” and a tag for North West. The three way Halloween costumes exchange became one of the most shared costume stories of the week, since each look depended on the one before it.
North also had a second Halloween costumes look, dressing as Raven from Teen Titans in a purple cloak with a red diamond gem on her forehead. That change showed how quickly the younger stars in the family move between looks, with one costume posted for photographs and another following within days. W Magazine noted that North’s blue haired style had already been debated online, and it read Kardashian’s costume as a public show of support for her daughter’s creative expression.
Halloween costumes from stage and screen
Cyndi Lauper transformed into Ursula from The Little Mermaid for a performance at the New York Restoration Project’s annual Hulaween gala. The look used the sea witch’s purple skin, white hair and tentacled dress, and it was built for a live performance rather than a photograph alone. Chloe Bailey dressed as Meg Griffin from Family Guy, a cartoon choice that relied on the character’s glasses, pink hat and plain clothes rather than prosthetics.
Janelle Monae, who has built a yearly Halloween event called Wondaween, appeared in two creature looks ahead of the 2026 festival. In promotional videos for the event, Monae appeared as a decomposing green ghoul dubbed “Ghostess With the Mostess”, and in a Bacardi collaboration Monae wore a wrinkled green prosthetic face, a peachy pink shag wig, a black hat and a ruffled white blouse with striped suspenders. At the Wondaween festival itself, held at Santa Monica Pier on October 29 under the theme “Creature Carnival”, Monae stepped out as “Phish Boy”, an original character with bulging eyes and prosthetic fins on the hands and face, worn with a striped vest, matching trousers and a red tie.
Halloween costumes still to come on October 31
Heidi Klum, whose annual Halloween party is one of the most watched events of the season, had only teased her 2026 Halloween costumes entry before October 31. On October 24 she posted a close up of colourful, organ like prosthetics with the caption asking followers to guess the costume, and on October 27 she counted down four more days to her party in New York City on October 31. The full look was due to be revealed at that party, after most of the early lists had already been published.
By October 31, the best known Halloween costumes were Hilton as Spears, Kardashian as North West, North as Nunn, Lauper as Ursula and Monae as Phish Boy, with Klum’s reveal still to come at her New York party that night.