What to Wear to the Fancy Dress Party?
If you love going to fancy dress parties and having a really great time, but often run out of ideas when it comes to deciding what kind of party costume to wear, this might help you.
We've put together a short list of cool costumes that are general enough so that you can take the idea and build upon it to dream up a really way out, or unique outfit to wear to your next party.
Super Heroes
Okay, many people love to dress up as their favorite super hero and this probably goes back to the time when they were kids and dreamed of stepping into the shoes of Superman, Spiderman or Captain America to do battle with the bad guys.
Marvel comics produced some great heroes to emulate and these days, adult (as well as kids) costumes can be had in just about any superhero version you can think of. Use your imagination and if you want to add to a costume that you hire, you can always get busy and make some accessories yourself that will lend some individuality to the costume that will set you apart from the herd and ensure you don't end up being one of half a dozen batmen!
Horror Story Characters
Oh yes, there are plenty of these to get into. If you don't mind turning up at a party to be one of several vampires or Frankenstein-like monsters, you can hire costumes that will be sure to give the kids a fright.
To be a little more individual, again you are going to have to come up with some tailor made accessories. Vampires usually come in the Count Dracula flavor, but there are plenty of others that you can sneak in, such as one of Buffy's enemies (or even her friend, Angel), or one of the characters from Tarantino's From Dusk to Dawn (oh yeah, that was a movie with a nice twist that plenty never saw coming...) or try the up to the minute characters from Twilight.
Zombies are always a cool choice, but you'll be one of several, especially with the Michael Jackson early demise backlash.
Historical Characters
Kings and Queens, noblemen and women, as well as historic bad guys like Napoleon, Attila the Hun, Ivan the terrible et al go down well at fancy dress parties. Good guys too, like Nelson, Washington, Lincoln, Churchill etc all make for an interesting spread of characters.
Go even further back in time to relive the Roman emperors, Greek academics, famous artists and musical composers etc to bring some interest to a party that will be full of vampires!
Cartoons
You don't always have to go for serious characters. Looney Toons can provide endless ideas from Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck to Yosemite Sam and Elmer Fudd to name just a few.
There are tons of cartoons, old and new to choose from and if you can't find what you want in a hire store, then get something similar and make your own accessories to change the character. Snow White can easily be transformed into just about any princess you like, while a Homer Simpson can easily be transformed into Krusty...
Off the Wall
Sometimes, you need to really climb off the wall to come up with something totally outrageous, outlandish or just plain unique. Get online and check through cartoons, video games, and old (or new) movies to find unusual characters that you can create yourself.
Don't go for obvious ones, like Beavis and Butthead, Lara Croft, the Super Mario Brothers, Shrek or the Men in Black. Try something else, like maybe Ming (from Flash Gordon), a Muppet (not Kermit or Fozzy and definitely not Miss Piggy!), a silly kid's character like Dora the Explorer or Igglepiggle (you have to be a parent to know that one...).
You could be tongue-in-cheek and dress up as a sailor and be a Captain Pugwash character like Seaman Staines, or Master Bates... or try Lazy Town's Robbie Rotten.
There are tons of characters that you can get costumes for when you buy online or at regular stores, even more when you customize what you can get into something you can't get. Look through the online stores to get an idea and sometimes the idea for how to make the subtle change to make it someone else will jump right out of the page at you when you engage your imagination and let your dreams do the thinking!