I was pleased with the service I got. The dress we ordered arrived very quickly and represented good value for money. My little girl loves it! The measurements provided were very useful and accurate.
Thank you
Catriona 31st March 2011
Last day of March and Spring is in the air (or so they say). When it comes to this time of the year we certainly seem to
get several requests for animal costumes. The most popular ones tend to be chicks and rabbits (must be something to do with Easter) but animals of all types can be in demand and given that many such costumes are made of fur fabric, now’s a good time to be fur-clad: If the weather’s not playing it’s part, you won’t be too cold and at this time of year it is not too hot for a fur costume to be uncomfortable. Not that the heat factor puts people off – we have had people in Gorilla suits doing pub-crawls in mid-July and despite the risk that the weather might actually do what it’s supposed to when it’s supposed to. The enthusiasm for our furry costume friends does not fall off markedly during the summer months. Never let practicality and comfort get in the way of a good idea!
If wearing a full animal costume does not appeal to you, why not take a look at our huge range of animal overhead masks or animal face bops and noses to get you in the animal mood.
Many thanks for the prompt delivery of the Werewolf head and gloves they are absolutely wicked. My partner was in bed and so I put them on and woke him up, he screamed like a girl LOL.
I will definately buy off you again and will be happy to recommend you to my friends,
Ali 24th March 2011
I was delighted with the quality and service from props n frocks, brilliant!
Libby 28th March 2011
Props n Frocks prides itself on providing all the costumes that you want, however sometimes, we are not able to due to
Licensed Mr. Incredible Costume
licensing issues.
To start at the beginning (please bear with us) we need to go back to 1858 when an American named Hymen J Lipman registered a patent for a pencil with an attached eraser! Furthermore, he went on to sell this patent to someone else for $100,000, who then tried to sue another pencil manufacturer for infringing the patent. When it came to court, the action was thrown out on the grounds that this was just two things which previously existed being put together with no new use being created. And this is relevant to costuming how?
Because at the heart of the costumes we are able to provide you with there are the same sort of issues of copyright and licensing. Disney costume characters are a good example – certain ‘core’ characters – Mickey & Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, etc., were created by Walt Disney and so his organisation has control over the use of their image, including costumes. So even if you do not think the ‘official’ Minnie costume looks the way you want it to, only the official outfit can be called (or ‘passed off’) as Minnie – anything else is just ‘Miss Mouse’ However, other characters associated with Disney – Cruella de Vil, Snow White and, latterly, Rapunzel were originally someone else’s idea but Disney has produced ‘looks’ for those characters which it is able to copyright as they are Disney creations. This also explains why we cannot always provide the costumes you want. If official versions do not exist, the costume’s creator (or their ‘owner’ e.g. A film company) can take action against someone who pinches their idea and makes money from it. Sometimes ‘lookalikes’ do occur but the situation can be a problem area and one that causes us frustration in our attempts to meet your needs.
This does cause us many problems, because a lot of the ‘licensed’ costumes just were not as nice as quality as we would have liked. But, what can we do? If we provide a ‘lookalike’ costume, then it has been known for the company who hold the license to take court action, and being successful!
Luckily, the quality of many of these ‘licensed’ costumes has now improved, but there is still a price issue. Because the company that has the license has paid a lot of money to be able to distribute official versions of costumes, and accessories, they have to try and get their money back by adding it to the costume price. An ‘official’ costume will always be more to purchase than a generic one.
The other main problem is when parents come in, looking for an example, a Telly Tubby costume. Again, popular children television characters will also be covered by a license. The BBC, for example, will work very hard to protect the image of characters. For example, it wouldn’t look very good if Upsy Daisy, ended up in a brawl in a nightclub, it damages the character’s profile. Most of these type of characters, can only be hired as official mascot style costumes. The mascot will arrive, complete with an actor, ideal for shopping centre openings, but out of the reach of most parent’s pocket – which is a real shame.
At Props n Frocks, we believe that there should be a middle ground, where great ‘copy’ costumes, can be hired out (for kids parties) and a royalty being paid to the license holder. At least this way, hundreds of little children will be excited about Noddy attending their birthday party. Will that ever happen? Probably not!
Props n Frocks stocks many licensed costumes including:
On the 29th of next month it will the big day for Prince William and Catherine Middleton. How are you thinking of
celebrating this event? You may get inspiration from our ‘Kings & Queens’ blog post.
If you are holding a street party have you thought about all the party goods you might need? From red, white and blue decorations, to tablecloths, serviettes, party hats, balloons, cutlery, etc., there are so many things you may need. Some people are choosing to celebrate the wedding by holding a street party in fancy dress. Although you might think that a Prince and Princess theme a good idea, in reality particularly with children the scope of this can be quite limited. So today, in honour of the fact that on this day in 1871 Queen Victoria opened the Albert Hall, in memory of her Prince, we thought we might suggest a royal theme. After all you have so
many monarchs to choose from, not only from British history but also from Europe and the rest of the world.
Having a ‘Royalty’ theme opens up the costume theme, and the ‘Kings & queens ‘ blog post should have given you some ‘outside the box’ costume ideas. See below for a few of our costume ideas that may give you further inspiraiton…
We offer you a choice of 2 fancy dress themes today, Pirates or the 1960s. Take a look at these 60s blogs that will give
you loads of 60s costume ideas
For those of you who enjoyed the film ‘The Boat that Rocked’ or remember the days of pirate radio, it was on this day in 1964 that the pirate station Radio Caroline first began broadcasting at midday. Also on the 28th March (but this time in 1910) the first successful seaplane took off from Martinique in France. So today you could head back to the sixties and check out our funky mini-dresses or hippy fancy dress outfits and accessories. Alternatively you might choose to have a pirate party or just a celebration of ‘life on the ocean wave’. Pirates is a popular theme all year round and we have plenty of pirate accessories & costumes for you to choose from. In fact, we have all sorts of costumes and accessories to help with any type of event.