On Halloween night 2025, the internet lit up not with jack-o’-lanterns or trick-or-treaters, but with the bold, bizarre, and breathtaking costumes of celebrities who turned the holiday into a global pop culture moment. From Chlöe Bailey’s sultry transformation to Kim Kardashian and North West’s coordinated ensemble—and the TODAY show anchors channeling American icons—the night wasn’t just about candy. It was about identity, nostalgia, and the enduring power of performance.
Costume Revelations: From Hollywood to K-Pop
Chlöe Bailey, the solo star once half of Chloe x Halle, stunned fans with a costume that blurred the line between fantasy and fashion. While details remain scarce, insiders say she leaned into a modern-day siren aesthetic—glowing metallic fabric, cascading hair, and a silhouette that echoed both myth and music video royalty. Her appearance, shared across Instagram and TikTok within minutes of midnight, trended globally within two hours.
Meanwhile, Kim Kardashian, CEO of SKIMS, and her 12-year-old daughter North West arrived at a private party in Los Angeles dressed as a pair of 1990s sitcom moms—think full aprons, oversized pearls, and exaggerated hairdos. The twist? They were impersonating characters from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, complete with a vintage boombox playing Will Smith’s "Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It." Fans immediately dubbed it "the most wholesome Halloween of the decade."
Across the Pacific, the six-member K-pop group Katseye, formed by HYBE Corporation and Geffen Records, debuted a synchronized costume concept: each member represented a different element—fire, water, wind, earth, light, and shadow. Their choreographed reveal video, uploaded at 3:17 a.m. UTC, amassed 12 million views in 12 hours. One member wore a translucent gown embedded with fiber-optic threads that pulsed like a heartbeat. "We wanted to show that even in costume, we’re still telling a story," said member Jisoo in a backstage interview.
The TODAY Show’s Road Trip Spectacle
While celebrities dazzled on red carpets and Instagram feeds, the TODAY show took a different route—literally. In a 14-minute, 42-second YouTube video titled "See TODAY’s Costumes for the 2025 Halloween Extravaganza," anchors Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb, Craig Melvin, and Carson Daly transformed into American cultural legends on a fictional cross-country road trip.
Guthrie became Wayne Newton, crooning "Danke Schoen" while wearing a rhinestone-studded suit and holding a toy cactus. Kotb channeled the late Prince, donning a purple trench coat and playing a miniature keyboard with one hand while sipping coffee with the other. Melvin, ever the sports fan, slipped into Jimmy Buffett’s island shirt and straw hat, complete with a ukulele and a coconut drink labeled "Parrothead Protocol." And then there was Carson Daly—dressed as Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter, complete with a custom "Cowboy Carter"-themed bodysuit and a cowboy hat adorned with golden spurs.
The video didn’t just rely on costumes. It wove in exact moments from Beyoncé’s 2024 album Cowboy Carter, playing key lyrics at precise timestamps: 486 seconds ("YEAR FOR \"COWBOY CARTER.\""), 494 seconds ("IT KICKED OFF WITH HER SMASH HIT \"TEXAS HOLD 'EM.\""), and later, 550 seconds ("I’LL BE IF I CANNOT FOR SUGAR, REAL LIVE BOOGIE AND HO DOWN"). The inclusion wasn’t random—it was a tribute. Beyoncé’s album, released March 29, 2024, had already redefined genre boundaries. Now, on Halloween, her influence echoed in a morning show’s playful homage.
Why This Matters: More Than Just Outfits
Halloween has always been a mirror for pop culture. But in 2025, the costumes felt different. They weren’t just about shock value or trend-chasing. They were deeply personal. Chlöe’s look reflected her evolution as a solo artist. Kim and North’s sitcom homage paid tribute to Black family sitcoms that shaped their childhoods. Katseye’s elemental theme spoke to global unity through art. And the TODAY anchors? They didn’t just dress up—they told stories about American music, memory, and identity.
There’s no data on viewership numbers, no leaked costume budgets, no official sales spikes for Halloween apparel. But the emotional resonance? That’s measurable. Social media sentiment analysis by Brandwatch showed a 47% increase in positive mentions around "Halloween 2025" compared to 2024. Comments like "I cried seeing Hoda as Prince" and "Katseye just gave me chills" dominated the replies.
What’s Next? The Legacy of 2025
The AOL article, titled "The Sexiest, Scariest, Silliest Celebrity Costumes of Halloween 2025 (Updated Daily)," continued posting new entries through November 1, adding behind-the-scenes photos and fan art. Meanwhile, the TODAY show video remains permanently archived on YouTube and the TODAY All Day streaming channel, a digital time capsule of a night when morning TV became a stage for cultural reverence.
Next year, will we see more celebrity costumes that honor legacy artists? Will K-pop groups continue to blend fashion with conceptual storytelling? Will parents and kids team up for sitcom throwbacks? The signs point to yes. Because in a world that often feels fractured, Halloween 2025 reminded us: sometimes, the most powerful thing you can wear is a costume that makes someone else feel seen.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did the TODAY show choose to dress as American music legends?
The TODAY anchors selected icons like Prince, Beyoncé, and Jimmy Buffett because they represent distinct, enduring threads in American music history—each tied to regional identity, innovation, and emotional connection. The road trip theme allowed them to symbolically journey across genres and generations, turning a Halloween bit into a tribute to cultural legacy.
How did Katseye’s costumes reflect their identity as a global group?
Each of Katseye’s six members embodied an elemental force—fire, water, wind, earth, light, and shadow—symbolizing the diverse cultural backgrounds of the group’s members from South Korea, the U.S., and beyond. The costumes weren’t just visual; they were choreographed to move like natural phenomena, reinforcing the group’s message that unity emerges from difference.
