There’s a certain sense to their choice, as Mr Benn used to get into a lot of difficulties when he walked out of the fancy dress emporium into a world that fitted with the costume he’d chosen and from which he used to be rescued by the shopkeeper appearing to repossess his costume - that’s something like an insurance we suppose. It certainly makes more sense than  having Top Cat advertise mortgages as the Halifax does - after all, Top Cat lives in a dustbin!

But enthusiasm for dressing up is deep in the British psyche and the basic idea that we can change our lives by putting on a costume is one that appeals to us all, otherwise why would we have not just fancy dress parties but fancy dress charity runs, pub crawls, carnivals and fetes to encourage us to explore this part of our nature that responds to the concept of changing our personalities or lives by putting on a costume that allows us to enjoy ourselves without any limitations. 

3 - Supermarkets.  Playboy model Tanja Brockmann was asked to leave a supermarket in Majorca because her ‘tiny top and hotpants’ were considered unsuitable and when she said she had no other clothes to put on, she was escorted outside! A Preston supermarket refused to serve a man who was trying to buy bananas … because he was dressed as a Minion. Even Tesco have said that they prefer customers not to show up in nightwear as it makes other people uncomfortable.

2 - Attending a swingers ball. A couple have been shot by Melbourne police at a nightclub where a fancy dress swingers ball was taking place.  There are two versions of the story - the police say the man - who was dressed as the Joker - was holding a gun, which turned out to be a toy or fake, but when he refused to drop it, he and his partner were shot and injured. The owner of the nightclub says the man wasn’t holding a gun and was in a ‘compromising position’ with his female partner, who was dressed as Harley Quinn, when the police burst in.

1 - Online dating profile. It really shouldn’t need to be said, should it? But on OKCupid at least one chap is so convinced that his fancy dress is his best side that he put up a profile picture of himself in a Buzz Lightyear costume. Now, we’re all in favour of skimpy tops, swingers balls and online dating but these are perhaps the rare and unusual occasions when fancy dress is not the best option.

So when should you keep your fancy dress for? Fancy dress parties, quiet nights in and pub crawls with your mates. And if you’re going to the pub, it’s clearly not a good idea to try and buy some bananas on your way home …

Now we applaud his choice - if you’re going to show up anywhere in a fancy dress costume, you really can’t go far wrong with a nice knight. It’s patriotic, it suits all body types, it’s easy to move around it and … well, you’ve got a sword! But the moral of the story is clearly that if you’re apparently invited to a fancy dress do, check out with a couple of the other guests to be sure you’ve really understood the invitation!

Then again, maybe it’s definitely the case that it’s fancy dress event that you’ve been invited to, and you’re struggling to decide on the best outfit to wear. If you’re a fancy dress novice, it can seem like a big step - so why not try one of our suggestions?

1. Pick a character you like or admire - it’s much easier to get into a costume if you’re already into the character. One of the AbFab team’s first fancy dress foray was as O-Ren Ishii from Kill Bill and she hasn’t looked back since!
2. Maybe you’d like to appear as a childhood hero or even to wear a costume that you first wore as a child … many a Bash Street Kid has revisited their comic-reading childhood as their first fancy dress costume. Just make sure you have your pea shooter and water pistol to hand.
3. Finally, it’s easier to step out in style as part of a group, so if you’re losing your nerve, see if a mate will join you in costuming up for a party. 

Glitter beards are a thing - seen at Radio One’s Big Weekend in Hull, and several celeb Eurovision parties - the glitter beard is definitely very 2017. But not all glitter is created equal! We recommend you make it easy on yourself with the AbFab silver glitter hair and body spray - specially designed to be both easy to apply and easy to remove, because a glitter beard should be for partying, not for Monday morning when you’ve got to go into work and the cheap glitter you thought would do the job is making your face look like you tried to eat an upside down Christmas tree.

Tie dye is always popular on the summer festival circuit but to make it look fancy-dress-worthy and not just like you found an ancient cast off on the back rail of the local Oxfam shop, it’s important to put in a bit of work - worry beads and wonderful wide legged jeans give your tie dye the right retro vibe and actually can be found on said charity shop rail for a very reasonable price!

According to the Co-op, one of the UK’s leading funeral providers, ‘quirky’ funerals are becoming more commonplace. The most notable occasions have included the funeral of an eighty-three-year-old whose family gave him an Only Fools and Horses themed send-off, complete with a Robin Reliant to carry the coffin!

Half the UK’s funeral directors say they’ve been asked to organise a ‘destination’ funeral - that’s one held other than at a church or crematorium and some have gone much further than that … we’ve even heard about one funeral director who agreed to dress up as Darth Vader to help conduct a Halloween themed funeral service. We haven’t yet heard about any Coronation Street themed funerals but we’re certain we’ve got just the right costume for men: Jack Duckworth!

Of course a funeral is a sad occasion, but it’s also a day of remembrance and for those who really enjoyed a good knee’s up during their lives, the idea of holding a wake and truly celebrating the life of a loved one is increasingly appealing.

This week’s hot weather has sent many partygoers into a tizzy. Our helpline has been buzzing with questions about what costume is best to choose when the temperatures soar so we thought we’d make a couple of suggestions:

Caveman costumes are great for the summer, as they allow men to go bare-chested (although a chest wig can be a good investment) and women can wear short skirts.

Also popular for women in summer is the harem costume because its lightweight material and bare midriff are like natural air-conditioning.

For those who find the idea of dressing up a statue irresistible, one of the easiest places to start is by buying a fancy dress wig as that is the one thing that will completely change the look of a statue without vandalising it. We like Rastafarian hats as statue garments, as they are bright and instantly recognisable. They have another major advantage too - unlike paint, they don’t vandalise the statue. Sunglasses look good too - fasten them across the back of the statue’s head with some elastic to hold them in place. Accessories are a great way to give your statue some personality: consider umbrellas, hats, and of course feather boas.

On the other hand, you may make a fantastic dress costume for yourself by dressing as a local statue from your home town - grey face paint and a wig can go a long way to turning you into a famous landmark. The great thing about statue fancy dress is that it allows you to have a lot of freedom to dance and play around at parties unlike some more demanding costumes. 

The reason this dressing up charity event focused our minds was that it’s an unusual occasion - it’s Easter themed but done on motorbikes, so finding costumes is a bit of a stretch (literally!). The costumes have to meet a set of criteria:

1. Fitting over bike leathers
2. Having good visibility
3. Maintaining the Easter theme.

Straw boaters and chicken costumes are easy fancy dress outfits for people taking part in active events. We’d also recommend light up bunny ears as being a fantastic way to appear to be in a very impressive costume without putting yourself at risk or having a costume that’s too hot or constricting.

These are the same considerations should be borne in mind when choosing a fancy dress for any occasion when you’re going to have to be fairly active such as Halloween if you’re going trick or treating or taking part in a charity fun run. Our top tips are:

Choose a fancy dress where you can remove many elements and still be recognisable - for example a cowboy is still a cowboy if he dumps his guns, chaps and whip and just wears his hat!

Remember that couples fancy dress only works if both people are equally committed to staying in costume - if your partner bails on the fancy dress pantomime horse outfit, you’re going to look pretty silly.

Face paint is usually your friend - if you’re not sure how your costume will hold up, a Spiderman or Shrek face or a wild hippy fancy dress with flower painted face will allow you to remain in costume no matter what else is going on. 

Yes, when Chelsea and Arsenal kick off at some point on 27 May - the time still hasn’t been decided, pubs, clubs and private homes all over the UK will be filled with costumed revellers waiting to see if they will be this year’s winners or all time losers. So for some of the UK’s population this will be a nail biting few hours - but what about the rest of us, who might not be completely committed to football? We have a few suggestions to make Cup Day fun for all.

Costume Obstacle Course

Divide your players into two teams and lay out items from the Subbuteo strip, red kit in one line, blue kit in the other. As soon as the starting whistle blows, a player from each team must run to the first garment, pull it on, attempt the obstacle, run to the next garment and put it on, tackle the next obstacle and so on until they are fully dressed, at which point they need to kick a rubber ball into a goal and then run back so the next player can start. Suitable obstacles include weaving in and out of poles, heading a ball thrown by a spectator etc.

For adults only parties you can also create your own FA drinking game - some of our favourites include - emptying your glass each time:

A team’s nickname is used

A penalty is taken

Poor league performance is mentioned

A goal is scored!

You might not enjoy football but you’ll be feeling no pain by the end of the evening, we promise!

Getting World Book Day costumes wrong

Every year there are a few weeping kids who’ve misjudged their World Book Day costume. This usually happens for one of two reasons: their favourite book is too obscure for their friends to guess or they’ve picked a book too old, or too young for them, and end up being teased about it. But the headmaster of a private boarding school in Devon is rueing making a joke that went horribly wrong. It’s an example of how to not do fancy dress!

