The “Mundane Halloween” Costume Trend, Explained

Halloween as an adult is inherently embarrassing. It doesn’t matter how much confidence you exude the other 364 days of the year, the feeling of throwing your hard-earned cash at a cheap set of mouse ears or vampire teeth is one of utter humiliation. We all agree trick-or-treating is best left to the kids, but there remains an open invite for everyone, including adults, to dress up on and around October 31 — though it’s always a gamble who’s actually going to partake and who’s going to abandon ship, leaving you the only one in the office dressed in a full homemade suit of armor. (And don’t even get me started on the sneers you’ll accrue on your commute.)

No, Halloween isn’t very dignified. But does that mean those of us with too much pride shouldn’t participate? Absolutely not. Turns out the best place for prideful adults to seek Halloween solidarity is Japan — specifically the “Jimi” Halloween festival, which involves dressing up in the most mundane and relatable costumes imaginable that require lots of explanation. Because otherwise, jimi costumes kind of just look like regular clothes. And that’s the point.

“Jimi” in Japanese translates to “plain” or “unpretentious.” For a jimi Halloween costume, inspiration is hiding in the plainest sight. You could go as “Girl who started decluttering but ended up on her phone,” or “Person who tried to remove their mask but their glasses came off with it.” You could be a bingo champion or the stock footage in a karaoke music video. The sky, and whatever meager supplies you have already lying around the house, is the limit.

According to the Japanese culture blog Spoon and Tamago, the Jimi festival was started in 2014 by a group of adults at Japanese lifestyle site Daily Portal Z who “kind of wanted to participate in the festivities of Halloween, but were too embarrassed to go all out in witch or zombie costumes.”

But just because they’re not splurging on face paint and creepy color contacts doesn’t mean these jimi Halloweeners aren’t getting creative with their costumes — or that their costumes aren’t bone-chillingly terrifying. See: “Someone who has spilled coffee all over himself” or “Shop attendant trying really hard to look away as you enter your PIN number.” Now that’s maximum spook.

The mundane Halloween costume trend is not for those who like to don elaborate cosplay of their favorite characters or go nuts with classic Halloween horrors like ghosts or clowns or whatever other twisted tropes people tend to evoke this time of year. I salute those Halloween purists, really I do. But mundane Halloween beckons a different sort: those of us with drier senses of humor, who prefer a costume that might not look like much at first — a costume that won’t draw a ton of eyes on the subway or in the office — but still quietly captures the hilarious truths about some of everyday life’s micro horrors. The cringeworthy moments, the awkward encounters, the annoying-yet-endearing quirks of strangers on the street or in the supermarket.

Mundane Halloween costumes are also great for any slackers out there who maybe lost track of time this year and forgot to put together something more involved. It’s a financially accessible option for those of us who don’t have a wad of extra money to throw at the more traditional trappings. And it’s a reminder that Halloween can still be fun without all that overconsumption — that the holiday doesn’t have to revolve around buying a bunch of low-quality crap that will only get worn once before rotting in the back of your closet and then in a landfill for the rest of eternity.

Mundane Halloween reminds us that there’s plenty in our own lives (and wardrobes) worth playing with, and you don’t even have to be that crafty to pull it all together.

Halloween is mortifying, yes. There’s chocolate on everyone’s teeth. Everyone just wants to get drunk and make out with a sexy pirate. The events and the parties promise lots of fun but rarely deliver on it. And unless you’re a Broadway performer or a certain red-headed pop star, dressing up in a costume as an adult is deeply degrading. But the secret truth about Halloween is that the shared humiliation of it all is actually the best part. Adults don’t get many opportunities to be playful and creative with the way we dress. Participating in the disgrace of Halloween keeps us humble. I’m no doctor (and I won’t be dressing up as one either) but I do think it’s important to debase ourselves for the fun of it at least once a year. You know, for our health.

So this Halloween, even if you go as “Girl who just ate Halloween candy and now has chocolate on her teeth,” just go as something. Your inner child will thank you.

Emma Glassman-Hughes is the associate editor at PS Balance. Before joining PS, her freelance and staff reporting roles spanned the lifestyle spectrum; she covered arts and culture for The Boston Globe, sex and relationships for Cosmopolitan, travel for Here Magazine, and food, climate, and agriculture for Ambrook Research.