Mens latex, leather, vinyl Halloween Costumes
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Email AppHalloween doesn’t have to be all about the ladies. There are men’s costumes that we can’t avoid talking about, especially in our favorite fabrics: latex, leather, and vinyl. If you’ve spent countless hours at the gym working on that chiselled six-pack, you should capitalize on the opportunity to show it off during the biggest costume event of the year: Halloween.
With the summer heat extinguished, this is your last chance to show off your man curves prior to the cold of winter setting in. We’ve broken down some of our favorites looks into fabric categories below.
Mens Latex Halloween Costumes:
Latex has the greatest amount of stretch of the 3 fabrics that we are focusing, and due to the excellent stretch you’ll get the tightest fit. If you have the body to show off, then by all means, get a .35mm gauge latex and let that six-pack show underneath.
Even if you don’t have the perfect body, you can still use latex along with some body modifying panels to create super-hero abs, chest muscles, etc. Foam panels can be cut out for a custom fit and then you can glue them to your outfit to stay in place.
If you love latex and you want to use it but don’t feel comfortable with an uber-tight fit, there are still options available. Latex on it’s own is such a different and striking material that you don’t have to dress as a super-hero for it to be a costume. Formal wear, like a suit jacket with pants, can be a Halloween costume unto itself. Shining the latex to a high gloss gives you a “plastic” super-hero type of look anyway, so feel free to create your own (non-skin tight) design and leverage this amazing material.
If you do go the traditional costume route, some of our favorites include Batman, Super-man, Spider-man, Venom, pretty much any catsuit-based hero outfit and Star-Trek characters. Other costumes that can work well for latex include sailors, vikings, pirates, and if you want to go full on crazy-town, dress in a sexy ladies costume. This could included nuns, maids, nurses, or other traditional female roles.
Some advice for working with latex: you glue it instead of sewing it. Latex material has no fabric backing, so the holes that a traditional sewing machine would make can cause it to rip. When you glue it, you don’t create a seam in the same manner as if you were sewing. You lay the material flat on top of each other and manipulate it when going around bends. The easiest way to understand how it works is to watch one of our latex tutorials here: http://www.mjtrends.com/articles.php
That’s not to say that you can’t sew latex. We’ve seen commercial latex clothing companies sew latex, however, it’s only on garments that use thicker latex and where you would not have any stress on the sames. An example would be a loose fitting jacket. Plus, you’ll need a special silicone thread bath. What is that you ask? The needle and thread will heat up as it passes through the rubber and having your thread pass through liquid silicone prior to being sewn will reduce the amount of friction and prevent the thread from fraying or splitting as you sew.
Mens Leather / Veggie-Leather Halloween Costume ideas
Maybe you’re not quite ready to dip your toe into working with latex, or perhaps you have a greater affinity for leather. You can’t go wrong with this material, as man has been wearing it for thousands of years. And you don’t need the real stuff to create amazing costumes. Faux leather is less expensive, looks great, and can actually be better for the environment. That’s what we call a win-win-win.
The first image that comes to mind when we think of leather costumes is the Viking man. A gruff and rough man who sailed the frozen seas and was tougher than the leather he wore. And who wouldn’t want to wear a Viking costume – you get to wear a kilt. If you’ve ever worn tight-fit jeans, you’ll welcome the opportunity to let things sway and wear what is essentially a loose fitting skirt.
Perhaps you don’t have the beard and lack of teeth to pull off the Viking look, but still want to sport leather this Halloween. For our metro-sexual men who were born 1970’s, we recommend the Michael Jackson thriller look. Head to toe black and red leather, with some black patent shoes with slick bottoms to moon walk.
Want something more current? How about Dead Pool? You can still use black and red, and after a few drinks you can try to channel Ryan Reynolds satirical wit. A more traditional super hero is Bat man. Buy a mask and then DIY your own cape and leather catsuit.
Remember when you were kids and you played cowboys and Indians? Make your own leather chaps and go as a modern day Roy Rogers. Or leave off the pants under the chaps and go as Prince. Faux leather vests are also quick and easy to put together.