Apparently when Mike Burgess sent around his newsletter after World Book day he signed it Christian Grey and commented that although he’d worn a sharp suit and ‘demonstrated contemptuous arrogance’, many of the children at the school hadn’t known who he was. Apparently the whole thing was meant to be a joke, he’d never dressed up as the bondage practicing character nor did he expect children at the school, some of whom are only two, to recognise the book, but parents didn’t seem to appreciate the joke and now he’s made a very penitent apology.

This can also be a good way to raise money for your favourite charity - for example by holding a sweepstake on the winning time, giving a small prize to the person who gets closest and donating the rest of the entry fees to a charity.

Fancy dress makes a marathon party into a real laugh, not least because it reminds everybody of the amazing fancy-dress wearing runners who astonish us every year. Top picks for a marathon party include a giraffe fancy dress outfit or, if you’re half of a couple, that old favourite the 118-118 twins complete with printed vests and crazy wigs.

Marathon food is easy too - ‘Tower Bridge cobbles’ can be made by packing burger buns together on a tray and drizzling them with garlic butter before cooking, red, white and blue popcorn always goes down brilliant and of course mini sausages with mustard sauce are always a popular treat. Try serving mashed potato in an ice-cream cone with a sausage stuck in the side as an easy to eat but very patriotic snack.

 1. Pregnant women painting up their bellies - oh yes, this is a thing! The funniest one we saw was a mum-to-be who dressed up in drag as a builder, including low slung trackies and a line of false hair running from her navel all the way down into her trousers - it totally fooled people in the corner shop she went to. We’ve also seen bellies painted like footballs or hot air balloons.

 2. Nun but the brave - the old nun or priest costume may seem clichéd but for April Fools it’s a great old trick that often works much better than you’d imagine. Our favourites included nuns boogying on down in bus shelters and the vicar who walked in a stately fashion down a major London street before stopping, tucking his cassock into his Y-fronts and doing a Ministry of Silly Walks all the way back again!

 3. Clown costumes - are always popular for April Fool’s Day - although after the recent creepy clown epidemic you might want to be careful about going out dressed as a clown as this is one costume that a lot of people seem to find quite the opposite of funny!

• Make a playlist combining traditional Irish music with modern hits from The Pogues, U2 etc.

• Encourage everybody to come to work/school/your party wearing green and award a green prize for the best costume - our leprechaun costume is bound to be a success!

• Remember to buy a few little green items - sunglasses, necklaces, hats, so that those who show up having forgotten their costume can still accessorise themselves appropriately.

• Cater it green - green smoothies, a creme de menthe punch for the grown ups and shamrock decorated cupcakes will all go down well with guests.

• Learn an Irish jig and show off your dance moves!

• Cater some potatoes - they are what Ireland is famous for after all. Baked potatoes with sour cream, chips with chive mayonnaise, tiny new potatoes on a bed of fresh green spinach … they are a great way to feed people easily and cheaply and they soak up some booze if your guests overindulge on the Guinness.

And don’t forget that if you’re really pushing the boat out, you can hire an Irish dancer to put on a lively performance at your St Patrick’s Day party and maybe even get your guests to learn a few steps so they can jig along. A firework display makes an evening party memorable (remember they have to finish by 11pm and that’s it’s fair to let your neighbours know you’re having rockets going off so they can take care of their pets). And you can always find a fun run that you can do in Irish fancy dress to make some money for a favourite charity. 

And even handing out sombreros was criticised as racist, after a Mexican restaurant in Norwich decided they’d make a great freebie for students at the freshers fair. Apparently that was viewed as

"discriminatory or stereotypical imagery".

So how do you get a good fancy dress theme going?

Pick something that works for all generations. So if you are smart enough to pick a decade as your theme, everybody will be able to get involved - for the ‘80s, for example you can just go for a Mohican wig and a torn black T-shirt or pick up some more subtle cultural memories such as our ‘lifeguard’ outfit for ladies … a real blast from the past!

Broad fancy dress party themes work best - so picking ‘Animals’ or ‘Around the World’ will help people find something they are comfortable to wear because not everybody is outgoing enough to want to slip into a full chicken costume or spend four hours getting into geisha attire. For more shy and retiring individuals these themes offer the chance to wear some fancy dress without feeling too self conscious - a bowler hat and umbrella are obviously ‘British’ and a pair of ears and a tail make a cat that is low key enough for even the shyest guest.

First off, consider organising your own little fancy dress event - a party is the simplest way to boost your enjoyment quotient, and with the sequel to Trainspotting, plus the most recent Harry Potter spin-off ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ and ‘Fifty Shades Darker’ all making headlines, there’s a bound to be a party theme to suit your circumstances, whether you’re planning a family get together or a sophisticated party for grown-ups only.

Make sure your decor fits the party theme. Hang up some Harry Potter brooms and some attaché cases for Fantastic Beasts, dig out some cheap undies to strew over your lamps for Fifty Shades or, for Trainspotting 2, it could be as simple as pulling on your running kit for Renton has become ‘The Runner’ and is bringing his endorphin high back home! Then plan some cocktails to suit, making sure that if you’ve picked a child-friendly theme you’ve got plenty of non-alcoholic beverages to hand, and have fun!

For those to whom this really appeals, there’s always the option to organise a fund-raiser for a charity of your choice, perhaps a little fun-run, or a day at work where everybody dresses up in fancy dress and makes a donation to the charity. 

Epic cosplay costumes include those made for steampunk events, where people spend a whole year preparing an outfit to wear for a single day, but it’s much easier to pull off a fantastic cosplay look than you might think. Costumes such as Harley Quinn or Dr Who or Gandalf are easy to purchase and if you put in a little time to practice your moves and voice, you’ll find that you can produce an amazing effect that will astonish your friends and family.

Whether you choose to attend an organised cosplay event, or put on your own bit of fun by inviting your friends to come round and watch a favourite film in costume along with some themed food and perhaps even some party games, you’ll find there’s just as much fun to be had in the planning and organising of your fancy dress fun as there is in attending it. The best thing about cosplay is that you can tailor it to your own interests, so whether you’re a secret fan of the Dirty Dozen or have a hankering to hold your own Scooby Doo party, you can create the perfect scenario to get your loved ones involved with celebrating your favourite film, book or even reality TV show!

1. If Wes Morgan walks into a bar, turns to face the customers, spread his arms wide and shouts "There's only one Captain Morgan!”, every eligible drinker in the place will be entitled to the free drink at the rum brand’s expense!
2. He is also required turn up as the Captain, in the exact costume of the pirate on the front of the rum bottles, at all fancy-dress parties he attends.

At AbFab Fancy Dress we can’t wait to see the photos of that particular costume! For those who fancy themselves as pirates, we have a great Captain Cutthroat pirate costume - sadly, free rum is not included in the purchase price.

Which is why a heartwarming story about stag nights and puppies has been our most watched video this week. What isn’t clear about this bachelor party, as they call them in the USA, is whether the guys were in fancy dress - we think the only thing that could improve the tale is if they were dressed up as Top Cat and Shaun the Sheep when they went to rescue the puppies!

It’s a brilliant idea to involve the family dog in your fancy dress events but not all dogs are keen to play along. On those occasions we’ve found that some of the best fun can be had by leaving your pet along and dressing up too complement him or her - for example a cat costume, a giant bone etc. We’ve seen a couple of ‘dog’s dinner’ costumes over the years that were very creative too.

Whatever you’re doing to celebrate Halloween or Bonfire Night, it’s always good to remember the animals. Check your bonfire before you light it so you can ensure no happy little hedgehog has denied it would make the perfect winter hibernation spot, let your neighbours know if you’re letting off fireworks so they can get their cats indoors and their dogs under the table or wherever else they feel safest when the big bangs start and don’t forget many people keep hutch animals outdoors and its always thoughtful to check whether your neighbours would want a bit of warning to help their rabbits or hens cope with fireworks. 

Over at The Guardian, there’s a story about how Freshers parties might be seen as racist. It’s a tricky line to tread, especially if you’re a semi-drunk teenager trying to find a fancy dress outfit for your next party - and as the article says, But sometimes attempts to curb cultural appropriation has led to accusations of heavy-handed censorship … yoga was banned at one university in Canada because it originated from “cultures that have experienced oppression”. What?

So, here’s our quick guide to choosing a culturally appropriate costume for Freshers:

1 - scifi and fantasy are usually completely safe. Klingons, as yet, have not complained about culturally inappropriate use of facial hair and the Jedis seem completely cool about people waiving lightsabres around.

2 - cross-dressing - also cool, but only if you’re not dragging up. How to establish the difference? If your costume is an homage to a famous character and it’s not at all ironic then go with it - we saw an awesome Miss Piggy last year, who was a rugby second row forward during the day - he totally rocked it because he’d clearly practised the voice and everything . If you’re just converting your old Britney wig into Harley Quinn for the laughs, you’re probably lacking in respect.

