Archive for the ‘Fancy Dress Ideas’ Category
Top 10 Fancy Dress Ideas
Fancy Dress parties are usually the best fun parties to host or to attend. A theme gives the party extra life, everyone has to make that extra bit of effort to attend and the costumes give a talking point, something in common and somehow seem to loosen inhibitions!
I love fancy dress parties and events and have hosted or attended so many of them over the years that I think I can give some good ideas for setting up a fancy dress party to make it a success or attending a fancy dress party in the best possible costume!
Here are my top 10 fancy dress picks – in no particular order:
1. Naughty uniform fancy dress – this gives scope to dress up as a nurse, fireman, soldier, policeman…all the obvious uniform costumes but also school uniforms, cheerleaders and many more! The naughty bit means you leave out bits of the costume – such as the fireman wearing braces over no shirt – or add fishnet stockings and garters with many other uniforms and wear the short version! Most of the uniform costumes come with naughty versions as well as the more “authentic” versions.
2. Pirate fancy dress party – we hired a boat on Sydney harbour for this one – don’t forget to bring your plank! Epecially since the Pirates of the Carribean movies there are lots of fantastic costumes available. And there are so many funny – don’t expect them to be successful – pirate chat up lines!
3. The other similar style party in terms of behaving badly is the Viking Fancy Dress theme!
4. Beach party – this is always good for a cheap fancy dress party. Everyone has some sort of hawaiian shirt, sundress or pair of shorts. I went to a party in Germany in February once where you had to wear traditional German Dirndls and Lederhosen or else beach wear!
5. Rubiks cube party – you could incorporate this with 80′s fancy dress if you choose. Arrive in 6 colours and leave in 1! This party idea leads to all sorts of strategizing and scheming to get the full complement of your chosen colour!
6. Adventurers and Explorers – think Mike and Mal, cavemen, animals, scientists, backpackers, mountain climbers, potholers… lots of room for imaginative costumes at this one. We went as one Fred Flintstone with 6 Wilmas traipsing behind him – caused quite a stir!
7. Burlesque or Moulin Rouge fancy dress – the costumes are fabulous, the room is alive and over all it’s a great chance to feel sexy and bring out the inner diva! Check out some of these burlesque costumes for ideas. You can also put together your own starting from a corset – the key piece of any good burlesque costume.
8. Doctors and nurses is always a popular and fun fancy dress theme. There are heaps of sexy nurses costumes available and some fantastic doctor and nurse chat up lines!
9. Historical costumes are another theme that people find easy to dress up for. Egyptian fancy dress, Roman fancy dress and Greek fancy dress are separate themes in themselves and all have very elegant costumes. Or you could leave it as a broader theme such as “ancient civilizations” and let people choose for themselves.
10. If you want to encourage people to be creative and come up with unusual ideas then it’s good to leave the theme very broad. For example a friend’s recent 40th had the theme 1969. There were astronauts, hippies, mods and various characters famous in that year. Similarly you can just give a letter, or a couple of letters. I went to one in France with “lu” as the theme, I was a lamp (lumiere), one guy was a biscuit (LU is a brand of biscuits), there was a bag lady (hurluberlu in french) and an English friend dressed as the London Underground! This type of loose theme can be a bit demanding for those who are not that creative and it is sometimes offputting for guests.
Depending on your friends and how creative they are, it can often be easier to keep the themes simple and even point them to a good costume website so they can make ordering costumes simple.
