Everything You Need to DIY 'The Last of Us' Halloween Costumes
Who knew the post-apocalypse would be so...comfy?
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Sometimes, it's fun to go all-out with a great Halloween costume, and dress in a huge, eye-catching number. But as the night goes on, those costumes can get heavy, or cumbersome — and don't even think about trying to use the bathroom when you're in one. When you're not in the mood to deal, it's best to shop your closet and come up with an easy-to-DIY Halloween costume with the stuff you already own, with maybe a signature piece added in here or there. It's easier on the budget, better for the planet and, best of all, much comfier to walk around in.
This year, if you want to go the easy route, there's no better way than dressing like Joel or Ellie from The Last of Us. The HBO series (and the game it's based on) certainly bring the Halloween vibes, with a post-infection zombie-ish monsters running around and humans in survival mode. But the costumes themselves? They're mostly just regular clothes. These are the best The Last of Us costumes to wear for Halloween 2023. Whether you want to be Joel or Ellie (or, yuck, an infected), and whether you want to look like the game or the show, here's how to pull off that post-infection fit.
Looking for more great costume ideas? Check out these Good Housekeeping guides:
Pop Culture Halloween Costumes | Scary Halloween Costumes | Best-Friend Halloween Costumes | Group Halloween Costumes
The Complete Joel Look
Good Housekeeping was able to put together this DIY Joel costume by pulling together a few simple items: a green plaid shirt, dark jeans and a gray backpack. More options for Joel's wardrobe are below.
The actual shirt Pedro Pascal's Joel wears in The Last of Us, an $18 denim button-down that Wrangler makes exclusively for Walmart, is understandably sold out. This one is a close approximation, though any rugged button-down from the back of the closet might do.
Okay, nobody is shelling out more than $300 for Joel's authentic Flint and Tinder waxed trucker jacket just to wear as a Halloween costume. (Though it is nice-looking...) Any beige work jacket would do, especially when worn with an old, broken in pair of jeans, like Joel's Levi 505s.
If you really want authenticity points, you'd also get Joel's Irish Setter hunting boots. But any ol' work boots would probably have the same impact — which is why The Last of Us is such a good costume idea, since it's so versatile.
Timex Men's Expedition Scout 40 Watch
The significance of Joel's watch doesn't need to be explained to fans — they know it's his last memento from his daughter. He wears an analog watch with a dark face and a green band, similar to this one.
The key to surviving in a post-fungal-infection America? Layers, it seems. Ellie wears three of them, starting with a green, military-style cargo jacket, which has lots of helpful pockets (...for storing Halloween candy).
Under her jacket, Ellie's second layer is a burgundy hoodie — a versatile item of clothing fans probably have in their closets already. It might be useful to have around even after Halloween, when those cool, fall afternoons roll around.
Augusta Sportswear Women's Standard Baseball Tee
And Ellie's final layer is a maroon baseball tee. Say what you will about her — even as the world is falling apart, she's pretty color-coordinated.
And the last piece you really need for an Ellie costume is a pair of maroon, low-top canvas sneakers. You can shell out for real Converse Chuck Taylors, but these will save you some money.
If you'd rather have Ellie's look from the game, there are a few modifications. First, instead of a baseball tee, she wears this one, with a dual-palm-tree design. Instead of two jackets on top, she wears a long-sleeve black shirt under the t-shirt. And the Chucks go from maroon low-tops to gray high-tops.
The Joel of the game requires even fewer substitutions — you just need to swap in a dark green plain shirt for the denim one. In the HBO series, Joel briefly wears a modified Fjällräven flannel as a nod to his in-game outfit, but this one is much more affordable.
What's a The Last of Us landscape without some runners or stalkers ready to attack? You can repurpose a zombie costume to represent these early infected stages, though you'll also have to get creative with some face paint.
Maybe the less that's said about this, the better? But if you want to be an extreme Cordyceps-infected mutant, get this mask and you're good to go — bloaters and shamblers seem too hard to DIY and don't appear to be for sale. But the Clicker mask is terrifying enough!
Marisa (she/her) has covered all things parenting, from the postpartum period through the empty nest, for Good Housekeeping since 2018; previously, she wrote about parents and families at Parents and Working Mother. She lives with her toy-collecting husband and daughter in Brooklyn, where she can be found helping out her team at bar trivia or posting about movies on Twitter and Bluesky.
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