A golden retriever named Chandler Bing is ready for Halloween.
Katie Palamara
Palamara tells PEOPLE she’s a Halloween lover who’s dressed up every year of her life.
“I was trick-or-treating until I was 18 years old, and I’ve always DIY-ed my own costumes,” she says. “So of course, just the next step when I got a dog was to dress my dog up. I’ve got a creative bone and I just love doing DIY projects.”
Palamara began dressing up Chandler, who’ll turn 3 at the end of October, in 2021. The Pittsburgh-based video editor welcomed a second golden retriever, Ernie, in June, so this year she’ll be making costumes for both pooches.
Each costume takes between 30 minutes and three hours, depending on how intricate it is. Palamara keeps an “ever-growing” Pinterest board full of ideas, and also seeks inspiration from friends, family and social media.
She also tries to do a couple of costumes based on pop culture trends each year. This year, Chandler and Ernie will be dressing as Ken and Allan from the blockbusterBarbiemovie.
Some of Palamara’s favorite costumes for Chandler from the past two years include Food Network personalityGuy Fieri, Froot Loops cereal, and a take on macaroni and cheese crafted from yellow pool noodles.
“I love using pool noodles, so any chance I can get to use pool noodles for something is hysterical to me,” she says.
She’s especially partial to Chandler’s corn costume from 2022, which she says has gone viral twice after she reposted it on TikTok on Sept. 18. It racked up 6.1 million views in October 2022, and another 9.9 million in the past two weeks.
While Palamara isn’t surprised that Chandler’s costumes have been so popular on social media, she says it’s hard to predict which ones will take off. Certain costumes that took a lot of effort, like the Energizer Bunny and Paddington Bear, haven’t quite gotten the response she anticipated.
Palamara describes Chandler as “a big goofball.”
“He makes me laugh all the time,” she adds. “He’s just got quirky facial expressions.”
Ernie’s getups this year won’t be as elaborate as Chandler’s, since she’s weaning the pup into his costumes. Some days just Chandler will dress up, some days just Ernie, and some days both will be decked out for Halloween month.
“I’m definitely not making 52 costumes,” she says. “But I am trying to think of the most iconic duos that I can do.”
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source: people.com
