How to Dress Like Caroline Calloway This Halloween

Rose Minutaglio
Photo credit: Noam Galai - Getty Images
Photo credit: Noam Galai - Getty Images

From ELLE

The year 2019 has blessed us with an abundance of memes, sensational scammers, and viral celeb moments—all ripe for the picking this #SpookySzn. ELLE.com is here to help you win Hallowmeme with our complete guide to costumes for people who love the Internet.

Who is Caroline Calloway?

Photo credit: Noam Galai - Getty Images
Photo credit: Noam Galai - Getty Images

Where to begin in the twisty tale that is the Caroline Calloway saga? The 27-year-old is one of Instagram's original influencers and has since become, in the words of The New York Times, "a fixture in the digital daily tours of some young, literary, edgy people, particularly women." She's also, some people allege, a world class con artist. In 2015, she sold a book for an advance of $375,000, which she never wrote. She's also organized "creativity workshops" that turned out to be total messes. In September, her Instagram caption ghostwriter (and brief maid) Natalie Beach penned a juicy exposé for The Cut about their lapsed friendship.

You should wear this costume if...

You can't keep away from Calloway's infamous Instagram account.

View this post on Instagram

I hope reading what I write feels the way this photo looks: like we're best friends and I'm siting across the table from you after brunch. I'm telling stories, cracking jokes. Wry little smiles like this are frequent. Sarcasm abounds. Although maybe there is less fuck-me eyes going on because you're not @freddie.i and he's the one who took this photo. Which is to say: to those who left a comment on my last photo concerned our new story wouldn't have the old perks you've come to know and love and expect in a Calloway story (boys with accents, castles) don't worry. I hear you. I got you. In fact, @freddie.i 's got you even if that's not what he intended when he posted those shirtless photos on vacation two years ago. But I give you my permission to stalk them at your leisure. You're welcome. You're my best friends. And this and brunch and stories and jokes are what best friends are for. So onwards! Upwards! We have a new story ahead of us and there's no better feeling than that in the world. There will be boys with accents. There will be boys with accents in castles! How much though I won't say. Just wanted to let you know up front that your worries have been heard and handled and there is nothing but anticipation to look forward to. To Be Continued

A post shared by Caroline Calloway (@carolinecalloway) on Jan 29, 2017 at 5:59am PST

How to get it:

This costume is pretty easy: It's all about the flower crown. At one of Calloway's events advertised as a "seminar," her online followers were invited to meet their idol IRL at a Brooklyn loft. The cost was $156. Originally, Calloway guaranteed that all attendees would receive a flower crown to—bear with me—learn "the secret to flower crowns." However, according to Buzzfeed, Calloway had other plans.

She decided to use the flower money to pay for professional photographers instead (after initially asking for volunteers to do free photography, she faced fans’ blowback and agreed that paying them was the right thing to do). Instead of giving everyone a flower crown as a favor, she clipped a few flowers into their hair as they posed for a photo, then reused them for the next guest. Andrea Park, who wrote about attending the event half-ironically on W Magazine's website, said that when Calloway clipped the flower to Park’s hair, she whispered, "The secret to flower crowns is there is no secret."

Pair your phony flower crown with a piece of art (Calloway is now making money as a visual artist), a selfie stick, and some blue plates.

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