Halloween in the Six Fashion Capitals

4 min read

A field report from one night, six cities. Every fact below links to a public source; anything that is our own read is labeled our reporting.

New York: Body & Soul

The 53rd Village Halloween Parade marched up Sixth Avenue on Saturday, October 31, under the theme “Body & Soul,” led by master puppeteer Basil Twist’s Firehorse!, choreographed by Julie Atlas Muz. Organizers asked New Yorkers to put down their screens and “host a soul,” bringing back someone who came before them through costume and dance. (Village Halloween Parade, Time Out New York, CBS New York)

The look: anatomical, supernatural, full dance-floor diva. On the night, Spectrum News NY1 posted a whole troupe of marchers dressed as Dolly Parton (NY1 on X) and Mr. and Mrs. Met dancing to “Thriller” (NY1 on X).

Los Angeles: One Mile of Route 66

West Hollywood’s free Halloween Carnaval took over Santa Monica Boulevard between Doheny Drive and La Cienega from 6 to 11 p.m., with a DJ stage at San Vicente. The city expected tens of thousands of revelers, with the Rainbow District’s bars, clubs and hotels carrying the night after the boulevard closed. The city’s own sign-off after midnight: “Another unforgettable Halloween Carnaval!” (City of West Hollywood on X) (City of West Hollywood, Visit West Hollywood)

London: Church at Midnight

The Neon Church filled One Marylebone for three nights: 3,000 guests, five rooms, three stages. elrow Horroween took the 15,000-capacity Drumsheds; Sky Garden hosted Dance of the Dead; Torture Garden’s Halloween Ball at Scala staged a latex performance piece, “The Pyre.” (Perplex London, Time Out London, London Night Guide, Scala)

Paris: Mourning, Masks Required

Silencio, the club designed by David Lynch, threw “Grand Deuil,” a mourning-themed night from 10 p.m. to noon with masks required. Fluid Halloween Hard Edition ran four floors of La Machine du Moulin Rouge until 6 a.m., and haunted Seine cruises were the city’s dominant format. (Tessou Paris, Ville de Paris, Mood)

RelatedThe Pulse: Election Day on Both Coasts, the Mayor’s Movember Mustache and Eileen Otte Ford’s Rule of the Real

Milan: The Fairground Horror Show

elrow Horroween took Fiera Milano Rho from 7 p.m. to 4 a.m. with Andrea Oliva and Ilario Alicante. Alcatraz went Día de los Muertos; Magazzini Generali ran “Welcome to Hell”; Amnesia hosted Leon. (elrow, Eventi a Milano, Amnesia Milano)

Tokyo: Costumes Yes, Street Party No

Shibuya’s message was “Goodbye Bad Halloween.” The ward fenced off the Hachikō statue from October 30 to November 1, posted about 125 guards on the 31st, and asked 62 shops not to sell alcohol after 6 p.m. Street drinking near the station has been banned 6 p.m. to 5 a.m. year-round since October 2024. Costumes are fine. Drink indoors. (Shibuya Keizai Shimbun, Spike Travel, Shibuya City)

Sidebar: Where Halloween Came From

Samhain. The Celts marked the end of summer and the harvest on October 31 to November 1, a night when they believed the boundary between the living and the dead grew thin. Bonfires, costumes and offerings belonged to it. (Britannica, History.com)

Rome. Rome conquered most Celtic lands by AD 43. Romans honored their dead at Feralia in late February and warded off restless spirits at Lemuria in May. Over four centuries of rule, Roman and Celtic customs mixed. (History.com)

Which god? You’ll often read that Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and orchards, gave Halloween its apples and bobbing games. It is a popular link but a weakly sourced one. Ancient sources record her priest and sacred grove but no festival date (Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities). The November 1 claim traces to the English writer William Hutchinson in 1776 and was repeated from there; Ovid tells her love story but names no festival (Mythology Matters, citing Lisa Morton’s Trick or Treat). Our reporting: treat Pomona as folklore about folklore. Samhain itself was a festival, not a god.

The Church. On May 13, 609 (or 610), Pope Boniface IV consecrated the Pantheon in Rome to the Virgin Mary and all the martyrs, a date that fell during Lemuria. Pope Gregory III (731–741) consecrated a chapel in St. Peter’s to all the saints and fixed its anniversary on November 1, and Gregory IV (827–844) extended the November 1 feast to the entire church. Its vigil became All Hallows’ Eve: Halloween. (Catholic Encyclopedia, “All Saints’ Day”, Britannica)

Invoking the spirit of Halloween. Our reporting: it means three things. Remembrance, naming the people who came before us. The mask, becoming someone else for a night. And the threshold, stepping through a door you usually keep shut. New York’s parade put it plainly this year: “Will you host a soul?”

From the Nightlife Report

Our podcast cover is struck like a coin: PATHEON, Son of Helios, ANTHONY PERLAS. And for the long nights ahead, two books in collector’s editions, The Rare Flame and The Way of the Republic. Readers get a free practice guide on our Patreon.

Historical art on our carousel, via Wikimedia Commons: Daniel Maclise, Snap-Apple Night (1833); G. P. Panini, Interior of the Pantheon (c. 1734, National Gallery of Art); Emanuel de Witte, Vertumnus and Pomona; Fra Angelico, Fiesole altarpiece predella (National Gallery, London); James Ensor, Mask Looking at Crustaceans (1891). All public domain or CC0.

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