We have mentioned before the popularity of Dead Icons as a fancy dress theme and this year we have seen a couple of variations on this particular idea, one being Dead Famous and another Dead Celebrities. As the term celebrities is seen as a rather modern invention, those attending the latter event, took it to mean people who had passed away within the last fifty years, whilst the dead famous theme was perceived as any famous person from history.
Whatever, take you have on this particular theme, there are two stars of yesteryear, whose names still evoke memories and imitations. One was Bruce Lee, the Kung-Fu fighting martial arts star, whose untimely death in 1973, aged just 32, came about just before his last film ‘Enter the Dragon’ was released. Bruce Lee was born in 1940 and two years later on November 27th 1942 another star, this time in the world of Musical Rock was also born. His name? Jimi Hendrix. He died aged just 27.
Our previous blogs give such a huge range of Dead Famous fancy dress costume ideas that it seems silly to repeat them all here again – just use the link and a whole list of them will appear, as if by magic!
Today, we advocate a Dead Icons fancy dress theme.
Amy Winehouse died in July and became one of that select group of music icons – such as Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin – who passed away at 27. Today would have been Amy’s 28th birthday. Whilst much has been written about her lifestyle and her music, which will indeed live on, the additional unusual compliment we can pay her as members of the costume trade is that she had a distinctive image and she stuck with it, unlike other modern songstresses who cannot keep the same look from one moment to the next. Admittedly the Amy look requires a bit of effort with eye-make-up and temporary tattoos but at least it is potentially iconic and definitive.
Our first thoughts today were let’s have a Dead Music Icons fancy dress theme, but we thought that that left very little choice for females. We’ve tried to incorporate as many musical costume ideas here as possible, if you can think of any others, please drop us a line.
Some Dead Icon Costume Ideas include:
Elvis Presley
Jackie O
Princess Diana
President Kennedy
Amy Whinehouse
Michael Jackson
Buddy Holly
Bob Marley
Johnny Cash
John Lennon
George Harrison
Frank Sinatra
Janis Joplin
Freddy Mercury
Jimi Hendrix
Audrey Hepburn
Fred Astaire
Osama Bin Laden – be careful this one may be a bit sensitive, but we have to admit that this man was looked upon as an idol for some!
‘Dead Icons‘ is our costume theme for today for had it not been for her untimely death, today would have been Marilyn Monroe’s birthday. She was born in 1926 and, after making her name with ‘dumb blonde’ roles, her later career saw her trying to break from such typecasting and take on more serious roles – at one stage she was quoted as saying “I’m not interested in money, I just want to be wonderful” . Unfortunately her personal life and problems gave her a reputation for unreliability, and studios were increasingly reluctant to work with her. Although her death in 1962, aged 36, was put down to an overdose, there are still those who suspect it was due to darker causes. Marilyn was at one time voted the sixth greatest actress of all time, and she endures beyond the movie screen as a pop culture icon. Today of all days is a good time for a Dead Icons event.
Some Dead Icon Costume Ideas include:
Elvis Presley
Jackie O
President Kennedy
Michael Jackson
Audrey Hepburn
Fred Astaire
Osama Bin Laden – be careful this one may be a bit sensitive, but we have to admit that this man was looked upon as an idol for some!
Dead Icons can be a popular fancy dress theme for a party, but today, March 6th shows how difficult it can sometimes be for those providing costumes. For example,today marks the 50th anniversary of the death of comedy legend and King of the ukulele, George Formby (died 1961). Originally a music hall entertainer, he also starred in many films and had various catch-phrases, with probably his best known one being ‘It’s turned out nice again’. But, from a costuming point of view how do you ‘do’ George Formby? The answer is you don’t, unless you happen to be blessed with similar looks, personality and a ukulele (or little stick of Blackpool rock).
So, before you latch onto a specific character to portray when it comes to a Dead Icons theme, why not see what we can offer first? Take a look at these Dead Icons Fancy dress ideas from one of our other blogs.
For January 22nd we celebrate the birth of Sam Cooke, who was born eighty years ago on this day in 1931 and died, aged just 33, on December 11th 1964, having been shot dead by the Manager of the Hacienda Hotel, in Los Angeles.
He was considered to be one of the founders of soul music and became one of the first singers inducted to the Rock n Rock Hall of Fame. Given that there are many circumstances where those who died young have become revered, e.g. Marilyn Monroe, Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran, James Dean, etc.. for today, we thought the theme ‘Dead Icons’ was worth considering.
There are so many costumes choices for this theme, here are a few that may interest you…
Today’s fancy dress theme is inspired as it was on 8th December in 1980, thirty years ago, that John Lennon was shot and
Michael Jackson Thriller Costume
killed in New York. There have already been many speculations on how things would have gone for him had he not passed too early in this, the year of what would have been his 70th birthday.
A ‘Dead Icons / celebrities’ costume party is always a popular theme as it offers a wide range of costume choices. If you are hosting the party, you may allow your guests to choose anyone from history, or restrict it to certain years. Please bare in mind that if you make the fancy dress theme too hard to do, many people will opt out of wearing fancy dress and this will ruin your entire evening. Fancy dress only works when the majority of your guests dress up. In fact, we recommend that you only allow guests to attend if they do wear fancy dress, or at least make some effort towards the reuired theme. It is always worth having 1 or 2 spare costume accessories for those who do not arrive dressed up.
There are so many costumes choices for this theme, here are a few that may interest you…
variations on this particular idea, one being Dead Famous and another Dead Celebrities. As the term celebrities is seen as a rather modern invention, those attending the latter event, took it to mean people who had passed away within the last fifty years, whilst the dead famous theme was perceived as any famous person from history.