3 - accept the rules. When a swingers’ club in Dagenham bans clown outfits for Halloween, you know there’s a big problem with clown outfits. If your campus has outlawed certain costumes, it’s because they offend or threaten, not because they are trying to curtail your freedom of expression.

However … we couldn’t help feeling sorry for some of those little hot dogs! It must be baking in those costumes, especially the spider and the tank, it’s pretty hot in Melbourne anyway, let alone with a heavy fancy dress outfit on top of your normal fur coat.

As this is the time of year when lots of people like to take their dogs out when they go trick or treating, we have a couple of simpler, and cooler suggestions.

If your dog is fair - say a Golden Labrador, Westie or white poodle, consider the use of simple food dye to give your dog a new look. Green looks great as a topknot for longer haired dogs, whilst if you have a short-hair, and they are calm natured, you can probably paint a design on their back (eg a black or blue spiderweb) while they are lying down. If it’s safe for us to eat, it’s safe for them to lick off but if you want the design to last a while, paint it where doggie tongues can’t reach - e.g. on the shoulder or between the eyes.

If your dog is dark, and you’re taking them out trick or treating, we have seen amazing results from a can of our own glow in the dark spray. Begin by spaying an old (or new pound shop) collar and lead, then spray some of the spray into the bottom of a clean empty yoghurt pot and use an old brush to paint it onto the dog’s toenails. You may need to distract them for a few minutes so it dries or they will try to lick it off and ‘glow in the dark tongue’ is not a good look, nor is it good for your dog’s belly! However, take them out after dark and you get an incredible appearance of disembodied claws, lead and collar - it’s really creepy, like you’re walking an invisible dog! As a fancy dress accessory, it’s a total winner. When the fun is over, you can simply wash the paint off the toenails with a mixture of 50% shampoo and 50% warm water. Remember to rinse with clean water - shampoo isn’t great for doggy bellies either! And that glow in the dark collar is a great thing to hang onto for foggy days. It might look a bit Hound of the Baskervilles but it will help you find

your dog if you let them off their lead.

a - Pinterest is a great way to find costume ideas and we’ve been looking at the most pinned Fancy Dress costume pins since last year’s Halloween parties, to see what’s trending so you can be ahead of the curve.

1. Top pins for this year suggest that Food costumes are going to be big. We’ve got just the thing for you with an on-trend hotdog fancy dress outfit that’s cheap as chips and hot as mustard!
2. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are both trending as costumes - we can see that’s mainly a USA thing but the Trump hairstyle is showing up on zombie costumes quite a lot … something to think about, maybe?
3. Brexit costumes are also proving to be a popular trend for couples, with men in Union Jack suits and women in European T-Shirts or women in Union Jack mini-dresses and men in European flag T-shirts. It could be controversial though, so unless you do want to debate the referendum all night, we think it’s probably quite a high risk costume.
4. Pokemon and pokestops are really trending - that’s a home made effort which is quite considerable, so unless you’re a real geek, it might be better to stick to something you can buy so that you can relax and enjoy the costumes of others!

b - Wear sensible shoes! It shouldn’t need saying but whether you’re doing the Monster Mash or escorting the kids on their Trick or Treat rounds, late October can be difficult in terms of weather, treacherous pavements, cold weather and sudden showers can all contribute to a twisted ankle or soaking wet feet.

c - Carving pumpkins is fun … or is it? Some people find it a huge faff and others think it’s a waste of good food. Pumpkin painting is trending this year - simply undercoat your pumpkin with white paint (water based) and then paint a design on top. You can then peel and eat the pumpkin as usual.

Still, it’s brilliant to see that the royals have the same sense of fun as the rest of us, and if that Aladdin costume has sparked your interest in some pantomime based fancy dress, we have a fab, highly versatile Aladdin costume that can be used as the base for Ali Baba or genie outfits too. We’ve got magicians and wizards, panto horses and principal boys.

The real joy of this kind of fancy dress is that we all know those basic pantomime characters and it’s easy to get into character and to interact with other panto heroes and heroines - that means that the ice is broken much more quickly at your party and as people start to get into their stride you’ll find some astonishing photo opportunities: Buttons talking to the Genie, Widow Twanky dancing with a ghost, a principal boy having a laugh with the wolf from Red Riding Hood … we guarantee that you’ll see a new side to your mates, especially those big lads who suddenly can’t wait to get into a skirt and apron and a big sparkly wig … bet you know who we mean!

Whatever your am dram fancy dress needs, we definitely have them covered, although we can’t promise that they will be hand-made, bespoke outfits like those that the Royals get up to their high jinks in! 

Just as many parents (or at least many of the honest ones) are sighing with relief as school beings again and the kids are off their hands for most of the day at last, those same kids are about to have September meltdowns. The first week back is usually okay - new school books and stationery, the chance to catch up with friends not seen much over the summer, and school uniforms feel almost like fancy dress for those first few days.

Then homework arrives and children realise that this is it - this is reality. Misery all round.  So what can you do for your kiddie-winks to make this transition easier?

We enjoy the old Freaky Friday or Vice Versa party as a way of helping children over the back to school hump. Just pick a Friday after the school day is done and let your children dress as adults, while you put on school uniform and act like a brat!

We’ve got everything you need, costume wise, like our schoolboy set, which will create just the right vibe for a fun evening. Serve tuck shop treats for dinner and offer to help with your kid’s homework while they catch up on their ‘grown up’ chores like surfing the net, gossiping to their friends on the phone and nagging the ‘kids’ to get on with their coursework! Be careful though … one of us was fortunate enough to get a rather whizzy sales presentation out of her twelve-year-old son who clearly had a better handle on graphics than she did, but she failed to complete any of his ‘new maths’ questions correctly and he has never let her forget it!

Because it’s Friday you can allow a no bedtime night, where the kids stay up as late as they like and if you have a few family films to watch you’ll probably find that you all have a great evening. There’s nothing wrong with letting your inner child out once in a while, especially if your children are trying on their inner adult for size!

Fancy dress theme for kids - we favour either ‘animal antics’ or ‘summer fun’ as themes, because they both allow you to set up some fun games to keep the children happy. For animal antics you can organise races … with the key feature being that the child has to complete the race in the style of their animal, so rabbits must hop, those in cat costume must arch their backs and dogs have to chase a ball, etc! Great fun to take part in and wonderful to video for happy memories in the year’s ahead.

Food can be another great party game, where each child is given a plate of jelly or ice-cream and the first one to eat it all in the style of their animal costume wins a prize. Watching a couple of fancy dress penguins trying to peck up jelly is a treat in itself!

You can also play ‘Old MacDonald had a Farm’ with each child making the noise of its costume animal

A tiger striped or pig shaped cake is a great way to end your party and goodie bag gifts can be animal themed too. 

Right now, the dress that the Queen wore for the opening ceremony is on display at Buckingham Palace. What isn’t so well known is that the beautiful dress, created from salmon pink silk, lace and beads, also had its own fancy dress version. The second dress was created - with equal care - by Angela Kelly, the Queen’s PA and adviser, for her majesty’s stunt double, Gary Connery, who was the person who actually jumped from the helicopter.  The fancy dress version was kept such a secret that Ms Kelly’s seamstresses didn’t even know that two outfits were being made, but the fancy dress costume version had to be strong enough to cope with a genuine parachute jump whilst looking identical to the beautiful gown that the monarch wore to enter the arena.

So while for most of us fancy dress is just a bit of fun, it can also be a show-stopping performance, involving the most amazing confidence tricks. If the Queen can enjoy a bit of fancy dress, why shouldn't the rest of us? If you’re up for a bit of British bling, our Rule Britannia costume might be just the ticket. Now all you need is an arena, a helicopter and … of course … your own 007!

Fancy up your BBQ

Set a theme. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Some of our favourite fancy dress summer themes are Hawaiian Dream, Hot and Bothered and Summer Holidays - here’s our breakdown of each one

Hawaiian Dream - you can go for a full on Luau costume with grass skirt and all the accessories or keep it simple with a flowery garland. Guys love this one because it simply requires a Hawaiian shirt, shorts and flip-flops. Catering is a doddle too, simply lay on some pineapple chunks, coconut themed drinks and a lot of pork to grill and you’ve got a great theme for virtually no effort.

Hot and Bothered - this is a real adult barbie winner. People just need to come as their favourite celebrity in a hot and bothered state! There will be quite a few schoolgirl Britney’s and several Oliver Reeds (British men love to ‘dress up’ as Oliver Reed, I wonder why?) but more up-to-date celeb exposure can be fun too. We saw a wonderful Justin Bieber costume being created for one of these themed barbecues!

Summer Holidays - a family favourite. From snorkels and flippers through to knotted hankies and rolled up trousers, there are a hundred ways to interpret this theme and there will definitely be one that suits everybody you’re inviting. We have a couple of standbys for this one, in case the day is cold. We opt to fill our inflatable paddling pool with water on a hot day, pool balls on a chillier one, and we either have vanilla ice-cream with a flake for scorching days or hot mashed potato with a hot dog ‘flake’ and a drizzle of tomato sauce for summer holiday barbecue events where the weather doesn’t cooperate with the theme!

