From scandalously clad nurses to ghoulishly scary grim reapers, Halloween is the only day on which the fashion faux pas would be to dress normally.

For men who tend to leave the holiday until the last minute, what their costumes lack in complexity, they make up for in ingenuity.

"Guys tend to run the gamut with horror stuff to Jason and Freddie, everything from gorillas to the iron chef," said Gary Filkins, manager at Gift Adventures, 137 E. Beaver Ave.

The costume asked for most among men is the "Burger King" king costume, after the new "Wake up with the king" promotions for Burger King's breakfast sandwich, Filkins said.

"It's a guy dressed like a king, but with a big [plastic] head too big for his body," he said. "It's kind of an eerie commercial for a burger joint."

At Party City and online sites such as www.buycostumes.com, everything from sexy referees, baseball players, police officers are sold out in women's attire.

"Anything half-sleazy and more risqué is kind of what women go for," said Michael Dale, manager at Party City, 32 Colonnade Way.

The storybook characters, such as Little Bo Peep, and even Bavarian beer costumes are also popular for women.

At vintage clothing store, The Rag and Bone, 220 S. Allen St., owner Shelley Banker said she sells and rents period costumes, which often help procrastinating college students piece together Halloween looks.

"The other day I had a bunch of guys come in looking to be Joker from Batman. I helped them put their own look together," she said. "We carry three-piece suits, suspenders, fedoras and ties -- I even have a couple of plastic Tommy guns."

Dale admitted that this Halloween season, a lot of people involved in the holiday came out early, buying decorations and costumes.

Banker said her customers like to come in, "scoping it out," and then put a costume together.

The only problem may be that last-minute shoppers have trouble finding what they're looking for.

After telling a customer the store was sold out of baseball player costumes, Filkins said, "We still have a good selection because we've been doing it for years, but it's just hard to service people because there's so many."

When money is not an issue, customers can delight in extravagant and outrageous costumes for the die-hard Halloween-ers.

"The most expensive costume we had was an Elton John costume, and it looked like a brocade jacket, knickers, pink platform shoes and big, round, glitter glasses with a wig," Filkins said.

And there's always the $600 grim reaper costume Party City once carried but of which it is now sold out.

Rentals are an easier investment, allowing customers to capture everything from the 1980s prom queen and 1920s flapper to the grim reaper.

"I can't think of anything in my rentals that's over $20," Banker said.

So while shopping early is worthy advice, imagination is far more valuable, permitting poor college students to become beauty pageant queens, Hugh Hefner, hula boys and zombies.

"Imagination is key," Dale said.