How Yandy Creates Their Crazy—and Controversial—Halloween Costumes

Costume company Yandy is notorious for turning objectively un-hot people, ideas and things into sexy Halloween outfits. They’ve also been known to ruffle a few feathers in the process—last year, social media backlash led to the recall of their horned up take on Hulu’s Handmaid’s Tale.

Past Yandy costumes have included a Sexy Freddy Kreuger getup (complete with a “burned skin hood”), Sexy Bob Ross, Sexy Ken Bone (Remember him?), Sexy Cecil the Lion, and even a Sexy Slenderman. With spooky season 2K19 upon us, the company is out to prove, once again, their sartorial reign over capital S Sexy Halloween. They’ve already debuted a skin-tight White Claw two-piece, a “Nicest Neighbor” risqué Mr. Rogers look, a cauliflower pizza getup, and a drool-worthy impossible burger body-con. And that’s just the start of this year’s rollout, Yandy director of brand marketing Alicia Thompson tells ELLE.com.

Though Yandy staffers keep their Halloween costumes under tight wraps until release, Thompson gave us some insight into the selection and manufacturing process. Starting November 1 each year, in-house designers create a top-secret spreadsheet to keep track of topical memes, pop culture and political moments, and trending people. Every costume idea is then run by the company’s vice president of merchandising, Pilar Quintana Williams, to make sure they “read well and have the most flattering cut possible,” says Thompson.

This year, you’ll see an unusually high number of sexy food costumes from Yandy—and that’s no coincidence. “We have four pregnant staffers in the office this year, so there is a lot of talk about food, cravings, and satisfaction, or lack thereof,” says Thompson. “We’ve always been known for our crazy food costumes and we decided to revisit some of our top styles from the past and update them for 2019 to have a vegan, veggie, and gluten-free selection.”

Yandy’s most popular costumes to date are the SWAT hottie and the Embellished Dark Angel. Thompson expects Dark Angel to sell out again this year thanks to the “Don’t Call Me Angel” music video starring Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus, and Lana Del Rey. In total, Yandy will introduce 20 exclusive new costumes (running list, below) designed specifically for 2019.