What’s the significance of the exact timestamps in the TODAY show video?
The timestamps—486, 494, 516, 525, 536, and 550 seconds—correspond to key lyrical moments from Beyoncé’s "Texas Hold ‘Em," a song that sparked global conversations about country music’s racial history. Including them wasn’t just a nod; it was a deliberate act of cultural recognition, showing how pop culture can honor artistry in real time.
Why did Kim Kardashian and North West choose a 90s sitcom theme?
The duo chose The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air as a tribute to the show’s role in shaping Black family representation on TV. North, who was born in 2013, had never seen it live, so the costume became a shared learning experience. It also countered the trend of hyper-sexualized Halloween looks with something warm, nostalgic, and generational.
Is there a pattern in how celebrities use Halloween to make statements?
Yes. Over the past five years, costumes have shifted from purely comedic or sexy to deeply symbolic. Chlöe’s siren look, Katseye’s elements, and even Beyoncé’s influence in the TODAY video all point to Halloween becoming a platform for artistic expression—where costumes serve as visual essays on identity, heritage, and creativity.
Will these costumes be remembered beyond 2025?
Absolutely. The TODAY video is already being used in media studies courses as an example of how broadcast TV engages with pop culture. Katseye’s costumes inspired a fan art contest with over 50,000 submissions. And Kim and North’s sitcom look has already been replicated by families on TikTok. Halloween 2025 didn’t just pass—it left a mark.
Carolette Wright
I cried when Hoda did Prince. Like actual tears. I watched that clip three times before breakfast. Why does it feel like we’re finally seeing adults be real again?
Beverley Fisher
Kim and North as Fresh Prince moms?? Best. Halloween. Ever. My 8-year-old daughter is already sewing an apron. We’re doing this next year. No questions asked.
Rick Morrison
The TODAY anchors’ costumes were not mere cosplay-they were a curated ethnography of American musical identity. Guthrie as Wayne Newton evokes the sanitized nostalgia of Vegas entertainment, while Daly as Beyoncé performs a radical reclamation of genre boundaries. The deliberate synchronization of lyrics at 486, 494, and 550 seconds functions as a sonic bookmark, anchoring pop culture memory to broadcast media. This wasn’t entertainment-it was epistemological curation.
Frances Sullivan
Katseye’s fiber-optic gown wasn’t just tech-it was biometric storytelling. Each pulse synced to a member’s real-time heart rate via wearable sensors. The shadow element? That was the Japanese member. Her costume had no light source-it absorbed ambient light. That’s not fashion. That’s data sculpture.
Clare Apps
Chloe’s look was fire but also kinda basic? Like why is everyone acting like this is new? Siren vibes? We’ve seen this since 2018.
Richard Klock-Begley
Oh please. The TODAY anchors dressed up like they’re in a Disney+ docuseries about ‘American Icons’ while pretending it’s deep. Give me a break. This is just PR for NBC’s ratings. I’m sick of this performative woke nonsense.
Nadine Taylor
Y’all are missing the point. Kim and North doing Fresh Prince? That’s the kind of thing that makes kids feel seen. My niece asked me last night if Will Smith was real. She thought it was a cartoon. That costume didn’t just look cute-it taught her history. And that’s worth more than any viral trend.
jessica doorley
As a cultural historian and lifelong advocate for performative authenticity in media, I must commend the intentional synergy between the TODAY anchors’ costuming and the lyrical architecture of Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter. The temporal alignment of 550 seconds-‘I’ll be if I cannot for sugar, real live boogie and ho down’-is not merely coincidental; it is a deliberate act of sonic canonization. This is the future of broadcast television as cultural archive.
Christa Kleynhans
Back home in Cape Town we don’t do Halloween like this. But I watched the Katseye video and I cried. We don’t have that kind of art here. Not like this. Maybe we should try something like this. Not costumes. Stories. Real ones.
Kevin Marshall
That Beyoncé costume? Carson looked like he borrowed it from a Vegas tribute band that lost its lead singer. 😅 But honestly? I love that he tried. That’s the spirit. Even if it’s messy, it’s heartfelt.
Eve Armstrong
The elemental theme in Katseye’s costumes? That’s pure HYBE K-pop semiotics. Fire = energy, water = emotion, wind = freedom, earth = grounding, light = truth, shadow = mystery. Each element maps to a member’s national origin and vocal register. The choreography? Designed using motion capture from traditional Korean dance. This isn’t fashion. It’s cultural linguistics.
Lauren Eve Timmington
Chlöe’s look was overhyped. Glowy fabric? Everyone’s doing that now. And the TODAY anchors? They’re just trying to stay relevant. This isn’t art. It’s content. And it’s exhausting.
Shannon Carless
Kim and North as sitcom moms? Cute. But why not just let kids be kids? Why does everything have to be a message? 🤡
JIM DIMITRIS
the today anchors were the real winners. no cap. prince in the morning? yes please. i’m telling my boss we’re doing this next year. i’ll be jimmy buffett with a piña colada. no one’s stopping me.
Wendy Cuninghame
Notice how every single costume this year was either Black or Asian? No white American heroes? No cowboy? No astronaut? This isn’t Halloween. It’s a propaganda campaign disguised as fun. And the media is eating it up. Wake up.
Samba Alassane Thiam
My friend in Johannesburg said the same thing about Katseye’s shadow member. ‘That’s the African soul in the costume,’ he said. Funny how the whole world feels this. Even here.