If you’re not American and not sure what to wear, we’d always go with the traditional themes for 4th of July - you can’t go wrong with a big old stars and stripes flag - you can tie it around you, safety pin it to your shoulders like a cape - useful, practical, and can be recycled as a tablecloth or beach towel.

Want to go the whole hog? Then get some fireworks (who needs an excuse for fireworks? We don’t! But we do let our neighbours know that we’re going to be letting them off so they can get the dogs and cats in) and some root beer, turn up the Bruce Springsteen and Tina Turner and get your rock on! We also favour a crispy fried chicken dinner and for a grown up party, why not make some hard slush puppies? They take 30 minutes and you get a dozen from our recipe.

Independence Day hard slush puppies

250 g white sugar

200 ml water

crushed ice

Red slush

125 g halved strawberries, halved

60ml Bacardi or other white rum

Red food colouring

Blue slush

Juice of one lime

60ml blue Curacao                

Melt the sugar in the water and boil for about two minutes. Divide into two equal amounts.

Red slush - pour half the hot syrup over the strawberries and leave to marinate for an hour then puree with the rum. Strain, add a drop of red food colouring and chill.

Blue slush - put the other half of the syrup in a bowl with the lime and Curacao and stir. Chill

Pour the two chilled syrups into squeezy bottles. Crush your ice in a blender and pack into glasses.  Squirt red syrup into the left hand side of the glass and blue into the right, leaving a white gap in the middle. Drink!

Ready to party?

Of course you are.

Regardless of whether you’re a fan of either club, you can still enjoy the big day with a Cup Final party - and you’ve got plenty of time to plan a great evening. Here are our tips for a great Cup Final:

• Make sure your guests know that you’re having a Big Match Special at your place - if necessary, beg, borrow or rent a big screen to show the game on.
• Offer prizes for the best fancy football themed fancy dress - that should create some great costumes (if you’re attending a Cup Final party at somebody else’s house, we think our Subbuteo fancy dress is going to win you some prizes)
• Work on some great football snacks to hand around - sliced oranges (popped into in colour themed cocktails of course), chips in take-out boxes etc. Try out any unfamiliar ideas on your family so you know if they are a success - football pizza for example is brilliant but takes a bit of planning
• Hire in some glasses and buy paper plates and plastic cutlery - it’s only footie after all
• Striped cups like referee jerseys, food labels in the form of fan rosettes and so on
• Make sure you’ve got lots of flags to wave - no rattles though, they get very anti-social very quickly!
• Place a bet … what have you got to lose?

On the day you can play some games -  making up football chants about the people who are at the party is a hoot, for example. Remember to be finished by 17:30pm sharp for the start of the match - and make sure you have a break-out room for those who aren’t so into the game. That way you can drift off if you’re not a huge football fan and still have fun with the other non-fans without interfering with the intense football watching of the ‘real’ fans.

As the Star Wars celebration grows, it becomes more and more fun. Families take part as a whole with little toddler Darth Vaders being led around the supermarket by mothers in Darth Maul costumes and many many stormtroopers doing all kinds of things in quite unlikely places. Flickr and Instagram will be full of the most peculiar pictures of stormtroopers taking showers or tap dancing - it’s all quite hilarious.

If you missed the boat this year, you can plan ahead for next year, holding a Star Wars marathon watching experience (after all there are seven films now!) and inviting all your guests to come along in appropriate fancy dress.

And if you’re not a huge Star Wars fan you can always broaden the idea out to include other science fiction films - Space Balls is a hoot, and TV franchises from Firefly to Red Dwarf, from Star Trek to Battlestar Galactica, offer great opportunities to wear whatever fancy dress costumes that take your fancy.

And don’t take it all too seriously - it’s all meant to be a lot of fun!

This 26.2 mile extravaganza has always been as much about the city as about the race - it’s an astonishing charity fund-raising event, a fancy dress extravaganza and increasingly a party for those who love the event - whether you choose to compete, watch it on the streets of London or throw a TV watching party for family and friends.

Spectators

If you’re going to support somebody who’s running in the marathon, make sure you read one of the many guides to where to watch the marathon and take note of the instructions about when to be in the location, what to pack and what to expect of the race marshals who are around to help you have a fun and safe marathon watching experience.

If you’re watching at home, why not try some of the party games we’ve devised?

Marathon party games

Marathon Bingo

Give people sheets with marathon keywords on them: blisters, cobbles, water bottle, fancy dress, runner, limping, portaloo, leading pack, front runners, wheelchair race, Tower Hill etc … the first one to fill up their bingo sheet wins a prize.

Outlaw words

This is a more active game. Give everybody a word that is overused during the commentary (the same list as you used for the bingo is fine) and when their word is said by a commentator they have to stand up and jog on the spot until somebody else’s word is spoken. You’ll feel like you’ve run a marathon if you play this one.

London Marathon competitors

If you’re running - make sure you’ve broken in your shoes and costume - especially if you’re running in fancy dress. Practice grabbing drinks from the tables which can be really difficult if your vision is obstructed by a costume or you’re wearing gloves etc. And good luck - we’ll be watching out for you!

More seriously, it’s St George’s Day on 23 April and with all the commotion about whether Britain should leave the EU, we can tell you that our St George costumes are flying off the shelves - there are more than a few dragon piñatas being sent out this week too, which suggests there are going to be some happy little England fans celebrating our national day.

Many schools are putting on special costume events for children and that’s also leading to a lot of interest in famous Brits like Queen Elizabeth I, Charles Dickens, Winston Churchill etc and this year we’ve also seen scientists like Charles Darwin and Alan Turing making the costume lists for school pageants and of course great sporting heroes are always there, although the school that decided to put on a little play in assembly about the Oxford and Cambridge boat race might be regretting that choice after the Cambridge women’s team took on water - that’s going to be an interesting event to portray onstage!

That’s no longer so popular. For the second year in a row, the race organisers, who have the Grand National as their key race, are offering massive prizes, including a Range Rover, to the best dressed woman, in the hope of getting racegoers to move from their brash and sometimes bawdy outfits to something entirely more restrained and elegant.

We’re a little puzzled by this, after all, we don’t get so many occasions to dress up and have fun in the UK that we can afford to neglect any. We know that in previous years fancy dress costumes such as our Spanish Flamenco dancers have been adapted to serve as novel outfits for Ladies Day.

If you want to make a splash, then other costume bases on which to work our personal magic include our flapper costumes which have just the right blend of sultriness and style to make a perfect statement at Ladies Day.

And of course, before the end of the month we have Easter, and fluffy chicks, Easter Eggs and mad March hares are all fancy dress costumes to look forward too, as well as the chocolate eggs. Why not plan a big Easter Egg hunt to bring the joy of Easter to your family and friends and, of course, plan it to be done in fancy dress costume. 

If you're new to St Patricks Day, a good place to start is Irish folklore … from leprechauns to shamrocks, from green face paint to pots of gold, St Patricks Day Fancy Dress offers something for everyone, from the shy costume wearer (anything green will do) through to the committed Irish fan … full curly red beard, green hat and shamrocks everywhere. Given how grey and miserable March can be, it’s a great idea to plan a fun party. Organising an Irish themed party is one of the easiest things you’ll ever do because the Irish culture lends itself naturally to dancing, singing, costumes and fun.

To cater your own St Patrick’s Day event, buy some green food colouring and make up some great cocktails like the Grasshopper.

Grasshopper

1 shot green creme de menthe

1 shot white creme de cacao

1 shot single cream

Pour into a shaker over ice and shake until chilled before straining into a glass and garnishing with mint. Light, creamy and very more-ish!

Irish music is always great for a party and you can cater some amazing green food such as Shamrock cupcakes, colcannon, corned beef and cabbage or just soda bread with savoury green toppings like guacamole.

If you’ve got children there’s just time to combine World Book Day with some St Patrick’s Day vibe … little leprechauns, happy dancing shamrocks, we’ve got everything you need to enjoy both days without spending a fortune. And everybody knows that it’s worth having the luck of the Irish!

Valentine’s Day is seen by many men as a soppy commercial event, but it needn’t be that way. There’s an increasing trend to link Valentine’s Day to CosPlay events - where couples choose to wear a costume relating to a famous imaginary or real couple, think Shrek and Princess Fiona, Han Solo and Leia or Bonnie and Clyde.

This offers men a kind of freedom to explore their more romantic side without having to wear a costume that inhibits them, so if you’re attending a fancy dress party this year, why not discuss the CosPlay characters that are available to you and maybe put together enough accessories to allow you to really invest in your costume. We’ve seen some fab Shrek and Fiona couple dances which are always the hit of the evening at a romantic party! It’s a way for couples to reconnect and have some fun together and that’s always a good thing.

