When is sexy back? On Friday. Suggestive, sexy ladies’ Halloween costumes have been a hot and heavy trend for years, and it just keeps getting hotter.

“Really, it’s for the woman who wants to feel beautiful and confident,” says Heather Golin. She should know. Her company, Spirit Halloween, is one of the largest and oldest Halloween retailers.  Why are ladies looking for some nice but naughty looks? These days, just about everyone needs a little escapist fantasy.

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You are down to the wire. This is your last chance to buy a tiara without needing a good explanation. It’s Halloween, and everyone is out buying weird things to wear.

Maybe you have never worn a tiara to the grocery store, or you don’t have a job in which it would be considered appropriate work attire. None of that matters. What matters is sparkle, and posture, and a wish for world peace. What matters is your inner child. You need to listen to her, because believe us, she wants a tiara.

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Barack Obama and John McCain masks are hot for Halloween, but by far the most popular political look roaming the streets Friday will be Sarah Palin, McCain’s high-profile running mate.

Big mask-makers missed the time window to produce Palin masks - her selection came too late. There are a few masks, such as this molded Sarah mask ($30, left), or you can go the more economic paper mask with Sarah’s photographic likeness ($1).

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If you start clicking now, you just might be able to order a big, new, spooky, fancy frightening item or two for the front yard to scare all the neighborhood hobgoblins. Remember, bigger is better when it comes to Halloween decor.

Inflatables are the quickest way to make a sinister statement. Turn your entryway into something really hair-raising with a 9-foot-tall inflatable mortuary archway ($119). Kids will love crawling through the inflatable haunted house with spooky sounds and lighting ($297, above). What could say “Fright Night” better than this Frankenstein monster cooking up a witch ($90)? 

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Basic black took on a new meaning in Yves Saint Laurent’s fall 2008 runway show (above, left, from New York Magazine) with models pouting their gothic black lips under severely chopped bowl-cut hair. Rachel McAdams (above, right) carried off the noir look beautifully in her New York Times T magazine spread. Now, we’re all smacking our lips over the two hottest products of the season: YSL Gloss Pur Black and Lancôme’s Color Fever Gloss in Piha Black and Piha Red (below right).

YSL Gloss Pur Black ($28, left) is a limited-edition preview of a new formula of six vibrant high-shine colors set to launch in spring 2009. A glance at the YSL Web site tells us it’s all sold out for now, so you can only admire the picture. Apparently, part of the beauty of the black gloss is that the shade varies depending on how it’s applied.

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Hannah Montana hangs out here, and Bob the Builder, too - both sharing space with brides and hippies, rock stars and tourists, doctors and nurses. They’re all a dime a dozen on the racks of Goodwill stores.

“October is our busiest month at Goodwill stores,” said Lauren Lawson, representative of Goodwill Industries International. Not only do the stores carry new, packaged costumes for around $13, the rows and rows of clothing, shoes and boots, hats, belts, bags, linens and kiddie stuff need nothing but a bit of creativity to turn them into the coolest costumes on the street.

“With the economy this year, the state it’s in, no one wants to go out and spend $40 or $50 on something they’re going to wear exactly once,” said Juli Lundberg, a regional Goodwill representative. Plus, you’ll give to Goodwill’s good cause: job training programs for those who need help.

Need ideas? Try a few of these:

• Old prom gown? Make a gold cardboard Oscar statuette, pile your hair on top of your head and go as a red carpet winner. Or cut the dress down for a little girl’s princess costume.
• Argyle vest? White button-down shirt? Go prep!

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We love to pick on designers; they make oodles of money doing things we’d love to do. It’s even more fun when they’ve made something completely and utterly unwearable, and gone ahead and sent it down a fashion runway on a size 0 model in a collection labeled “ready to wear.” As if!

We are especially entertained by some of the items we’ve seen in the spring 2009 collections in the last few weeks, because fall leaves and the calendar have us thinking Halloween.

In that vein, we present our own Top 10 Trick-or-Treat Collection, straight from the runways of New York and Paris.

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Forget Marilyn Manson. Goth is now mainstream. The “pretty Goth” look ruled the runways at London Fashion Week recently (above), and the cheerful child-friendly site Kidzworld tells kids how to dress Goth. Anyone with a trendy teenager in the family has probably seen way too much kohl around the eyes and dark lipstick and nails a la the adorable singer Avril Lavigne.

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