The Frog Prince – wear our brilliant Frog maskswith Georgian style Prince costume
Snow White & Rose Red
The 3 Spinners
Why not take a look at our great range of fairy tale costumes, watch this space, as we have some very interesting costume developments coming up!
Hans Christian Andersen was born today in 1805. Andersen was best known for such stories as ‘The Little Mermaid’ and ‘The Ugly Duckling’, but even without this anniversary, fairy tales and the like are very much on our mind as this week sees the release, after a slight delay, of ‘Mirror, Mirror: The Untold Adventures of Snow White. The first of two new versions of this classic Grimm’s fairy tale to be released this year (the other is set to be released in mid-June). The film promises to be eye-catching in more ways than one: For a start, the costumes are highly colourful and somewhat larger-than-life, with the Elizabethan ruff and collar making a comeback (just in time for the Diamond Jubilee celebrations of another Queen Elizabeth?), and the film features Julia ‘Pretty Woman’ & ‘Erin Brockovich’ Roberts in a whole new light – acting wicked for once. Whilst we (hopefully) do not see most of the costume-looks catching on (there’s a swan-based party-dress design that puts Natalie Portman’s Black Swan efforts in the shade), we are impressed that this Snow White is feisty and up for a fight.
Last week we mentioned the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen in connection with a Fairy Tales fancy dress theme. As World Book Day is this Thursday we thought we might look at these in more detail.
There are some children who find it ‘cool’ to dress as fairy tale characters, whilst others are of an age where it is just not the done thing. With a total of four Snow White films due out this year (one only two weeks away and two going straight to video) we are anticipating that 2012 will not see just the kids wanting to dress up in Fairy Tale Costumes. So, for today we thought we would give you a run-down of our most Popular Fairy Tale requests. We have included both male and female counterparts where appropriate.
Beauty & the Beast
Cinderella, Prince Charming, Ugly Sisters and Wicked Stepmother
Goldilocks & the Three Bears
Puss in Boots, Princess, King, Marquis
Red Riding Hood & Granny/Wolf
Snow White & the Seven Dwarves – Wicked Queen, Prince Charming, Woodcutter
Shrek & Princess Fiona – a more modern take on the classic fairytale!
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Alice, Mad Hatter, White Rabbit, Queen of Hearts
Dick Whittington & his cat
Hansel & Gretel
The Little Mermaid, Sea King, Prince & Sea witch
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Dorothy, Tin Man, Cowardly Lion & Scarecrow – take a look at all of our Wizard of Oz costumes
Our range of Fairytale costumes is growing monthly, and we have some exciting new costumes that are going to make our fairytale costumes fantastic, so watch this space!
The Frog Prince – wear our brilliant Frog masks with Georgian style Prince costume
Snow White & Rose Red
The 3 Spinners
On this day in 1786 Wilhelm Grimm was born. He is one of the Grimm Brothers whom we have to thank as the source of many of our fairy tales. The brothers spent much of their lives collecting and writing down stories from around Northern Europe. Hollywood also has the Grimm Brothers to thank for the basis of several films we shall be hearing about (and perhaps even seeing) over the rest of the year. Central to these, as we have mentioned before, are two new versions of Snow White. The first of the new versions ‘Mirror, Mirror’ will hit cinema screens the middle of March – Lily Collins (daughter of rock legend Phil) stars as our heroine, Julia Roberts gets to be a baddie in some glorious gowns and the whole thing looks quite entertaining.
The other film ‘Snow White and the Huntsman’ is due at the start of June with an altogether darker take on the story: Quite apart from its starring Kristen Stewart (who has ‘form’ with the Twilight Vampire/Werewolf movies), we have Charlize Theron as a Queen whose take on beauty tips (new ways with hearts and human blood) is a little scary, even if this comes closer to the spirit of the original story as told by the Grimms. Both ‘Whites’ are spirited gals, up for a fight (something we didn’t see in the Disney version) and although we hope Kristen Stewart’s female armoured look doesn’t catch on (just like it didn’t when the same designer tried it for Tim Burton’s ‘Alice’), we are looking forward to a resurgence of enthusiasm for the fairy tale theme.
We mentioned the Royal Wedding in a blog a few days ago & today we look at another theme that could easily work for a fancy dress theme at your street party or celebration. Inspired by the fact that Hans Christian Andersen was born on this day in 1805, we thought a fairy tales theme might also be a popular costume choice. Amongst the stories that he wrote were some classic tales, such as The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling and the Snow Queen. Although popular fairy-tales, and, for that matter, nursery rhymes, have some distinctly dark aspects to them (and there are now quite a few costumes available to match that mood), we are at the start of a month which will culminate in a fairy-tale wedding and on a weekend where we honour our mothers, so how about celebrating the spirit of the occasion with an ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’ theme?
