BuyCostumes.com the Most Visited Costume Website

NEW YORK, NY – October 25, 2007 – The search term “hannah montana costume” was the most popular among all U.S. Internet searches that contained the phrase “costume” for the week ending October 20, 2007 according to Hitwise, the leading online competitive intelligence service.

Top U.S. Costume Searches for the 4 weeks ending 10/20/07

• hannah montana costume
• master chief costume
• pirate costume
• wonder woman costume
• little red riding hood costume
• hannah montana halloween costume
• tinkerbell costume
• pippi longstocking costume
• flapper costume
• raggedy ann costume

Note - the search term data is based on the volume of all US searches for the four weeks ending 10/20/07 from the Hitwise sample of 10 million users. Source: Hitwise

The websites receiving the most traffic from the term “hannah montana costume” were Costumzee.com, PriceGrabber.com, Celebrate Express, Target.com and Shopzilla. Other popular costume searches included Halo 3’s Master Chief, pirates, Wonder Woman, Little Red Riding Hood, and Tinkerbell. The top descriptive search terms used for Halloween costumes include perennial favorites such as sexy, funny, homemade and cool. Also among the popular descriptive searches were “cheap halloween costume ideas” which increased 305 percent and the term “adult halloween costume” which increased 336 percent versus last year.

“Retailers no longer have to guess at what the hot costumes will be for Halloween,” said Bill Tancer, general manager of global research at Hitwise. “Thanks to the availability of Internet search data, we have indications as to the most popular costumes months in advance.”

Top Visited Online Costume Retail Websites
Custom Category of Top Visited Online Costume Retail Websites
(Week ending October 20, 2007)

1
BuyCostumes.com
www.buycostumes.com
34.53%

2
Halloween Express
www.halloweenexpress.com
11.49%

3
Spirit Halloween
www.spirithalloween.com
11.19%

4
Costume Super Center
www.costumesupercenter.com
5.61%

5
AnniesCostumes.com
www.anniescostumes.com
4.88%

6
Costume Hub
www.costumehub.com
4.48%

7
Costume Craze
www.costumecraze.com
4.28%

8
Zoogster Costumes
www.zoogstercostumes.com
4.06%

9
Halloweenmart.com
www.halloweenmart.com
3.99%

10
anytimecostumes.com
www.partylounge.com
3.68%

Source: Rankings are based on U.S. market share of visits among a custom category of 22 of the leading costume websites for the week ending October 20, 2007 (Sunday – Saturday) from the Hitwise sample of 10 million U.S. Internet users. Source: Hitwise

Buycostumes.com was the most visited website amongst a custom category of 22 leading online costume retailers for the week ending October 20, 2007. The website received 34 percent of all U.S. traffic to the custom category. Following Buycostumes.com was the Halloween Express website, which received 11.5 percent of visits, and the Spirit Halloween website was next receiving 11.1 percent. Additionally, Buycostumes.com was the most visited website in the Shopping and Classifieds – Apparel and Accessories category for the same week.

Furthermore, traffic to the top 22 websites in this custom category increased 2 percent for the week ending October 20, 2007 versus the same week last year.

Weekly Hitwise Retail Index Update
Please visit our blog to see the most recent weekly update on the top 100 retail websites from the Hitwise Retail Index.

About Hitwise
Hitwise is the leading online competitive intelligence service. Only Hitwise provides its 1,400 clients around the world with daily insights on how their customers interact with a broad range of competitive websites, and how their competitors use different tactics to attract online customers.

Since 1997, Hitwise has pioneered a unique, network-based approach to Internet measurement. Through relationships with ISPs around the world, Hitwise’s patented methodology anonymously captures the online usage, search and conversion behavior of 25 million Internet users. This unprecedented volume of Internet usage data is seamlessly integrated into an easy to use, web-based service, designed to help marketers better plan, implement and report on a range of online marketing programs.

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Nostalgia: 80's Costume Ideas

What were the 80's? A time when neon clothing was fashionable? A time when the Atari video game system was 'state of the art'? A time when Prince could sing about "partying like it was 1999" and it seemed like that was ages away?...Bueller?

With Halloween just around the corner, why don't you give the 80's a deserving
tribute by dressing up as something iconic from this wonderful decade? Here is a list of our top 5 easy to put together costumes that just scream 80's.

5. Teen Wolf
Everyone knows the story - Michael J. Fox's character is horrible at basketball and tired of being "average" (I know, everyone's biggest worries in life). Luckily, he has the power to turn into a "not so average" 5 foot teenage werewolf, basketball playing machine that can fly through the air and single handedly defeat other high school teams. Kind of like LeBron James in high school, minus the whole being a short werewolf thing. As ridiculous as the movie was, Michael J. Fox's character makes for a great 80's throwback costume.

For the full effect, you'll need to get a yellow basketball jersey, a werewolf makeup and hair kit, some yellow basketball warmup pants, and a long sleeve white shirt (to wear under the jersey).

Everyone's favorite neighborhood Werewolf

4. 80's Workout Queen/King
AKA the Jane Fonda fashion revolution, consisted of spandex, headbands, lycra, and anything else that might hurt your fashion sense. These outfits were great for people who wanted to work out and look as ugly as possible doing so. But let's not beat a dead horse, the 80's workout queen/king can be a great 80's nostalgic costume!

