Anyone for Fancy Dress?

The invite flies through the letter box, all excited we open to see what the date is and whether we can attend to find out it’s a ‘FANCY DRESS’….aaarrrgggghhhhhhhhh!!!!

You will either love or loathe. Having to put something together that looks half-hearted because you could not find the pieces to fill in the missing gaps. Then there is dealing with the other half, ‘I am not going to a fancy dress’. How many times has this happened to you?

It makes it worse when you see the stars looking ultra-glam and nothing more than amazing when they have a fancy dress. Elton John’s or Jonathan Ross’s Halloween party each year is nothing short of amazing. Where or where do they get there great costumes from?

Last week at College we were introduced to the most amazing place, ‘The National Theatre Costume Hire’. Take a look at my pictures. You can hire anything from any era and I mean any era. It is phenomenal what they have on offer. As I walked up and down the many aisles of clothes, that are all in chronological order to help you, I could not help but think these clothes were the fashion of their day. They maybe costumes to us now but were once very fashionable or practical pieces of clothing…..felt very strange. How fashion can change so dramatically.

I had to pop on eof the costumes on.

One of the many aisles.

Masks on offer.

So whether, you have a themed wedding or a big birthday bash. You can call make an appointment and have the help of an assistant during your pre booked visit to help. With their historical knowledge you will knock your friends bandy. From 50 years of productions you can hire virtually anything from costumes to props.

There are other places of course that you can hire from. I am sure your local market has a stall with the cheaper versions that you obviously purchase and keep. If you have a local theatre company (Am Dram) with a wardrobe department then they will hire no doubt. I started off in theatre when I was 6 years old and I still hire from there if I need anything for a performance. These sailor outfits I hired for a big out door performance. So do check your local theatre.


2008 Manchester Mardi Gras.

‘Angels’ is also very famous in London. They have a Costumiers which in the 80s Alexander McQueen worked for and they have their cheaper fancy dress hire on ‘Shaftsbury Avenue’. The Royal Family are regular uses of Angels, Elton John and Sir Mick Jagger have been known to hire from them.

They have recieved 26 Best Costume Oscars for work that Angels has done on major international films, including Star Wars, Titanic, Lawrence Of Arabia, The Great Gatsby (the remake of this will be out later 2012 and is a big fashion look for this year calling it ‘Gatsby Glamour’), The Aviator and Memoirs of a Geisha. Also, two movies - The Queen and Marie Antoinette – featured costumes supplied by Angels these two received 2007 Oscar nominations for Achievement in Costume Design. How cool is that!

So next time that invite arrives their is no reason to dread 'You will be the bell of the ball'.