World Book Day 2016

Are your kids celebrating World Book Day on Thursday 3 March 2016? Many schools in the UK now participate in the UNESCO designated day which encourages reading in all ages. For most schools this means inviting the kids to dress up as their favourite character from a book. We’ve got an awesome range of costumes available from Bilbo Baggins to princesses.

But that’s not all you can do. While sending your child to school in book related fancy dress is fun, just think about having a theme tea when they get home … and then playing a board game, reading the book or watching the film for which they have chosen their fancy dress costume. Even more fun, greet them in an adult costume that fits in with their chosen World Book Day one and spend the whole evening talking to each other in character!

Adding extra activities to your child’s school World Book Day event will really bring the concept of literature and imagination to life for your child and it also gets a lot more value out of their costume than just a day spent wearing it to school!

More than 800 students at the University of Edinburgh have signed a petition requesting the return of free speech to their social lives.  The problem? Student Union leaders have imposed a crack-down on fancy dress events, which are commonplace at most UK universities, giving a list of characters and real life individuals that Edinburgh students should not costume themselves as, including: Mexicans, gangsters, Native Americans, and rapper Chris Brown!

Why the list? Apparently there have been a series of scandals resulting from students ‘blacking up’ for a number of characters and now the Edinburgh University Student’s Association (EUSA) has created a new policy to try and prevent further upsets - the policy states, 'You may not intend to hurt anyone when picking out your costume, and you may not even think there's a problem, but it's important to consider the impact your choices will have.’

It’s a valid concern but it seems to miss the point - for many people, fancy dress is not just about putting on some funny clothes and having a good time, it’s a subversive way of drawing attention to issues they consider important and of exploring some ideas that they might not have very clear feelings about as yet. On that basis, the way young people use costumes to shock each other, the wider world, and maybe themselves, seems like a healthy part of their university experience and not something to be particularly censored.

Valentine’s Day Fancy Dress

There’s been some interesting research done into what people of Valentine’s Day fancy dress costumes and one thing that might surprise you is that if you’re a woman looking for a long term relationship, it’s better to choose a cute costume than a sexy one. It seems that men view women who choose those ‘adult’ costumes as being great for a fling but not the right person to settle down with. On the other hand, while cute and wholesome fancy dress attire might not win a woman as much attention on the day, it’s seen as being strong evidence that the wearer is somebody who might be appropriate for a permanent relationship.

We’d recommend our fantasy fairy costume if you’re a woman looking for a Valentine’s Day costume that suggests you’re right for a solid romance because it’s pink and flirty, but also whimsical and not too sexy and it flatters all body types.

Resolution 1 - have more fun next New Year

There are a couple of ways that you can really ramp up your fancy dress experience in the year ahead. One way is to attend one of the UK’s famous Fancy Dress New Year’s parties. This year we went to Weymouth to see what was happening there … and it was a blast!

The traditional New Year’s Eve fancy dress party  seems to have had several thousand people enjoying the town’s pubs and bars despite some rather unpleasant weather. Costumes included:

Bill and Ben, Cowboys and Indians (with the twist of zombie Cowboys and Indians showing up several times) Garfield and his friends and Super-heroes. Probably the two biggest costume choices over the evening were minions and Star Wars. People travel from all over the UK (and mainland Europe) to take part in the fun and from Viking hordes to the numerals 2016, a great time was had by all.

But that’s only half the fun. The Dorset Echo newspaper runs a competition where people can enter selfies of their fancy dress costume to win prizes. There are five categories and each winner gets £100 in vouchers to be spent in the Weymouth area. So next year you could dress up, win big and have fun all at the same time!

Resolution 2 - weekend it!

The Butlin’s Big Weekends cover everything from Northern Soul to Darts, from Ibiza Legends to The Great British Folk Festival - and for most of them, Butlin’s actually encourage people to come along in costume.

Not every Big Weekend is costume appropriate but Butlin’s will always let you know which are and which aren’t and they are a fantastic opportunity to kick back and enjoy dressing up in company of several hundred other fans. We’re so excited by these weekends that we’ve put together a special page of Butlin’s Big Weekends costumes just for you!

One of the great features of this event is the group costuming that takes place. From its beginnings when one or two people in the crowd dressed up, often in pantomime outfits, the Ally Pally darts bash has become a group fancy dress extravaganza. This year is no exception - while there have been some wonderful creative costuming attempts, such as the box of crayons, and some superhero sets that were really impressive, the notable feature of this year’s championship was the face-painting, particularly the dartboard costumes where people spent hours creating dartboard faces and the minions - some of those single eyes were so good they were creepy! Good make-up can take your fancy dress to the next level, and we’ve got a family sized face paint kit to make it easier for you to achieve something really spectacular.

But as ever, the winner in the costume cool stakes came down to this year’s top film - the storm troopers!

Tips for group fancy dress

If you’d like to organise a group fancy dress costuming there are a three key tips to bear in mind:

1. If you’re not of uniform height/size (as sporting teams, squaddies etc often are) you might benefit from using variety to your advantage - we’ve seen the seven dwarfs where they ranged from basketball player tall to child-sized. That kind of quirkiness often gets more response that perfect attention to detail.
2. If you have children or toddlers, definitely let them be the central character - baby Blues Brothers/Terminators etc are always a hoot
3. Creating a little act or skit will often win you lots of applause - so if you can rehearse a few dance steps or a comedy routine that you can perform you’re bound to please the crowd.

Apart from that use for your Santa suit, you can attend fancy dress parties as Father Christmas and the honest truth is that this is the one time of year when you can’t have too many Santas, can you?

But there are quite a few other ways to extend the use of your Santa suit:

• Breakdance - like this chap.

• Do a Santa run for charity - there’s a list of special Xmas runs, some of which provide their own Santa suit, others of which you need to suit and boot for, right here.

• Do your Christmas shopping - not presents, obviously but groceries … finding Father Christmas stocking up on cheese and crackers in Lidl or pondering which granola to buy in Waitrose is likely to make many a small child’s Christmas much more real.

• Go on a date - well, we dare you! For those who claim to have, or like a GSOH there can be fewer funny experiences in December than finding themselves auditioning to be Mrs Claus (or Santa) for a full-on red suit and beard wearing first date.

• Put on your bikini or board shorts and go out on the hottest day of the year in your Father Christmas costume and eat a huge ice-cream!

Of course, for most of these activities you’re going to need a pretty robust Santa fancy dress costume, and we have the perfect outfit for you. Bear in mind that if you’re going to be running or break-dancing or whatever you’ll need good shoes, preferably black trainers. You can always use some boot toppers to conceal the reality of your running shoes.

And if you’re Mrs Claus, all the same ideas apply, of course!

His owner, 20-year-old Sam Pronk, also has two dogs, which Guus has spent time with since he was a duckling which explains why Guus is confused about his species, but that doesn’t explain why he’s so willing to put on fancy dress and be photographed!

Perhaps ducks are natural show-offs or maybe Guus is an exceptional duck, but we’re sorry to inform you that we don’t stock fancy dress costumes for ducks, although we do have some very cute duck costumes for children and adults, including the sweetest duckling tabard you’ll see this year!

We can’t help feeling that the scenery and sets around the duck’s costumes suggest that his owner is angling for a book contract, or a career as a window dresser or stage hand, but it’s certainly a lot of fun to look at the dressed up duck - we think he’d make a great Fred Astaire in top hat and tails!

Lots of people like to dress up as animals (although we don’t see quite so many animals liking to dress up as people, Guus excluded!) and we have every possible kind of animal costume from neon pink gorillas through to man-eating sharks and realistic walrus masks alongside vampish sexy cat costumes for ladies.

Animal costumes are a lot of fun and if you’re looking for a party outfit for the Christmas period, we highly recommend releasing your inner wolf or dolphin. For a truly polished performance, try downloading some animal sounds from the internet and hiding your iPod or phone in your costume so that you can play a realistic lion’s roar or the evocative sound of whale song to accompany your fancy dress. Bet you win the prize as the best dressed guest!

You may not have heard of Monica Rose but she’s the dresser who pours the Kardashians into their outfits. So what did she dress her kids as for Halloween this year? Well … Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears actually, in their 2001 American Music Awards outfits. In previous years her daughter, Alaia Rose has gone out trick or treating dressed as both Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen (that took a bit of split-screen trickery on Instagram) and even as Karl Lagerfeld.

No doubt it’s amazingly clever, but we wonder if Alaia Rose wouldn’t rather have been dressed as something simpler, like Elsa from Frozen, like every other little girl we saw this week! Because when she’s grown up, it won’t be much fun for her to have to explain her costume to everybody who looks at her kiddy pictures - that’s why the perennial favourites: princesses, nurses, fairy story characters like Little Red Riding Hood, are top choices for little girls, the keep alive the idea of dress up in a way that more clever costumes just don't.

