Nautical Halloween Costume Ideas

• Kids often enjoy dressing up as nautical characters, like pirates.Jupiterimages/Brand X Pictures/Getty Images
  
  Halloween costumes give you the chance to express your creativity and a lesser-seen side of yourself. Nautical Halloween costumes are perfect for people who live near a big body of water (such as an ocean or one of the Great Lakes), people who love sailing or want to learn to sail, and any landlubber who is attracted to the nautical aesthetic. Nautical costumes can be spooky, sexy, scary or sweet.
  
  

Captain Ahab

• If possible, find an authentic vintage captain's jacket.veste de commandant image by albillottet from Fotolia.com
  
  Dress as a sea captain, complete with wooden pipe, captain's hat, and white or navy blue jacket with brass buttons and gold piping. While the costume could be complete as-is, add an element of drama (or humor) to the costume by introducing yourself to friends, acquaintances and miscellaneous passerby with a hearty, "Me name's Ahab. Captain Ahab. Have ye seen a white whale, name of Moby Dick?" Consider attaching a small white whale made of cardboard to your back with a sturdy arc of wire. The costume also lends itself to being played seriously, if acting like a revenge-crazed cetacean-obsessed seaman sounds like your idea of a good Halloween.
  
  

Historical Pirate

• Black boots and a red scarf make perfect pirate accessories.pirate girl image by Andrejs Pidjass from Fotolia.com
  
  Tweak the somewhat standard nautical Halloween costume idea of a pirate and make it your own by dressing as a historically inspired pirate, such as a Barbary pirate like Kheireddin Barbarossa, the Irish pirate Grace O'Malley, or the Chinese woman pirate Cheng I Sao, who commanded a fleet of over 1,500 ships, according to the CNN article "Most Successful Pirate was Beautiful and Tough." Learn a few interesting tidbits about the person or region upon which you are basing your pirate costume so you can entertain (and impress) people who ask about it.
  
  

Swimmer and Shark

• Craft a costume that will get big laughs: a felt shark body worn like a sort of dress, covering your head, arms, torso and upper part of the lower body, leaving your legs exposed from about the knee down. Wear brightly colored swim trunks and a pair of flippers. The shark's tail goes above your head, the dorsal fin sticking out of your back. This costume produces the amusing visual effect of a hapless swimmer sticking out of a shark's mouth. A swimmer and shark costume is suitable for someone with moderate sewing skills and a desire to be funny.