To pull this costume together you really need to get some spandex. The brighter the colors, the better. Accessorize the costume with some arm and head sweatbands to complete the look. Try and mismatch colors as much as possible for that perfect 80's effect.

Wow...just...wow *cringe*

3. Pee Wee Herman
Current legal troubles aside, Pee Wee Herman was one of the biggest child icons of the 80's. What kid didn't want to hang out in his Playhouse with all that crazy talking furniture? His unique way of talking, coupled with his childlike antics made kids everywhere love him.

You'll need a vintage grey suit, red bowtie, and black costume hair coloring for the complete costume.

Probably not his best picture, but tell me again how he ever became popular?

2. Rubik's Cube
The popularity of this 80's toy is undeniable, with over 100 million cubes sold in the early 80's. Adults and children alike were anxious to get their hands on this frustratingly addictive toy.

Can I ask why? This seemingly impossible toy lead to countless hours of frustration and anger in my household. Making any sort of progress on it was next impossible, especially when siblings would mess up any progress made the minute they laid their logic-less little hands on it!

Regardless of my personal feelings on the cube, it still makes a great 80's throwback costume. To make this costume you'll need to be a little crafty. Get a big black cardboard box and cut arm and head holes in it. Get appropriate colored construction paper and cut them into squares and cover the box with the paper. You'll obviously want to measure out the size of the paper squares in relation to how much surface area is on the box so everything looks right.

They should change the name to the "Wasted Hours Cube"

1. Pac-Man / Ms. Pac-Man
This early video game...thing gobbled up nearly all of my weekly allowance in the 80's, much like he gobbled up his favorite yellow pellet treats. The goal of the game was great for like-minded Americans...eat everything! Pac-Man wasn't a picky eater, he would eat anything from ghosts and steroid pellets to fruit and ice cream. The only thing keeping Pac-Man from being overweight was the exercise he got from his constant pursuit of food!

Great instructions on how to make a Pac-Man costume can be found at Coolest Homemade Costumes

Feed me now!

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The day in the life of a Halloween Costume

This is it - the day I've been so anxiously waiting a whole year for. The day when I am picked over all others in the closet. The day when I finally get to reunite with my old buddies, mask and costume accessory. The day my buddies and I come together for one common goal...to get candy. My day to shine.

Mmm...Our Goal

As the group assembles for our yearly candy assault on the neighborhood, I notice the usual cast of characters arriving. My long time friends witch costume, princess costume, and ninja costume are here and are just as excited to get started as I am. Once everyone arrives, we finally get to go.

My Good Friends

House after house people give us mounds of candy, some good candy, some bad candy, but very plentiful. Compliments are plentiful as well. We hear the typical "You're so cute" and "That's a great costume" comments, enough in our minds to warrant more than once a year costume usage. Our candy search is a great success!

Once the route is finished, we know our day is over. We say our goodbyes, knowing that it will be another full year before we get to reunite and take over the neighborhood in search of candy. But rather than dwell on not seeing each other for a full year, we congratulate one another on a candy job well done.

After saying our goodbyes, we all retreat to our respective houses. We are taken off and put back in our usual spots in the closet. We created a lot of great memories today and will continue to do so for years to come. Though we'd like to be a bigger part of your lives, we are very grateful for the day you have dedicated to us.

No other combination of closet items does what we can. On our day, we invoke a wide array of reactions from those who see us. We can frighten, scare, make people laugh, and even make people stare. From superheros to scary monsters, we allow our wearer to experience life from a whole new perspective. And most importantly, we alone have the power to extract obscene amounts of candy from our entire neighborhood, city, or even state!

See you next Halloween!

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New 2007 Costume Trends

Sexy

364 days out of the year it's "business casual" or "jacket required." On the 365th. why not toss the rules aside and strut your stuff? Sexy costumes are some of the most popular choices every year on BuyCostumes.com. Wait, I know what you’re going to say — sometimes sexy costumes are, well, maybe just a little too sexy. But, for those of us that want to have fun with the va-va-va-voom, while maintaining a shred of decency (and maybe dignity), relax — there's quite a large selection out there of risqué, but not risky, attire. Think vampy, not trampy. Oh, and "sexy" doesn't have to mean "rail-thin," either. You can find well over a hundred great examples in plus sizes, too.

Outrageous
In my experience, you get the most fun out of Halloween in a humorous costume. People stop you and say, "That’s hilarious," or "Awesome! Where did you get that?" I'd take a pass on the more vulgar varieties, though, unless you're planning to move out of town the next day. Pick out something outrageous rather than tacky. Humorous costumes make for great group themes or they can stand alone and create quite a buzz at any party. Costume Contest Alert — wear a funny costume and your chances of winning go way up!

Kid-iculous
Ever look back on those pictures from your childhood Halloweens and say, "Mom, how could you have dressed me up like that?" Well, don’t think for a minute that she didn't know exactly what she was doing. Parents, Halloween is the perfect opportunity to dress up your babies in the silliest outfits imaginable! It gets a laugh out of neighbors, family and friends — and makes for an ideal for photo op (think holiday cards for this year).

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