Is your man a closet fancy dress fan?

Ticketing website Eventbrite ran a survey which says that 33% of British men now enjoy wearing fancy dress more than they like their own clothes, with 39% saying that fancy dress costumes help them relax and meet people.

If this is true, why do so many women experience resistance in getting their chap to attend a fancy dress do? The answer appears to be that it’s single men who appreciate the role of a fancy dress costume in allowing them to tap into new unexplored parts of their personality - whilst the happily partnered have less desire to discover hidden aspects of themselves or other people. That said, we all know the power of a costume to release endorphins and create a sense of fun, so why not give the man in your life an excuse to dress up? Superhero themed parties are the best way to get a guy to invest in a costume, and don’t be surprised if he then wants to wear his costume when it’s not party time!

Did Halloween whet your appetite for fancy dress parties? Then you’re not alone. Did you know that online fancy dress retailers like abfab.co.uk are busier in the weeks after Halloween?  I think it’s the experience of dressing up for Halloween that reminds us how much fun we have in costume and so we go all out to start planning a big fancy dress party for christmas or a costume event for New Year.

So what do the celebrities do? Well Heidi Klum definitely goes for it in a big way and this year is no exception - she dressed up as Jessica Rabbit from Who Framed Roger Rabbit - and she looked spectacular!  Dressing up as a star is always fun, and when that star is also a cartoon character, you can really make a splash. Jessica Rabbit is a hard ask though, as you have to look pretty well perfect to pull that costume off. If you’d like to attend your next party as a cartoon character and you’re not quite ready to reveal that much flesh (or if your flesh is not in the same stunning package as Heidi’s) why not try a more forgiving persona such as Wilma or Betty from The Flintstones. These Flintstones fancy dress costumes are just as much fun, and equally feminine but require less time spent defining your six pack! Even better, if you have a family group, you can find yourself a Fred and a Barney, a Pebbles and a Bam-Bam and make it a proper show!

Football stars dress like winners

In a surprise double whammy, Liverpool beat Chelsea 3-1. That was the first wham. The second one was the players’ party after the match, when the Liverpool Football team all dressed up for Halloween - it shows just how hard those players play, doesn’t it? Whether on the pitch or in fancy dress costume, they go all out and get results!

Octoberfest fancy dress

Octoberfest - just the word conjures the pleasures of chilled beer, meaty sausages, oompah bands and still costumes. And if that’s the kind of jolliness that would make your October more fun, why not have an Octoberfest of your own?  There are several Octoberfest events around the UK, or you can simply have an Octoberfest themed fancy dress party.

We’d recommend starting with a great fancy dress costume. You can either opt for the classic Bavarian lederhosen approach or go a little more ‘out there’ with something like our fun-packed Beer Keg costume.

Find some upbeat brass band music for the entertainment and practice your knee-slapping country dancing - there are some great YouTube videos to help you get the moves. You’ll want a to record your guests attempting some Bavarian dancing, so you can embarrass them later!

Then plan your catering - sausages of course, with sauerkraut, fried onions and a range of other toppings, and get the beer in! Simple, fun and bound to make October a month to remember

Trick or Treat is always a laugh but dressing up to welcome those little trick or treaters is an art in itself. A costume that’s too terrifying can simply cause your house to get blacklisted on the trick or treat routes - we know somebody who managed to be such a convincing witch that she had to apologise at the school gates the following Monday. Apparently she’d caused a weekend of nightmares for the kiddies who’d come to her front door. Bet she wasn’t first choice for the PTA after that!

So a costume to welcome Trick or Treaters should be fun rather than frightening - over the years we’ve learned that witches, vampires and  devils are less frightening than zombies and skeletons, so if you don’t want people to run screaming when you open the door, choose accordingly!

Of course then there’s your own costume for your grown up fancy dress party and we’ve seen a real change in halloween fashion in recent years. Whilst it used to be that ‘anything goes’ these days we see many more themed Halloween parties. Popular ideas are ‘Day of the Dead’ which often has a Mexican vibe and lots of tequila, and ‘Wild Halloween’ which combines either Wild West or animal themes, so it’s good to be clear which you’re aiming for. One of our best sellers for the Wild Halloween costume is these stunning Gothic butterfly wings - they are both stunning and easy to wear. Butterfly fancy dress is always popular for the ladies, and there’s no reason not to enjoy it at halloween too.

If you’re catering an adult party, don’t forget the dry ice and some spooky cocktail colours using unusual liqueurs - blue curaçao works well, as does chartreuse for a moody green and Parfait Amour for a beautiful mauve that harmonises with our goth wings!

Now, on any given day you’re likely to bump into one of the Absolutely Fabulous Fancy Dress team in some kind of costume, as we road test them (that’s the story we like to tell, truth is, we just like dressing up!) but the idea of doing it for an entire month, let alone November, is quite a task. After all, November’s not the nicest month in which to be wearing anything other than a cosy jumper and a cardi, but our hat’s off to Alexandra, and we’ll be reporting on her progress in November. It’s a great month to pick as there are any number of themes to choose from: halloween, and St Andrew’s Day to name but two.

We also gave some thought to what outfit we’d pick for a really miserable November day, and our hands-down winner was this pilot get up - stunning fancy dress, easy and comfortable to wear and with it’s own lovely snuggly scarf - total winner! We also thought that pencil and crayon fancy dress would be a great idea as those costumes are always quite warm and, given that people manage to run marathons in them, must be pretty easy to move around in.

If you’d like to help fund Pancreatic Cancer research, Alexandra has a JustGiving page you can visit and you can check out her outfits on her blog. 

There’s no need to limit your imagination with this one. As the kids get miserable about the return to the schoolroom, we grown ups can enjoy reliving the few good things we can remember about school. First - pick your costume!

We’ve got everything you need, from cute schoolgirls for the St Trinian’s look, through to severe schoolmarms with cat’s eye glasses. There are masters with mortarboards and even Zombie Science Teachers. But if you really don’t care to put on your old school uniform look again, there’s always Harry Potter and Hogwarts … that’s a school, right?

Once you have your fancy dress, plan your playlist - Alice Cooper’s, School’s Out,  Another Brick in the Wall (Pink Floyd) and Baggy Trousers by Madness are just the beginning - there are dozens of songs about school out there. And when you run out of songs that are actually about school, there’s nothing like dragging out the tunes from your old school discos to bring back some embarrassing memories.  And once you break out the dad dancing, it’ll probably end in tears … of laughter!

Finally - food. You need to set up a tuck shop. Some of those old fave raves from the school lunch days will break the ice, but make sure you mix them up with brilliant grown-up ideas - we saw some ‘test tube’ cocktails being served with packets of popping candy to create ‘explosions’ - that was fun. Other great Back to School fancy dress party food we’ve seen is a ‘school dinner’ set up where people served themselves with sausages, chips and even punch from those big square bain marie containers (you can hire stuff like that from catering suppliers and from Waitrose).

For the rest of us it’s a bit of a washout … well, there’s only one thing worse than being on a yacht crew and that’s watching a yacht race. However - it’s the perfect excuse for a pirate party! And with Talk Like A Pirate Day just around the corner in September (19th, to be precise) it’s good to get some practice in.

Start by planning your pirate fancy dress costume because as host or hostess, you need to set the tone. No pirate wench or scurvy knave for you … you should at least be a lady pirate or a gentleman buccaneer. Make sure you bling it up with plenty of costume jewellery - charity shops are great hunting places for that kind of sparkly stuff.

Light your party space with candles in old jars and serve some grog (rum, lemon or lime juice, some water and anything else you fancy chucking in there and heating up, that’s grog!) Barbecue is our favourite fare, even though it’s not exactly traditional pirate food, but as pirates ate whatever they could find (pillaging the stores of the ships they boarded) you can pretty well serve whatever you like.

Make sure you have some sea shanties to play - it’s a great idea to print out the words so that your crew can sing along - The Chieftains, The Pogues and The Dubliners are all great pirate party music. And of course, you need to organise a treasure hunt, with a map … aharrr!

A simple treasure hunt might be a bit boring, but a scavenger hunt is always a lot of fun and if you make the clues piratical, everybody can have some fun - remember to hide a skeleton somewhere in the house so that your treasure hunters can find ‘dead men’s bones’ during their search

We love a carnival themed fancy dress party because it offers a chance for such great fun and games - we particularly favour the carnival parade and the formation slosh as hilarious ways to get your guests in the mood for a conga, a samba and a lot of booty shaking.

A feathered headdress is a perfect carnival outfit and it has a second benefit, at any point you can swap it for your policeman’s helmet to take charge of the parade … and everybody knows that a policeman’s helmet is the top trophy to take home from Notting Hill, so don’t be surprised if yours disappears!

Carnival Parade

Once your guests have had a little bit to drink, get them to start the parade … there’s just one rule. Each time you turn the music off they have to change direction, and anybody who bumps into another carnival-goer is out. Keep going until just one player is left.

