On February 5th 1919, United Artists was formed by D W Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford. This new independent film studio, set up by some of the ‘cinema celbs’ of the time, was designed to break the ability of the existing studios to dictate what work ‘their’ actors could do. This was in anticipation of the coming of the ‘talkies’ and other innovations. It seems strange that just over ninety years later, one of the hottest film tips for BAFTA and Oscar honours this year is ‘The Artist’ which, celebrates the era of the silent movies and is silent itself – a concept some cinema-goers have apparently had difficulty with (we also like the way the film is up for a ‘Best Sound’ BAFTA!). In honour of the silent cinema Greats past and present, we’re suggesting a Black & White theme, which can look very classy if it’s done properly.
This is one of those fancy dress themes where you can do as much, or as little, as you want. If dressing up is just not for you, why not just wear ‘normal’ clothing in the stated colours? Want to be more adventurous? Add a wig, hat, glasses, eyelashes or masquerade eye mask. And for those of you who really want to go the ‘whole hog’ why not wear a full fancy dress costume that has a black and white colour?
Today’s costume theme is Black & White as on this day in 1840 the Penny Black started its role as the world’s first postage stamp. A British invention (which is why Britain doesn’t have its name on its stamps) the Penny Black had gone on sale a few days earlier in preparation for this novel concept of prepayment – up until then people had paid to receive their letters!
From the costuming point of view, we couldn’t see much mileage in a Stamp-based theme, which goes to show that philately gets you nowhere, but there is a splendid opportunity to mark the occasion with a Black & White party. Not only can we offer a vast selection of costumes on a black and/or white theme but we also have a vast array of support decorations, Venetian style feather masks and accessories.
The black and white theme is very popular as it looks very elegant. You must be clear on your invite if you expect your guests to dress up in costume, or if just black clothing is acceptable. It’s a great excuse for the men to wear a dinner suit and look very dashing! You could give some suggestions on your invite, to avoid confusion. Have a look at our other blogs on a black & white colour theme
Some Black & White costume / accessory options:
Black or White wigs – look at our Cruella wig – it would be ideal for this event
Boas – add a bit of glamour to a plain black or white dress
Eyemasks – we stock a large range of black, white & black & white styles
Props n Frocks stocks a huge range of costumes that come in black or white. It would be difficult to list them all on this blog. We would suggest you put the key words black white in the search box (find top right under the lady with the blue wig) and see what comes up. If you are local, we invite you to pop into our fancy dress shop and browse the huge selection of costumes that we have to hire or buy.
It’s not often we get to have an excuse for a colour-based fancy dress party theme (although there are two ‘Orange’-orientated events later this week) but today the opportunity presents itself because it was on 10th February 1996 that Big Blue triumphed in a match against a world chess champion. Big Blue was actually an IBM supercomputer (a successor to a machine called Deep Thought), the champion was Gary Kasparov and admittedly although the colour link is a little tenuous, we thought we should seize the opportunity to suggest a colour party, which, of course, can cover a whole spectrum of costumes (some of which could be worn with shades!)
You may want to limit the colour range to just a couple to get some sort of consistency, but that is really down to you.
Some costumes ideas for colours are below…
Purple – Deep Purple, Prince
Red – Christmas Costumes, Scarlett O’Hara, Ladybird Costumes
Today we are suggesting that you host a Black & White fancy dress party. On February 5th 1919, the Independent film studio United Artists (now owned by MGM) was formed by D W Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford. These were Directors and Stars from the era of the Silent Movie, where actions and characterisations played a fundamental role in bringing a story to life.
Now the silent screen era might not be a great one when it comes to a party theme. After all can you imagine going to a party where nobody talks to each other? (Hang on, didn’t I go to that party?) Staunch advocates of costume parties will know that being in a costume is a great way to break the ice. So, rather than concentrating on the silent aspect, why not have a ‘Stars of the Silver Screen’ theme or be totally off the wall and just go for a generic black and white theme party?
We have recently suggested a ‘Movies’ based costume theme, so we thought that ‘Stars Of The Silver Screen’ was too similar to discuss so soon. So a Black & White party it is!
Having a colour based costume party does give your guests a wide costume choice. They could also wear their own black and /or white clothes with an added accessory of two. Choosing a colour theme allows your guests to be able to attend the function without spending a fortune on a complete outfit, if this is what they decide to do.
We have found that the most popular costumes for a black and white theme are:
Michael Jackson (It doesn’t matter if your black or white!)
Cruella
Beetlejuice
As already discussed, it is not necessary to purchase a complete fancy dress outfit. The most common accessories that people will purchase for a black & white costume theme are:
Black Boas
White boas
Black masquerade eyemasks – will glam any ladies outfit up. We stock a huge range of eyemasks for masked balls
Black Wigs
White Wigs
Cruella Style Wigs (Black & White)
Black Hats
White Hats
Although, we have suggested & black & white theme today, you could use any colour for a fancy dress theme. Try and theme your room to the colour code for a bit of extra impact.
