Why dressing like a sexy Cecil the Lion this Halloween isn’t a totally bad idea
Thanks to lingerie and costume website Yandy.com, lovers of wildlife – and skimpy costumes -- will be able to pay homage to the late Cecil the Lion this Halloween and raise some money for a good cause at the same time.
That’s because the e-tailer has created a lion costume – make that a sexy lion costume – and pledged a portion of each sale to benefit wildlife conservation. This comes two months after the Zimbabwean lion was killed by trophy-hunting Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer.
The made-in-the-U.S.A costume consists of a light brown crushed velvet stretch polyester bodysuit with long sleeves, a zip front and an attached tail. Also attached is a faux-fur-trimmed hood accented with a pair of lion ears.
The limited-edition costume is priced at $118.95 which makes it considerably more expensive than the site’s other lion-themed offerings which include the Courageous Lioness ($89.95) and Cozy Lioness ($59.95). But Yandy.com is promising to send 20% of the purchase price from the Cecil costume (which works out to $23.79) to the World Wildlife Foundation to support global conservation initiatives.
The higher price tag didn’t seem to deter customers at all since the initial run of sexy Cecil togs, which only became available on the website Tuesday, is already sold out.
But fear not: according to a representative for Yandy.com, more inventory is on its way and customers will be able to start placing pre-orders as soon as this afternoon. More sexy Cecils are expected to be in stock by Sept. 7, with pre-orders shipping at that time, we’re told.
Yandy.com joins a host of other efforts to raise money and awareness in the aftermath of Cecil’s death. Last month, Ty Inc. announced it would be offering a Cecil the Lion Beanie Baby with 100% of proceeds going to the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit of the University of Oxford. That same organization – which had been conducting a long-term study of Cecil’s pride – is also the beneficiary of Stephanie Conrad’s Cecil the Lion tote bags. The Texas-based pet portrait artist, who had pledged to donate 30% of each $14.95 eco-friendly tote back in July, recently told us she’d raised $1,100 for the group.
We’ll be interested to see if the outfit – which in our opinion could just as easily be a Snoop Lion costume as a Cecil the Lion one – generates any controversy or if the charitable element trumps (which reminds us of another costume we’ll probably see before All Hallows’ Eve) the idea of selling skimpy costumes on the back of a dead lion.
If so, it won’t be the first of the upcoming Halloween season -- that honor goes to the recently announced Caitlyn Jenner costume, which generated a social media backlash earlier this week.
With just over two months to go before Halloween, we’re pretty sure we haven’t seen the last of the pop-culture costumes.
A crossbow-carrying Minnesota dentist costume, anyone?
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