Formation slosh

The formation slosh requires a little more planning - it’s like musical chairs but you play it outdoors with a number of circles sprayed on the grass. Teach your guests a simple formation slosh with a little twist - when the music stops they have to be standing on one of the circles. Get a lively child to dart into the slosh each time you restart the music and overspray one of the coloured circles with green spray paint so that it disappears and then watch the fun as the sloshers all try to crowd onto the remaining circles. Last one standing is the winner!

But perhaps you can’t get a summer holiday or even a weekend away to attend a festival? In which case, why not bring the festival to you, by hosting a Festival Fancy Dress party.

Costumes for this party are pretty easy - any cheap 70s fancy dress costume will work pretty well, or you can go for the full Hippy look. Then you just need to create your playlist of 1960s hits, lay one some appropriate food and drink - lots of red wine, colourful salads, bean sprouts of course, and some brownies (better make them plain though, nothing too … exciting in the ingredients!)

Get your guests to bring their guitars for a strum along, light a bonfire (a fire pit or just a fire log will do just as well) and lay out some rugs or blankets to sit on … look up at the stars and remember why the hippie era was a gentler, happier period.

Of course hippies invented festivals but they didn’t copyright them, so you could choose to dress like a Glastonbury Goddess (wellingtons, mini-dress and Kate Moss hair) or a Bestival rocker … whatever works for you, up to and including that full evening dress and picnic basket for Glyndebourne.

But there’s no need to sit alone, glued to the TV, when you could throw a Wimbledon party and enjoy the matches in the company of your friends.  Here’s how to do it.

Wimbledon Fancy Dress

Give everyone a tennis player to dress as - if you don’t then half will turn up as John McEnroe and the other half as Bjorn Borg. It’s much more fun if you make them come as famous players from throughout history like Arthur Ashe and Andre Agassi and Boris Becker, Venus Williams, Billie Jean King and that tennis girl with no knickers (or maybe not her, it depends how grown up your party is going to be!) so that you get a great range of characters and outfits.

Remember to offer a prize for the best costume.

Food and drink

It has to be Pimms and strawberries and cream, doesn’t it? But for younger guests and teetotallers, remember the Lucozade and Lemon Barley Water.

You can ice cupcakes with a tennis ball design and yellow macaroons look fab if you draw some white icing lines on them to resemble tennis balls.

Games

Set a tennis themed quiz with a trophy for the winner - you’ll need to have qualifying rounds to get down to a final.

At any time that rain stops play, get your guests to join in the fun. They must push all the furniture back against the walls and roll out an old sheet to cover the floor, then they get to play indoor tennis, batting a soft foam ball backwards and forwards across the line drawn down the sheet. Just one problem - they must keep their hands behind their backs! This game will keep people amused until play starts again and they will have a new appreciation for the athleticism of their tennis heroes.

Party bags

Yes, even grown ups love them. Let everybody go home with a tennis ball, some sweat bands, maybe chocolate tennis ball sweets, some tennis socks and Lego tennis players.

There tends to be a difficulty with Father’s Day - most Dads are difficult to buy for, so they end up with boring socks, even more boring cardigans, or silly things that they will never use (farting bottle openers and glow in the dark plant labels etc) so why not treat Dad to something really fun … like a Father’s Day party!

Yes, everybody has to come dressed up as Dad. We’ve got a range of costumes to help you, from novelty golf hats to bald wigs to Union Jack suits, and if you’d like to flatter your old man, then why not Dad the super-hero?

Prepare his favourite foods, make a mixtape of his favourite oldies (bet there’s some Johnny Cash in there somewhere, everybody’s Dad loves Johnny Cash!) and compile some of his top TV shows so that he can sit and watch them once the party is over. He might say he doesn’t want any fuss, and try and escape to the garden, but once you’ve got him into the swing of things you’ll probably find he’s a bit of a party animal - just make sure you’ve got your phone ready to record any Dad dancing that goes on, so that you can use it to embarrass/blackmail him throughout the year!

Ways to make your Father’s Day party special - party games

Who left the light on?

If your Dad is one of those who goes around turning out the lights, play a party game just for him. One player is blindfolded and the rest circle round him or her to music. When the music stops, the person nearest the light switch has to go and turn it on and the blindfolded player has to guess who it was by their footsteps. If they guess right the light turner on is blindfolded, otherwise the game continues until the ‘Dad’ does guess right. Dad will be delighted that the light gets turned off after each round!

Dad dress up

Everybody sits in a circle and the first person to throw a six on the dice has to run to a heap of Dad clothes: cardigan, tie, wellington boots, cloth cap etc, put them all on and run to the end of the room to cut up a sausage and eat it. Everybody else continues to throw the dice until another six when the second player runs to the first, takes the clothes off them and puts them on etc. Soon people will be trying to rip clothes off each other and it gets quite lively!

Costumes are also great - it doesn’t matter if you’re naturally heroic or quietly quirky - there will be a perfect costume for you. Some people favour the full hero, complete with fake six-pack, super-hero weapon of choice and heroic attitude, whilst others fall comfortably into the anti-hero category,  with a suitable snarl, scowl or sneer and a slinky, svelte or sneaky outfit. Cartoon and manga characters are popular too.

Of course, you need some special drinks, such as Kryptonite cocktail and Asgard Ale and some games … of which our favourite is definitely the phone booth game.

Phone booth game

You know how a superhero has to conceal his or her identity and tends to use a phone booth to whip off their day clothes and reveal their superhero costume! Well that’s our favourite party game.

• Get a big cardboard box - the kind that a fridge or oven comes in, and place a superhero costume in it - you need to buy a fancy dress outfit with gloves, wig, boots and a cape, or coat, as well as a weapon.
• Divide your guests into two teams - each team picks four ‘heroes’ to run the race whilst the rest of them cheer - the cheering squad need to have three sacred treasures to hand their team such as mystery boxes, arcane crystals and magical necklaces.
• When you blow the whistle the first member of each team of four has to run to the ‘phone box’, climb inside and put on the costume before running back to their team. They take off the costume and pass it to the next member of the team who puts it on and runs with the first treasure to the phone box, then takes off the costume and leaves it with the treasure.
• They run back and tag the next team member who takes a treasure to the phone box, pulls on the costume and runs back etc. Time how long it takes to get the three treasures into the box and then let the next team have a go.

We guarantee that the whole room will be shouting and screaming encouragement before long!

Indoor Beach Party

Let’s start with the costumes … because they make and break the whole event. Bikinis and trunks would be cool, but might be too cool, given the unpredictable weather. Instead we like to recommend that people move to a Club Tropicana style fancy dress costume, basically think Wham! and other 1980s fancy dress ideas: Hawaiian style shirts and shorts for men, neon bright T-shirts tied in a knot and stretch mini skirts or puffballs for women - cheap and cheerful sunglasses complete the look and give a great final touch. Of course you can go further because, ‘80s fancy dress ideas for men make a real splash at a beach party - lots of hair gel or crazy wigs, maybe some MC Hammer trousers, or even a full Freddie Mercury.

Decor

A few inflatable flamingoes  and palm trees can really make your indoor party go with a bang (pun intended) and we even have a party game to use your props to their full.

Flamingo Fetch

It’s an old game, but with a new twist. Divide your guests into two teams and give each team a well inflated flamingo. They have to ‘sprint’ to the palm tree and back with the flamingo held between them, but they can’t use their hands or arms to hold it in place. When they cross the line they must pass the flamingo to the next pair to run to the tree and back. Lots of fun!

Another fun game for your indoor beach party is Musical Towels

Get some great music going, reggae works well, and lay out some beach towels in a line down the middle of the room. Play the music, everybody gets to dance and when the music stops they have to jump on a towel and lay themselves out in a sunbathing pose! Remove a towel each time and watch the random collisions as two beach bunnies try to stretch out on the same towel!

Well the trend for St George’s day parties is increasing as certain traditional pursuits such as mumming, Morris Dancing and other very English activities are reactivated as part of our national heritage.  Of the four saints, George is the easiest one to have fun with, mainly because he has such an awesome costume! Our St George is a medieval knight complete with chain mail, sword and shield - all you need to add is a pair of boots or sandals (either is historically acceptable, the boots work for cavalry and the sandals for a foot soldier) and the right rugged attitude. Of course every St George needs a dragon and we have a bunch of cute dragon costumes that work perfectly with St George.

Many schools now have a St George’s Day parade - which is possibly because St George doesn’t have a Bank Holiday to his name, and great costumes that feature the English themes can be constructed from bowler hats, shirts and umbrellas (business man), white shirts and rolled up trousers (morris dancing) or even 1960s hippy themes with a bit of added mud to give the costume the correct Glastonbury vibe. The cross of St George is a good start for a costume, while some of the most popular outfits we’ve seen have included a family ‘Full English’ with people dressed as eggs, bacon, toast and sausages and weather related costumes with wellingtons and umbrellas that comment on the typical British weather.

