Excellent site for DIY intelligent women's costumes

The site is Take Back Halloween, intended to provide more options than this:

Here's the idea:

We’re not selling any of this stuff. We’re a resource guide: we come up with the costume designs, explain what you’ll need to pull off the look, and provide links to where you can buy the various components.

As an example, here are parts of their Athena page:

Athena is easily the best-known and most popular Greek goddess. Yet none of the so-called “Athena” costumes for sale out there look remotely like her. Come on, people! She’s Athena! Helmet! Shield! Spear!

There were two very important statues of Athena on the acropolis in ancient Athens. The colossal statue inside the Parthenon was 38 feet tall, with the clothing made entirely of gold. The smaller wooden cult statue was life-sized, and dressed in a special gown made every year by the women of Athens. This dress was actually a tapestry, with scenes of mythological battles woven in purple and saffron. We can’t lay our hands on anything like that for our costume, but we are including a purple himation (wrapped cloak) with gold threads. The pieces we suggest, from left to right:

1. Gold satin flat sheet. This is for your tunic. The Greeks wore simple draped tunics of dyed wool, a look which is easily replicated with sheets and safety pins. We give you instructions below on how to pin it together. A full size sheet will work for most people.

2. Purple veil with gold and silver threads. Also available at Moondance and Artemis Imports. This is your purple himation. Loop it under one arm and knot it on your opposite shoulder.

3. Greek helmet. This is from the movie 300, which is as close as we’ll get to a Greek helmet without paying a fortune. We suggest cutting off the nose piece. This is a very flimsy latex helmet, so don’t expect a lot. Another option is this helmet, which seems to have real bristles in the crest (not molded plastic). The helmet itself is definitely made out of fabric, so you can cut and trim it to suit.

4. Greek shield. Another 300 movie prop.

5. Greek spear. Same deal.

6. Plush 9″ barn owl. Adorableness is not a trait usually associated with Athena, but this stuffed owl is adorable. Use safety pins to attach it to your shoulder at the place where your cloak is knotted. The owl is Athena’s totem animal; in fact, when you get right down to it, Athena is an owl. She’s the Neolithic bird goddess: owl-eyed Athena.

Optional snake armband: The snake is the other animal associated with Athena. Her statue in the Parthenon was accompanied by a humongous rearing snake, worked in gold like the rest of the sculpture. If you want to incorporate some snake references in your costume, you might consider a fat snaky armband like this. Athena doesn’t wear jewelry, so this would be your only ornament.

Shoes: Gold gladiators would be ideal. If you don’t have those, just basic flat leather sandals will work.

How to make the tunic: The simplest ancient tunic for costuming purposes is the Doric chiton, which consists of a single rectangle of fabric folded around the body. All you need is a flat sheet, some safety pins, and a belt or cord. (You can get a rope belt here in white, natural, or gold.) Here are your chiton instructions:

See the rest of the Athena page here, and dozens of other costumes, here.

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Faust, Mephistopheles, Napolean, Oliver Cromwell or a Hugenot: Halloween Ideas From an 1884 Costume Guide

From Male Character Costumes, a Guide to Gentlemen's Costume Suitable for Fancy Dress Balls and Private Theatricals, an 1884 costume guide available for free on Google Books. Mental Floss has posted a few more.

“Doublet of velvet, cut square at the throat, and filled in with a plaiting of muslin. The sleeves are full in the upper part, slashed with white silk, and formed into a double puff, fitting close on the forearm. The trunks are of velvet, slashed white. Long hose of lavender silk. Velvet cloak, lined with silk. Soft velvet hat, trimmed with a feather. Velvet sword belt, embroidered with gold.”

“Blue cloth coat faced with wide revers of white, edged round with buttons. The skirt of the coat is cut away from the front. White silk vest and leather breeches. Hugh Leather boots. Gold epaulets. Sword handle and spurs. Brilliant star on the breast.”

“Doublet of scarlet satin, slashed trunks to match. Scarlet silk tights. Scarlet cape, short, with a high collar. Cape forming a point in front, with two scarlet feathers.” Here's everything you need to know about Mephistopheles in case someone asks about your costume.

“Buff jerkin of leather with a deep steel collar. Knickerbockers. Jack boots. Long clock. Wide-brimmed beaver hat. Sword and belt.”

"Leather doublet fastened round the waist with a broad belt. Brown cloth sleeves, and hanging sleeves to match trimmed with braid. Roll epaulet. Trunks of cloth striped with broad braid. High leather boots reaching to the trunks. White linen collar."

For the ladies, here's what Batgirl would've looked like in the 1880s, from the 1887 edition of La mode illustrée, Journal de la Famille and an 1882 copy of the German publication Fliegende Blätter, respectively.

Here's the best bacon costume from 1894's Covent Gardens Fancy Dress Ball:

And a 1931 photo of NYC architects dressed up as their buildings. That’s William Van Alen, architect of the Chrysler Building, in the center; Ely Jacques Kahn, who designed the Squibb Building, to the left; and Ralph Walker, designer of One Wall Street, to the right.

From Architizer: 1931 Beaux Arts Ball

The Beaux Arts Architectural Society has put on some pretty lavish parties—a Napoleonic pageant, a Renaissance romp, "Venice Through the Ages"—but none approached the epic quality of its 1931 spectacle. Located at the Hotel Astor in NYC, "Fête Moderne - a Fantasie in Flame and Silver" included a robot puppet show, ballerinas dancing to the blues, and, according to the New York Times, an orchestra consisting of machines, steam pipes, ocean liner whistles, and sledgehammers, conducted by Kenneth Murchison. Most memorable, however, were the revelers' outfits: The architects wore replicas of buildings they had designed on their heads.

They also supply this:

Oskar Sclemmer’s Triadic Ballet, 1922

 1929 Bauhaus Metallic Festival:

For the Bauhaus, partying was an art. But the school's notorious happenings reached their apex with the Metallic Festival. The guests, dressed in tin foil and adorned with silverware, reached the party rooms through a slide covered with tinplate. The walls were also covered in tinplate, to reflect the revelers as they danced, and silver spheres dangled from the ceiling.

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