Some of the funnest Halloween Costumes are the ones you can make yourself or create from your closet.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve whipped together Hobo/Hippie/Gypsy Costumes out of the crap I have laying around my house. However, it also sucks when no one recognizes your costume or it looks like you put no effort in to it. So: I present my quick inspiration guide to a Buffy Summers costume that will scare any Big Bad running around on Halloween night.

The particular Buffy look I decided to go for was her 30 second-death-dress from the season 1 finale. Chick looked awesome!

First: the dress. I’m not sure how many people have floor length white gowns that aren’t wedding dresses, but I sure don’t. It’s also not easy to find any for cheap. If you have tons of times, I’d recommend checking out consignment stores or good will. But for the less ambitious, here are a few ideas to give you the look.

Ivory Satin Graduation Dress can be found here for $22.00

Vintage Eyelet Dress can be found here for $19.99

Isobel Lace Dress can be found here for $34.50

Sleeveless Pleated Dress can be found here for $49.50

Now for Angel’s sexy black jacket. If you have a real leather jacket, then rock it. If you don’t, I’ll link a few faux ones, since most of us don’t have hundreds to blow on an accessory to a Halloween costumes.

Bomber Faux-Leather Jacket can be found here for $39.99

If you want to pretend Angel is really your boyfriend for a night, get it in men’s here for $36.90!

Now: the shoes. You can kind of see them in the picture above and to the right. I went with mostly low heels so they’d be easy to walk and kill vampires in. Honestly, her shoes sort of look like awful bridal and bridesmaid’s heels, so you can look in cheap bridal stores if you wan to mimic the look exactly.

Low closed toe shoes can be found here for $29.00

Kenneth Cole Reaction can be found here for $35.99

Very important to early Buffy is her Iconic Silver Cross. Apparently they put out an official Buffy Necklace a good while ago, but it’s going for quite a bit of money nowadays on ebay.

Silver necklace can be found here for $16.00

Vintage-y Silver Cross can be found here for $27.00

Buffy’s Claddagh ring: Ok, so this was actually given to Buffy by Angel in season 2, but who cares? The one he gave her was fairly simple, but elegant.

This ring can be found here for $17.79

Extremely important to any Buffy look, of course, is the stake! Now, if you can whittle one yourself, kudos (and let’s be friends). If you can’t, then perhaps you can find plastic. I was able to find a bunch on etsy in varying degrees of coolness, so I just shared a few. There are a lot more so if you have the time give it a search.

If you want the most legit Buffy look, you gotta go with Mr. Pointy (though it doesn’t make an appearance til season 2)

However, it’s gonna cost you from here for $69.98

Antiquated Hand-turned stake can be found here for $20.00

Phineas J Legheart (who sells handcrafted vampire slaying kits) makes this handmade stake here for $25.00

Now, if you want to go full on crossbow, you have a few options (again, if you already have a crossbow, bow it up). One option is the safe and cheap plastic foam crossbow, which can totally be painted to look less stupid.

Clown bow can be found here for $14.97

Another Toy turned costume killing machine is the Bamboo and Wood Crossbow which can be found here for $8.99

Awesome handgun-steampunk crossbow can be found here for $49.99

The icing on the slayer cake is nail polish! In season one, she was all about the white and it can be purchased basically anywhere!