If you're going to celebrate St George’s Day at home, pick a great meal - bangers and mash, cottage or shepherds pie or the famous roast beef and Yorkshire puddings and a traditional pudding like Eton Mess or a crumble and then spend the evening watching some of what makes England special, such as the best comedy (Fawlty Towers) or the best drama; Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V or History Boys would be great choices. And of course, great beer and cider are very much a part of our English heritage too!

So, if you’re a marathon supporter, or just want to host a little drinks party as you watch in on TV, we’ve got just the costume for you … our 118-118 runner outfit comprises shorts and labelled running vest so that you can get into the spirit of the day. Just add a moustache and wig, or get the mousse out if you’ve got enough hair to do the 1980s hair look with your natural tresses, and settle down with a bunch of snacks and some drinks to enjoy a marathon party. Our top tips for a personal best at the London Marathon party are:

• Invite people to come in costume like those worn in the Marathon, popular examples are rhino costumes and pillar box outfits but still the most popular runner’s costume we offer is the Chicken fancy dress - it’s a classic!
• As each guest arrives, stretch a string across the doorway and allow them to ‘win’. Make sure you get lots of pics of their crazy slow motion antics as they cross the ‘finishing line’
• Give a prize for the best costume, and then another prize for the person who can run fastest in their costume … set out a course around the garden and have a starting gun to really set the right tone
• Make some marathon bunting by cutting triangles out of old sporting magazines and stapling them to plaited red white and blue string
• Put soft drinks in squeezy bottles like the ones on offer at the water stations along the course
• Provide some marathon themed snacks such as pasta salad (carb loading), frozen bananas dipped in dark chocolate (potassium rich bananas are great for recovery, and dark chocolate is packed with antioxidants) and peanut butter bagels - a favourite fuelling food for distance runners.

 And when the party is over, maybe you’ll be inspired to go out for a run …?

Easter was named for Eostre, who was the Anglo-Saxon goddess of Spring, or so St Bede claims. He wasn’t very reliable though, so we don’t know how accurate this claim is.  What we do know is that the Christian church took over an old pagan festival, held every spring, and linked it to the resurrection of Christ, which bore many similar themes to the older festival, relating to life triumphing over death and the return of growth, health and strength to the agricultural world.

Easter traditions

Because the medieval world forbade eggs during Lent (the period preceding Easter) eggs have become a major feature of the Easter celebrations. So the chocolate egg is a development of the hard boiled egg, often painted brilliant colours, that was a traditional Easter feast. Yes, we’re delighted that we’ve moved on from that too - we’d be pretty disappointed if our Easter consisted of a boiled egg and soldiers! Still, decorating hard boiled eggs is a lot of fun, and lots of kids will be painting their breakfast eggs. A quick way to really impress your loved ones over the breakfast table is to buy some temporary tattoos and stick them on your eggs - instant street cred!

Easter bunny - well, we have a shock for you. It’s not a bunny - even though all our costumes are for bunnies, the Easter Bunny is not a bunny! It’s a hare. The origin of the Easter Bunny comes from Germany where stories were told of an Easter hare that laid eggs for children to find. No, we don’t know how hares lay eggs either - and we’ve done our research thoroughly - so you’ll just have to use your imagination. The first German immigrants to America took this story with them, and at some point the hare became a rabbit, and it began to carry a basket full of chocolate eggs. We can’t help feeling this was a relief to the hare/rabbit!

So the hare became a rabbit, the eggs became chocolate and the festival became universal. Now Easter is celebrated not just as a Christian event but all over the world, and people enjoy Easter Bonnet competitions, Easter parades, and, of course Easter parties. Some of our favourite Easter celebrations include children’s costume parties with rabbit ears and carrot cupcakes (for the rabbit obviously), Easter Egg hunts with clues and prizes for the best costume and grown up Easter parties.

Easter parties for adults

Send your invitation in a cardboard Easter egg to set the tone and insist that people wear Easter costumes. For yourself, consider our stunning Deluxe Bunny costumes which are brilliant for couples as they come in white with pink details and in pink with white details, to create a contrasting pair.

Have a picnic - lay out simple, tasty food in little picnic baskets for your guests. But get grown up with the drinks - there are some fab chocolate themed cocktails that will guarantee your party goes with a swing!

There’s traditional Irish food to consider too - an Irish stew, some soda bread and maybe a Bailey’s or two to finish up the meal. But the main fun is in the costumes, attempting some Irish dancing to those fast and furious Irish jig tunes and enjoying a few anecdotes told by those who’ve kissed the blarney stone.

St Patrick’s Day Sport

There are a number of significant sporting events that are traditionally held on St Patrick’s Day, including a relatively new event called The Saint Patrick's Day Test (an international rugby tournament between Ireland and the USA) and the All Ireland Hurling Championships, and if you’ve never seen hurling, it’s a thrill-fest!

Many schools now recognise Saints’ days as part of their cultural calendar and children might be encouraged to learn about the life of St Patrick, to bring in some Irish food to share with others and often to wear green, even if it’s only hair ribbons for girls and a green T-shirt for boys.

Party time - Paddy Style

If you’re invited to a St Paddy’s Day costume party you can have all kinds of fun. The leprechaun is the traditional spirit of Ireland - and we have some brilliant costumes for both men and women, boys and girls. But if you’re not up for a full costume, or perhaps just need something to wear to work that will allow you to participate in this fun day without having to dress up completely, we’ve got some cute little Irish accessories to offer, like Irish boppers or shamrock glasses.

So however you choose to celebrate St Patrick’s Day, we’ve got just what you need to bring your events to life!

What do we mean by inclusive theme? Well, a couple of things. First it’s good to get away from the couples and partners scenario. Those who are blissed up with their other half won’t even notice but those who are still single or who had a tough Valentine’s will really appreciate not having to engage in yet another event that’s all planned around being in lurve… Our top suggestions are:

1. American Civil War
2. Royalty, Nobles and Courtiers
3. Witches, wizards and villagers.

These three themes give a lot of scope for individual fun. So you might find that most of your guests turn up as soldiers or generals from the American Civil War whilst the more imaginative will decide to come as Native American guides - we’ve even seen people come as fancy dress cannons for this theme!

Similarly Nobles and Courtiers involved everything from Marie Antoinette to Henry VIII* (very popular right now, with all the Wolf hall excitement that’s going on) through to wizards, jesters and even bodyguards. It means there’s something for everyone, whether you choose a wonderful tailored costume that is an investment in your future role playing or a light-hearted fancy dress that you can wear and forget.

Witches, wizards and villagers is a great party thing for families, which brings us to our second point.  Whilst some other fancy dress party themes can exclude the younger (and older) family members, this one really allows everybody to feel at home. Even the tiniest tot can pull off dressing as a witch or wizard and shyer folk often find that showing up in a simple fancy dress costume like villager or peasant does the job of allowing them to feel involved without putting them under a lot of pressure to look good.

So if you’re experiencing some post-Valentine’s Day blues, why not throw a party and let your inner Henry VIII or wicked witch come out to play?

The problem with Star Wars is that for couples, it’s always been a bit of a let down. The classic Princess Leia is always fun (and we’ve got a great complete Princess Leia fancy dress outfit with a superb wig!) but she’s about it for females, when it comes to costuming. For guys there’s everything from a Wookie to Yoda and back again, with the classic Valentine’s Fancy Dress pairing of Han Solo with Princess Leia being a huge hit every year.

 But now there’s something new … maybe not for 2015 as the film’s not out yet, but definitely for the following year, and we know that many of our fancy dress customers like to plan their outfits well in advance. The rumour is that there will be a female Stormtrooper in Star Wars VII. Yes, you saw it here first - female Stormtrooper! So if you really can’t wait for the film to come out, you could adapt one of our standard Stormtrooper costumes, using your imagination to feminise it. What can we expect?

Well, we anticipate there will be a curvier shape to the girl Stormtroopers although they will maintain the standard white uniform (but wait! Rumour says there’s going to be a chrome Stormtrooper too, which will be part of an ‘inner guard’, whatever that means) and we think that, just for fun, you might get away with a white tutu and a tiara perched on the Stormtrooper helmet. For couples who love each other, and love science fiction, this might just be the year that his and hers Stormtrooper costumes are slightly ahead of the fancy dress curve, but we reckon that by 2016 we’ll see the first his and hers Stormtrooper wedding photos.

Buy the following fancy dress outfits to go with your amazing makeup and just give the beard to someone else to wear!

Lady Grinches can also find a suitable Mrs Christmas outfit here

Are you going to follow this grinch makeup tutorial? We'd love to see our customers' photos so please send them in!

Here are some outfits to go with your Elf makeup:

If you tried this amazing sugar candy elf makeup and one of our sexy christmas elf costumes, please send photos - we would love to see!

Witch & Warlock Outfit

Here are some costumes and accessories that might go with great makeup like this!