Halloween Costume Guide
She hid under the floor for sixteen years. Now she runs the bunker.
Octavia goes from a girl hidden under the Ark’s floor to a warrior who fights her way into leading an entire underground bunker of survivors. The vertical black line of war paint down her face is the one item that makes this costume read as Octavia instead of a generic Grounder warrior. The 100 aired on The CW from 2014 to 2020 (Wikipedia), so at a general Halloween party in 2026 you’ll likely get more “cool warrior” than “oh, Octavia,” though the face paint gives the look enough punch to work on its own.
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The face paint is the first thing people notice, before the corset or the katana. A single straight line drawn slightly off-center or smeared halfway through the night turns the whole look into random tribal makeup instead of Octavia specifically. Skip the paint entirely and you’re just a person in a leather corset holding a sword, which reads as generic fantasy at best. Get the line right and set with powder, and everything else on the list is just support.
There’s a moment where Octavia fights her way through an entire arena of opponents to win the Conclave and take over leadership of Wonkru, and she does it without saying much of anything. That’s the energy to bring to a party. Not loud, not explaining the costume to everyone who asks. Just standing there like you already won the argument before it started.
The katana needs a plan before the party, not during it
A prop sword without a holster becomes a constant hand-holding problem the second you want to eat, drink, or dance. Decide on the hip holder or the back strap before you leave the house, not when you’re already at the venue and juggling a drink in one hand. If you go with the back strap, practice sitting down in it once. Some designs jab you in the spine the moment you lean back in a chair.
The corset will feel fine for the first two hours
Then it won’t. Boned corsets that fit well at 8pm start digging in by 11pm, especially if you’ve been sitting, eating, or dancing. Loosen the laces slightly before the discomfort starts rather than waiting until you’re uncomfortable enough to want to take the whole thing off in a bathroom. A slightly looser lace all night beats a tight one for three hours and nothing after that.
Group Idea: The 100 Cast
Excellent group if your crowd watched the show. Octavia, Clarke, Bellamy, and Lexa cover the show’s core visual language of leather, armor, and Grounder war paint, and the mix of characters gives everyone a different silhouette to play with. This is the one group idea here that doesn’t need anyone to explain the reference to the others.
Group Idea: Post-Apocalyptic Icons
Strong group even for a crowd that hasn’t seen The 100. Furiosa, Katniss, and Ellie are all individually recognizable from their own franchises, and the shared thread of leather, weapons, and survivalist grit holds the group together visually without anyone needing to know Octavia specifically. This works better as a themed lineup than as a reference to one show.
Group Idea: Same Actor
Might work, but only for a crowd that knows her filmography well beyond The 100. Myra from Jiu Jitsu, Nikki from Tracers, and Sandra Lowe from Dead Rising: Endgame are all played by Marie Avgeropoulos, which is a fun trivia hook, but none of those characters have strong individual visual recognition on their own. This is a group for a room full of her fans, not a general Halloween party.
Group Idea: Same Name
Might work, but the connection here is the name and nothing else. Octavia from The Hunger Games prep team, Octavia from Helluva Boss, and Octavia Melody from My Little Pony share zero visual or tonal overlap with Octavia Blake. This one only lands as a joke if you announce the theme, since nobody will guess “same first name” on sight.
Group Idea: Iconic Face Paint
Strong group built around a real visual thread: Kratos’s red ash mark, William Wallace’s blue woad paint, and Floki’s heavy black eye makeup are all as recognizable as Octavia’s war paint line, even though the four come from completely different genres. The face paint carries the group even for people who don’t know all four sources.
This costume has a lot of pieces, but most of them are layering, not sourcing. The two things that actually make or break the look are the wig and the face paint.
Octavia doesn’t explain herself. She acts first and deals with the fallout after. That’s a useful energy to hold onto when someone asks who you are.
Start with the black braided wig and a fitted steampunk corset, then layer on brown chest armor and leg guards. Carry a katana in a hip holder or back strap, and finish with a hand drawn vertical black line down your forehead and nose. That paint line is what tells people you are Octavia and not a generic Grounder.
The 100 ended in 2020 and is not a current cultural reference point, so recognition depends entirely on whether your crowd watched the show. The war paint and full leather armor build still reads as a striking post apocalyptic warrior look on its own, even to people who never saw a single episode.
Octavia is played by Marie Avgeropoulos, a Canadian actress who appeared in all seven seasons of the series. The show aired on The CW from 2014 to 2020 and was developed by Jason Rothenberg.
Any straight, single edged prop sword works. What matters is that it has a scabbard so you can holster it, since carrying a bare blade around a crowded party all night is a real problem, not a costume detail.
Use a black cream eyeliner or face paint stick and draw one straight vertical line from your hairline down through the center of your nose. Set it with translucent powder so it does not smear. It is one line, not a design, which makes it one of the easier parts of this costume to get right.
Yes. Clarke, Bellamy, and Lexa are the most recognizable pairings, since they share the same visual language of leather and Grounder-influenced armor. The group only reads clearly to people who watched the show, so it works best with a crowd that already knows the series.