The caption costume can refer to wardrobe and dress in general, or to the discrete style of dress of a particular people, class, or period. Costume may also refer to the artistic arrangement of accessories in a picture, statue, poem, or play, appropriate to the Adult Costumes time, place, or other circumstances represented or described, or to a particular style of clothing worn to portray the wearer as a character or type of character other than their regular persona at a social action such as a masquerade, a adorned dress party or in an artistic theatrical performance.

Another very in vogue situation where costumes are employed are for sporting events, where people dressed as their team's archetypal mascot nourishment the club or team rally arciform their team's cause. Muscular costumes which are visually very similar to mascot costumes are also in vogue among the members of the furry fandom where they are referred to as fursuits.