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At both of the costume parties 17-year-old Jessica Ali has attended this year, she has stood out: She has been one of the few female partygoers not showing off her décolletage, or wearing a supershort mini or high heels.

Instead, the London, Ont., teen dressed up as a pirate for one party and the goofy blue-faced male cartoon character Freakazoid for the other. Most of her friends poured themselves into sexy nurse or racy Snow White costumes.

"Even in the flyers promoting costumes, all the pictures are so revealing," Ms. Ali says. "Everybody dresses in that trend. It's ridiculous."

Meet the sexy-costume backlash: teen and tween girls who, bucking the marketing hype and peer pressure, are resisting the ever-growing tide of provocative wares.

This year, there are more risqué costume options for girls than in previous years, retailers say. In addition to the "classic" sexy genre of French maid, nurse and cop, trashy "Paris in Jail" costumes and even a naughty schoolgirl version of Harry Potter's Hermione are competing for favour.

Manufacturers are accommodating the new reality, says costume retailer Stephane Abbat of Toronto's It's My Party store: Hence the wide availability of "extra-small" sizes in eye-popping styles that are seeing the light of day in high-school hallways.

But with the trend even more pronounced at Halloween, some girls such as Ms. Ali are saying enough is enough, and are even getting together to shop and create costumes of a different nature.Among one group of Toronto girls who gathered to make costumes before a Halloween party on the weekend, some viewed the "sexy" issue as a deal breaker when it comes to school friendships.

"None of us can stand the girls who turn up in nothing" one teen said as she plotted her ensemble.

The group of five teens decided to dress up as the Spice Girls, in honour of the group's coming reunion tour. One of the girls, Kate McCullough, says the intention behind hours of shopping at Value Village was to be silly, not sexy.

Ms. McCullough, 17, argues that it made for a better time, too. "Halloween is not meant to be a time to dress to impress sexually, but somehow that has become the norm," she says.

Sex appeal has never been part of Jenny Keleher's Halloween planning. The sporty Rothesay, N.B., 16-year-old devised a boxer costume this year out of her dad's shorts, her own sports tops and running shoes. She was also working around a pre-existing black eye she procured thanks to a school door, she says.

"I like to be a different person," Ms. Keleher says. "All the other girls are dressing sexy."

Few parents would actively encourage their tween or teen daughter to embrace the aesthetic. But some teens say many parents just don't worry about their daughters dressing skimpy, or they never see the costumes because kids put them on at school or at a party.

Mr. Abbat says the sexy-costume business has been growing in the past few years. In women's costumes, sexy accounts for 50 per cent of sales. And the sales of women's costumes outpace the sale of men's by up to three to one.

Where moms and daughters used to come shopping together, now it's packs of girls, he says.

And he's not immune to the trend. His 17-year-old daughter is dressing up as a French maid, "A Playboy French maid," he says, to her boyfriend's Hugh Hefner.

While it may not be Mr. Abbat's first choice, he says she's otherwise a good girl and has his okay.

For her part, Ms. Keleher says her sporty ensemble was also better-suited to surviving the dance floor at the school party she was planning to attend. "I don't know how they do it" she says of the high heels that accompany the sexpot get-ups.