Today’s fancy dress theme is all about childrens book characters. We’ve written an information page full ofchildren book costume ideas, so why not take a look? This page is mainly aimed at world Book Day, but the information on it is applicable to children and adults alike.
If you look below, we’ve also included this in the ‘Comic Book’ section as many people will look upon comic Book characters as being suitable for this theme. So if you need a Comic Book costume ideas, you’ve come to the right place
The author Beatrix Potter was born today in 1866. She is probably best known for her children’s books about characters such as Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddleduck and Mrs Tiggywinkle (after whom a hedgehog hospital has been named). She not only wrote the books but illustrated and, initially, published them herself. What is less well known is that with her interest in all aspects of nature and the wealth she gained from her books and, in later life, farming, she gradually bought up properties in the Lake District. When she died, she left these properties and their land to the National Trust and in doing so helped create a large part of what is now the Lake District National Park. Now, we do not often get asked specifically for Beatrix Potter character costumes, but Children’s Book Characters can be a popular theme and includes such favourites as Red Riding Hood, Alice and Dorothy for the girls and Harry Potter, Mad Hatter and the Lion for the boys. The Alice in Wonderland and Wizard of Oz books also offer a wide range of option if you are going as a group. Alternatively, if the weather’s co-operating The Great Outdoors can be an interesting challenge for a party.
Today’s fancy dress theme has a strange title of ‘ films that Started As a Book’. We thought it would make a more interesting theme that purely books, or films.
It’s now two weeks before the final Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 film comes out on general release (less than a week away for the London premiere) and the excitement is almost unbearable for those fans, who have grown up with Harry Potter during the last ten years – the first film having been released back in November 2001. The Harry Potter phenomenon got us thinking about other books that have made it onto the big screen and what costumes we have to accommodate them. Aside from the various characters from what will be eight Harry Potter films (although there were only 7 books), during the last decade there have also been film adaptations of JRR Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy (with The Hobbit prequel currently in production) and characters from CS Lewis’ Narnia Chronicles (with two further films planned in a few years time).
So whilst some franchises are finishing, others are ongoing and one of the longest –the Bond films – hopefully restarts soon, the search is on for the next Big Thing. Reminded by the fact that yesterday was the 75th anniversary of the publication of the epic romantic tale of Margaret Mitchell’s ‘Gone with the Wind’, Romance and the 1920s may be the way forward as a big budget remake of ‘The Great Gatsby’ is underway. Alternatively, given a current upsurge of interest in the tales of Arthurian legend, or other Dark Ages epics such as the recent TV series ‘The Game of Thrones’, the holy grail of a film franchise may lie there.
So here are just some costume ideas of films that started life as a book, as you can see there is a huge variation and possible costume choices…
Harry Potter, as described above – we stock a great range of Harry Potter costumes, although a lot more for children
‘My Favourite Book Character’ is our fancy dress theme for today as the Hay-on-Wye Literary Festival starts and runs to the 5th of June. Hay-on-Wye is the undoubted centre of the British second-hand book universe as almost every retail establishment in the town features books of all shapes and sizes. Even non-retail establishments such as the old cinema and many houses, have books everywhere, even outside on shelves, on pavements and in gardens. Unfortunately the Festival attracts so many people that, with all the space being taken up with books, marquees and other temporary accommodation have to be provided, but everyone has a jolly good time and, apparently, quite a few books get sold. Needless to say, our suggested theme of the day is ‘My Favourite Book or Book Character’.
Now children are often asked to dress up at school as their favourite book characters for book week or World Book Day. Props n Frocks has a huge list of kids book character costume ideas that are ideal for a school dressing up day. We will not repeat them here, but do take a look as it does give you a huge range of potential costumes.
Moving on to adults…
If we are really honest, most people will probably choose a costume from the children’s list (see the link above), as the characters are easily recognisable, but below we have listed a few common book characters from more grown up books…
Nancy from Oliver
Scarlett O’Hara & Rhett Butler from Gone With The Wind
Dorothy, Tin Man, Cowardly Lion & Scarecrow from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Various characters from The Bible
Sherlock Holmes – The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes
children book costume ideas, so why not take a look? This page is mainly aimed at world Book Day, but the information on it is applicable to children and adults alike.
