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Is It Just Me Or Did Target Make More Halloween Costumes With Masks Than Usual?

It may only be July, but it's never too early to start planning what to wear for the spookiest holiday of the year. Target's 2020 Halloween costumes featuring masks look especially appealing considering the current circumstances.

Face masks have already found their way into every facet of fashion — masks to match every outfit, masks for back-to-school (you know, if that's even a thing), masks sporting team logos, cartoon characters, businesses, etc. You name it, there's a mask for it. And Halloween is no exception.

When the word "mask" first started to become part of our common, everyday vernacular in the spring, I kept picturing costume-style masks nearly every time I heard the term. Like somehow Halloween had come early and people sporting masks of superheroes and clowns would soon roam the streets. (Hey, a girl can dream, right?) In reality, the swatches of fabric strung across noses and mouths ended up being colorful ways to express individuality, but a far cry from the full-faced masks of my Halloween dreams.

The silver lining of this entire pandemic though might just be a renewed interest in covering one's face with a mask on Halloween. Target's Halloween costumes for this year are fun and engaging for kids and adults alike, and many of their designs have the option of wearing masks built right in. Romper reached out to Target for comment on whether this was intentional to make more costumes than usual with masks, but did not receive a response.

I mean, you can clearly never go wrong wearing the costume of a classic masked-crusader like Spider-Man, and animal-loving kiddos will surely go bananas dressing up in this fully-masked gorilla costume this year. It just feels like there are more masked costumes than there have been in years past, and I'm here for it.

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For younger kiddos, a wide variety of costumes that feature head coverings are available this year. While these don't necessarily cover their face, they seem like they would be easy to add a generic face covering to without detracting from the focus of the costume itself. For example, this impossibly adorable penguin costume for girls looks like it could easily pair with a plain white face mask. And can we just talk for one hot second about how basically any solid color face mask would pair perfectly with this ridiculously cute rainbow caterpillar costume?

The same concept of adding a simple, solid-colored face mask works well with many of the options in Target's line of adaptive costumes. This robot costume is available in both kids and toddler sizes, and it looks like a grey or silver face mask would blend right in with the piece that goes over the wearers head to make this terrifically technological getup complete.

My kids have never been particularly into wearing the full-coverage latex masks on Halloween, and frankly neither have I. Although they're often the most detailed, they make me a bit claustrophobic. Plus, we live in Texas where it isn't uncommon for temperatures to reach 90 degrees in late October, and those masks become an absolute sweat-fest. Target seems to understand this conundrum based on the sheer amount of half-mask costume options they're offering this year. Some costumes, including several characters from the ever-popular video game Fortnite and the forever fierce Black Panther feature this type of mask already included with the costume purchase.

Although the kids' Halloween costumes at Target typically have the market cornered on adorable, don't think for one moment that you're going to sleep on this adult sloth costume this year. The top totally encases the wearer's head in a fuzzy shell that I'm pretty sure will keep most germs from breeching its barrier while you're out trick-or-treating.

Aside from just costumes with masks included, shoppers can also snag Halloween costume masks sold separately from the costumes that will transform you into everything from Pokemon to Power Rangers, Jack Skellington, Yoda and even Dobby from Harry Potter. No matter which way you decide to go with your costume this year, Target has you — and your face — covered.