Take a look at this list full of fairytale costume ideas, apart from those already mentioned,this list should give you plenty of costume inspiration…
Today, we are suggesting a ‘Fairytale’ fancy dress theme, a we’re anticipating that Fairy Tales might be a popular theme this year, what with a Royal Wedding in April. So today we thought we would get in early as we celebrate the work of the Brothers Grimm. Why today? Well, Jacob was born on January 4th 1785, with his younger brother Wilhelm following in 1786 on February 24th. Their collection of European folk tales have stirred the imagination of children and adults for many years and include Rumpelstiltskin, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, the Frog Prince and several more (over 200 to choose from). Many of these have been used in pantomimes, which is another popular theme at this time of year, (as we mentioned in a previous blog) and have also been adapted by Disney.
Props n Frocks has a huge range of fairytale costumes including Snow White, Robin Hood costumes that could be used as a Prince Charming and of course, we have a frog overhead mask for the Frog Prince.
There are so many Brother’s Grimm Fairy Tales that below is a short list of some of the most popular:
Rapunzel
Hansel & Gretal
Cinderella
Snow White
The Frog Prince
Rumblestiltskin
Red Riding Hood
Sleeping Beauty
The 3 Spinners
Snow White & Rose Red
If fairy tales is a little fanciful for you, why not have a book characters theme? Louis Braille (1809) and Sir Isaac Pitman (1819) were also born on this day. Both are well known for characters, but of a different format, the Braille system for the blind, and the Pitman shorthand dictionary, respectively.
Yesterday we looked at musicals as our fancy dress theme and today we find yet another one, groundbreaking in its own way. Walt Disney’s
Ladies Snow White Costume
‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ was premiered on December 21st 1933 and its claim to fame is that it is the first feature-length cartoon film. Whilst Disney had become famous for his short cartoons, featuring a certain mouse and a host of other characters, when he proposed making a full-length feature, it was said that the project would be a disaster, as a cartoon would not hold the audience’s attention that long. In the event, of course, the critics were proved wrong and the film was a great success. When it came to Awards time, the American Academy (the ‘Oscars’ people), unable to give the film an Oscar because it was too innovative, gave Disney a Special Award in 1938 of an Oscar-style statue with seven mini-replicas in ‘recognition of an innovation which has charmed millions and pioneered a new entertainment field’. If the Disney theme is a little too obvious, then with Pantomime time almost upon us, why not work an event around fairy tales?
So, what costumes can we suggest for this fancy dress theme? Well, the answer is loads! This is a magical theme with so many potential costume ideas, including plenty of couples costume ideas. We will list just a few below, but please let us know what you have worn to a party with this fancy dress theme as it really helps our other readers.
Snow White - we had to mention this young lady as this theme is inspired by her anyway. Of course, there are the other characters; Wicked Queen (use a witch costume), Prince Charming and who can forget the seven dwarfs? You may be able to use Elf costumes for the dwarfs and a Georgian costume for Prince Charming
Cinderella – a whole host of costumes available here from Ugly Sister costumes, to rats, Fairy Godmother & Prince Charming outfits.
Aladdin – another fantastic story with a large range of characters to help you to choose your costume. Aladdin, widow twanky (Aladdin’s mother in the Panto version), Jafar, the baddie, Jasmine (wear a belly dancer costume) and of course, the genie. There are also roles for a parrot and monkey.
Peter Pan – Yet another great story, fullof terrici characters that you can dress up as. Firstly, we have Peter Pan, a greeen Elf costume will suffice as will some Robin Hood costumes. Captain Hook, Peter Pan’s arch enemy. You will need to wear a pirate captain costume and of course, you must wear a hook. Smee, Hook’s second in command. You will need to wear a standard pirate costume for this character (as played by Bob Hoskins) or with white hair, blue and white top and a red hat ( if you follow Disney’s version). Wendy wears an old fashioned white nightgown and the lost boys wear medieval peasant style clothing. Green fairy costumes are available top urchase for Tinker Bell. Other characters include: Indians and mermaids.
Alice in Wonderland, choose from Alice herself, The Queen of Hearts, The Mad Hatter or the white Rabbit
Pinocchio – a wooden puppet that comes to life. Wear German style clothing and a long nose
Beauty & the Beast. You may need to wear a werewolf mask to get the beast effect. Beauty wears a yellow Victorian style dress. A lot of the characters (Wardrobe, light, tea pot) can be quite difficult to put together unless you are very talented and artistic.
Hansel & Gretal – wear German style costumes
The Gingerbread Man
Puss in Boots. We stock a large range of cat masks and accessories as well as over boots, hats and swords.
Jack & the Beanstalk – Jack and his mother wear peasant costumes. You may need a very tall friend to go as the giant!
Okay, so we have given you a few ideas, and believe me, there are plenty more where these have come from. Hopefully, this will give you some ideas and get you in the magical mood for this magical fairytale fancy dress theme. why don’t you check out the website for our range of fairytale costumes?