Other ideas include leather jeans with a slim-fit sport coat for a wise-guy look. Make sure to slick back your hair and add a gold chain to bring it all together. Leather police outfits are another popular choice.
There are a few things to keep in mind when working with leather or faux leather. First off is that you want to ensure that you use the proper needle. You’ll get a lot of skipped stitches if you don’t use a properly sized “leather” type sewing needle. The tip of these needles are specially made to slice open the material and ensure that the thread passes through easily.
Another recommendation is to use a roller presser foot or teflon coated presser foot for the top side of the material. Sometimes there can be a tackiness that prevents a standard presser foot from gliding smoothing across the fabric, and a roller or teflon coated presser foot will eliminate that problem.
Mens Vinyl Costume Ideas
Last but not least is vinyl. Some people dislike vinyl material and consider it a vile alternative to latex or leather, but all the things that people dislike about it are what make it a great Halloween material. Vinyl can make a crinkling sound when moving about, which works to highlight your costume. Note that our 4-way stretch vinyl makes little to no noise – something to keep in mind when selecting a material.
Vinyl fabric is also incredibly shiny and unlike latex, which by default is matte and must be shined up using a special latex shine, vinyl is always sparkling with a high gloss finish. It’s easier to work with than latex because you can sew it and in general it requires less maintenance than latex. Leather can absorb stains from certain food or oils, but with vinyl everything slides right off. Our only recommendation for maintenance is to ensure that you don’t let light colored vinyl be stored touching a darker color, as occasionally light colored vinyl may absorb the color from a darker colored vinyl.
Metallic vinyl in gold or silver can be used to create a wide variety of costumes. Gold is good for regal outfits such as Egyptian kings, Gods of ancients, wings of Angels, or Las Vegas hustlers. Metallic silver exemplifies futuristic outfits, aliens, space costumes, astronauts, etc.
You can also use vinyl for your more traditional male Halloween costumes like fire-fighter, police man, or super hero’s. If making a hero type catsuit you probably want to use 4-way stretch vinyl. We have 3 types of vinyl that we offer: “patent vinyl” which is thicker and has almost no stretch, “PVC” which is a 2-way stretch fabric (stretches left to right across the fabric but not up and down) and typically has a little less stretch than our 4-way stretch vinyl, and “Stretch Vinyl” which is higher quality than the 2-way stretch and has stretch in all directions (both up and down and left to right).
The 4-way stretch vinyl is perfect for catsuits and super-hero costumes. Here is our top 10 list of male superheroes that you may want to recreate:
- Batman
- Robin
- Superman
- Spiderman
- IronMan
- Captain America
- The Punisher
- Wolverine
- Green Latern
- Flash
As you can see, there is a plethora of mens Halloween costumes to choose from. Whether you decide to make one or buy one is up to you. Buying something off the rack is certainly the quickest, but when you make it yourself you get the pride of having created something unique as well as the best possible fit as you can customize your pattern to your body measurements.
FYI – we are currently running a promotion where you can send us your pattern ideas (costumes or anything else) and we will select a winner in 2 weeks to receive the paper pattern created custom for your measurements. That’s right – we’ll make your idea into a custom-fit pattern and then mail it to you for free. If interested, send your drawing, link, or description to us at: sales@MJTrends.com.
Matching Products:
White PVC
$7.99
Gold Stretch PVC
$13.99
Black .30mm
$14.50
Latex will be the least breathable material but the most form fitting. Stretch vinyl is very form fitting, but not as much as latex and stretch vinyl has more breathability than latex. Four-way stretch faux leather has great stretch and slightly more breathability than vinyl, but it doesn’t have the shiny high gloss sheen of vinyl. The most breathable would be spandex. Foil spandex will still have sheen and a shine to it, but not as much as either shined-up latex or vinyl. Best of luck with your fabric shopping and options!
Morning,
What is the best body suit for durability, comfortable to wear without perspiring profusely for a superhero body armor. ..I thank and best wishes and health to you and family from a grateful and humbled; Doc.