Australia Costume Trends 2026: What Search Data Reveals
A search-data report by Costumes in Australia · updated August 2026 · media may cite any figure below with attribution and a link to this page.
Key findings
- Scary still beats cute. Halloween searches built around "scary" add up to roughly 16,000 a month across 68 phrases — about 38% more than the "cute" and "funny" clusters combined (11,580 across 79 phrases).
- Australians want to buy a Halloween costume, not make one. The "easy" cluster draws about 15,200 monthly searches across 57 phrases — roughly 22 times the "DIY" cluster (680).
- Adults and children are dead level: "adult halloween costumes" and "kids halloween costumes" each record exactly 1,900 monthly searches.
- Nobody dresses up alone: the couples cluster totals about 5,230 monthly searches and the group cluster about 4,600 — a combined ~9,800 for dressing up with someone else.
- Oktoberfest remains women-led: "oktoberfest outfit" (4,400) and "dirndl" (2,900) against "lederhosen outfit" (590) — a near five-to-one split that has not moved since our June reading.
- Costume demand is not concentrated in Sydney and Melbourne. Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide each peak at 2,400 monthly searches for costume-shop queries, ahead of Sydney's 1,900 and Melbourne's 1,900.
Halloween: what Australians actually search for
Australian Halloween search behaviour splits along four lines, and three of them run against the way the season is usually described.
Scary wins. Phrases containing "scary" alongside "halloween" total roughly 16,000 monthly searches across 68 variations, led by "scary halloween costumes" (1,600). The "cute" (4,200) and "funny" (7,380) clusters together come to 11,580. Australian Halloween is often read as a pastel, family-friendly import; the search data says the horror end of the shelf is where the volume sits. See our scary costumes range.
Ready-made beats homemade, overwhelmingly. "Easy" Halloween phrases draw about 15,200 monthly searches across 57 variations, headed by "easy halloween costumes" (2,400). The DIY cluster — the craft-tutorial end — musters 680 across eight phrases. The ratio is roughly 22 to 1. Whatever people say about handmade costumes, what they type is a request for something that arrives finished.
Adults are half the market, exactly. "Adult halloween costumes" and "kids halloween costumes" both sit at 1,900 monthly searches. Widen it to the full clusters and adults pull ahead (4,460 against 2,450). Halloween in Australia is not a children's occasion with an adult fringe. See the adult range and the kids range.
Plus-size demand is real but under-served. The plus-size Halloween cluster totals about 1,100 monthly searches across six phrases — small in absolute terms, but a specific, high-intent request that most seasonal ranges answer thinly. See our plus size range.
Nobody dresses up alone
The single strongest behavioural signal in Australian Halloween search is that people are planning for two or more.
The couples cluster totals roughly 5,230 monthly searches across 19 phrases, with "couples halloween costumes" (2,400) at the head. The group cluster adds another 4,600 across 22 phrases. Together that is close to 9,800 monthly searches from people who have already decided they are not going as one person.
That reframes what a Halloween range has to do. A shelf organised by character serves a solo shopper; a shelf organised by pair and by group serves the way the searches are actually phrased. See our groups and couples costumes range.
Oktoberfest: a women-led season
Australia's Oktoberfest season is the most stable pattern in this dataset — every headline figure from our June reading has held. "Oktoberfest outfit" records 4,400 monthly Australian searches. The gender split is decisive and unchanged: "dirndl" (2,900) against "lederhosen outfit" (590), close to five to one. Widen the lens and the same shape holds — "oktoberfest female costume" (880), "oktoberfest outfit female" (590), "female oktoberfest outfit" (480) and "oktoberfest clothes women" (480) all carry meaningful volume, with no male-specific equivalent at that level. Australian Oktoberfest events run from Brisbane to Melbourne through September and October, and the data says women are planning outfits earlier and in greater numbers. Range context: Oktoberfest costumes.
Where the demand lives
| Search term | Monthly AU searches |
|---|---|
| costume shop brisbane qld | 2,400 |
| costume shop perth | 2,400 |
| costume stores perth wa | 2,400 |
| costume shop adelaide | 2,400 |
| costume shop sydney | 1,900 |
| melbourne dress up shops | 1,900 |
| costume shop gold coast | 1,300 |
| costume shop qld | 1,300 |
| costume shop melbourne | 1,300 |
| costume store sydney | 1,000 |
Costume search does not follow population. Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide each peak at 2,400 monthly searches, ahead of the strongest Sydney and Melbourne phrases at 1,900. Add Gold Coast and state-level Queensland queries and the south-east Queensland corridor alone clears 5,000 monthly searches. For an online retailer dispatching Australia-wide, the practical reading is that the smaller capitals are under-served rather than under-interested.
The year-round undercurrents
Three clusters keep ticking outside the seasonal peaks. Masks are a standing category rather than a Halloween accessory: "masquerade mask" (2,900) and "ballroom mask" (3,600) between them draw 6,500 monthly searches with no single seasonal peak — see our masks range. Distinctly Australian dress-up holds steady — "aussie icons" (3,600), "australian icons" (2,900) and "aussie icons dress up" (1,300). And decades nostalgia is a permanent fixture: "costumes from 80s" draws 3,600 monthly searches on its own, confirming decades dress-up as a standing category rather than a passing trend.
Book Week 2026, in retrospect
CBCA Book Week ran 22–28 August 2026 under the theme "Symphony of Stories", and it remains the largest single dress-up search event in the Australian calendar: the head term "book week costumes" records 18,100 monthly Australian searches, with "book week costume ideas" (2,900) and "easy book week costumes" (1,600) behind it. The composition of that demand is the same story we see at Halloween — "easy" and "ideas" queries dominate, because families decide late and need something that arrives finished. For context on what school families choose, see our Book Week costumes range.
Methodology & media use
All figures are monthly search volumes from the Semrush Australia database, compiled by Costumes in Australia and updated August 2026. Cluster totals are the sum of de-duplicated phrase volumes within a theme and are labelled as such; head-term figures are single-phrase volumes. Costumes in Australia is an Australian-owned online costume retailer with 15+ years in business, dispatching Australia-wide from Melbourne. Journalists and publishers are welcome to cite any figure with attribution and a link to this page. For data questions or costume commentary, contact sales@costumesinaustralia.com.au.