For this year’s sexy Halloween costume, consider the lobster.
According to Chad Horstman, the “sexy lobster” just may be the “it” costume of 2014. And he would know — as CEO of online lingerie retailer turned Halloween hotspot Yandy, Horstman is the man you can thank for a cornucopia of un-Kosher costumes ranging from riffs on fruit (what “sexy watermelon” costume is complete without a bite mark shaped cutout?) to once-wholesome Disney characters (you’ll never look at Frozen’s Olaf the same way again.)
But, apart from Horstman’s faith that “people love lobster,” what could make the recently debuted costume a grand success? Well, not only is it “cute with furry claws” to tug at the heart strings, but it follows a long line of winning “funny food” costumes that show a lot of leg.
“It’s kind of last year’s sexy pizza costume,” Horstman says. While colleagues questioned whether women would want to parade around as a carbohydrate, the 2013 sexy pizza earned a segment on the Daily Show and a trip for the costume’s model to the Playboy Mansion’s Halloween party.
Although, Horstman admits that in spite of viral success, actual sexy pizza sales were only moderate.
The creative costuming industry can be tough. Not all of Horstman’s passion projects take off. In an interview last year, Horstman told Time his dreams of women buying Yandy’s sexy corn costume in bulk to “wear them together and go as a [sexy] corn field” never came to fruition.
But there’s no use dwelling on the past.
This year, Yandy debuted other costumes that Horstman has high hopes for. Like the sexy taco — which is slightly more tasteful than the uber-sexy hamburger, complete with bun headpiece.
“We also just released the three-boobs girl,” Horstman says, touting a viral costume based on a viral news story. “We have a prosthetic middlebreast and a mesh top that she wore. I think, that’s one of the ones where I’m like, if you want to win a costume contest, you should buy this. But I guess that a lot of girls don’t want to win costume contests… Have we sold any?”
“A couple,” answers Yandy marketing director Sarah Chamberlain. “We’ve sold a couple.”
What are consumers thinking?
