This week we hope to inspire you with some creative choices for costumes for New Year’s Eve. One of our most popular fancy dress themes for the New Year is Movies. Why not take a look back at some of our previous blogs on this Movie theme, to get some inspiration on the characters you could be? Take a look here for some great Movie costume ideas.
You might choose to be a silver-screen idol such as Humphrey Bogart (who was born on December 25th 1899); a comedy legend such as Charlie Chaplin (who died on Christmas Day 1977); or what about the sultry temptress Marlene Dietrich? Her birthday is celebrated today, as she was born December 27th in 1901. Our fabulous range of female tailcoats would certainly help create that particular look, as she was famous for dressing in men’s Top Hat n Tails – something very daring for a female to do back in the late 1920s/early 1930s.
One of the most popular pairings for the Movies theme is Cleopatra and Mark Anthony. Not everyone can carry off the black fringed wig, which is an essential part of the Cleo look, but this couple can certainly make a statement.
Fancy something a bit more modern? Then here are a few suggestions from our selection of Movie Characters. If what you want is not on the list, don’t panic, we have many others to choose from.
Ariel, Snow White, Cinderella or one of the other Disney Princesses.
Captain Jack Sparrow or other characters from the Pirates of the Caribbean films.
Woody, Buzz or Mr Potato Head from Toy Story.
Characters from Alice in Wonderland.
Other animated characters such as Shrek and Princess Fiona
Perhaps you fancy something more daring, such as one of the characters from the Rocky Horror Picture Show – we stock the full range of Rocky Horror Costumes at Props n Frocks. You might choose a costume that requires some make-up. Edward Scissorhands and Beetlejuice are two such characters. Not only do we stock the costume, wig and make-up for both these costume suggestions, but if make-up is too much effort, for Beetlejuice we can also offer you the mask option (which is even on special offer at the moment). Masks can certainly help create a fantastic impression, but may be a little impractical when it comes to eating and drinking. Finding somewhere to store the mask when doing this can be a good move.
What do director Tim Burton & supermodel Claudia Schiffer have in common? Well, today we can say Happy Birthday to both of them. Tim Burton was born in Burbank, California in 1958, whilst Claudia Schiffer’s birth was over a decade later, in 1970 in Dusseldorf, Germany. We think however, that is where the similarity ends. Claudia of course has made a couple of appearances in movies such as Zoolander and Love Actually, but nothing from the prolific Tim Burton stable. The great thing about the majority of Tim Burton’s films, are the number of costumes that are regularly requested here at Props n Frocks, and which we have available. From Beetlejuice to Batman, Edward Scissorhands to Sweeney Todd, Willie Wonka to the various characters from Alice in Wonderland. The latter of course includes Tim Burton’s wife Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen, and Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter. And if the films of Tim Burton are not quite your style (some people find them rather dark), you could always go for a James Bond party, as today also marks the 81st birthday of actor Sean Connery. Or what about stick to the firm favourite of films or Movies.
To be honest, there is so much choice for film costumes you should be able to find a lovely costume and put it into a film context. We have completed many other film costume ideas blogs, so why not take a look?
Movie Idols fancy dress theme is our costume choice for the day. It is easier dressing up as one of these movie stars in a recognisable character from one of their major films. We’ve tried to give you a varied list, to get your own inspiration going, for example roger Moore is down as The Saint, and yes, we know, he was also James Bond.
Some of our Movie Idol Costume ideas include:
Marilyn Monroe – Decide between the pink evening dress or the white halter neck costume
Reese Witherspoon – French Maid from Bridget Jones
To be honest, this list could go on and on, who would you dress up as?
Having mentioned a 100th birth anniversary yesterday we could not let today pass without mentioning another. That of film director Ray Nicholas. Who? Well, only those over a certain age might know the name, but chances are there are many more people who might know the most famous film he directed, which was the significant 1955 movie ‘Rebel Without a Cause’ featuring James Dean. This film, along with ‘East of Eden’ and ‘Giant’ seemed to set Dean up for a major acting career but, as we know, he died in an auto accident in 1955, before ‘Rebel’ was released, but became a movie legend nonetheless. Now when it comes to Movie Idols here at PNF we can offer a wide selection from the timeless characters portrayed by Marilyn Monroe or Clark Gable through to the newer creations such as Black Swan, Green Lantern and the Smurfs!
Today we give you Cult Films as our fancy dress theme. Well, it’s time to get a bit highbrow as we celebrate the work of two film directors, whose films have produced some memorable characters (even if not all of them have been immortalised in costume!). Firstly, we have Blake Edwards who was born this day in 1922. He is probably best known for his comedies, some featuring his wife Julie Andrews, but many showcasing the talents of Peter Sellers, notably the Pink Panther series in which Sellers played Inspector Clouseau.
The Pink Panther (originally the name of a diamond but also a cartoon character in the film titles) took on a life of his own. Edwards also brought us ‘The Great Race’, from whose characters The Great Leslie (Tony Curtis) and Professor Fate (Jack Lemmon), the Wacky Races cartoon series was apparently developed.
On the more serious side, today in 1928 Stanley Kubrick was born. Kubrick believed in quality not quantity and was famed for his meticulous attention to detail in his pictures. These included ‘Spartacus’, ‘Dr. Strangelove’, ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ and ‘A Clockwork Orange’. We sometimes get requests for Alex de Large, the anti-hero of Clockwork Orange, but there is often a dispute as to who’s going to be Spartacus. Kubrick also did wonders for the Venetian mask market thanks to some of the surreal scenes in ‘Eyes Wide Shut’. Our theme of the day is ‘Cult Film Characters’.
Here are just some of our costume ideas for Cult films…
The Rocky Horror Picture Show – we stock the full range of licensed Rocky Horror Costumes
The word ‘cult’ has different meaning to different people, so we have tried to stick with a list that doesn’t just rely on the more mainstream types of film that you all know, and if you feel that they are in fact a ‘cult’ then please go ahead and dress up as a character in one of them. If you need more great film costume ideas, check out our website selection.
Have you other ideas as to what Cult films should be on our list – why not drop us a line so we can add them on?
Fantasy Films is today’s fancy dress and narrows down the ‘normal’, but massive, film theme that you’d normally hear about.
The word fantasy is really open to your own interpretation, as you may think of Marilyn Monroe as being your fantasy, so therefore you could chose to wear a Marilyn costume from one of her famous films.
Most people would tend to go down the sci-fi film route with this one, but you may get the odd porn star turn up (we are just warning you, especially if children are going to be attending!). Take a look at our range of sci-fi costumes
So let’s have a look at the most common costume choices for a Fantasy Film fancy dress…
Avatar – a great range of costumes are now available
Lord of The Rings – Gandalf, Arwen, Frodo, just some of the characters you could use
Star Trek – we stock mens shirts and ladies Star Trek dresses
Star Wars – we stock Princess Leia, Darth Vader and kids costume kits
Batman – we stock all the main characters from the range of Batman films including The Black Knight
Superman – superman & Super Girl costumes are always in stock
We mentioned the release of the final Harry Potter film last week and today it’s the 22nd birthday of Daniel Radcliffe, the eponymous hero of all eight movies. Having literally grown up as Harry Potter, and unlike some childhood actors who fell by the wayside and did not make the smooth transition into adult stardom, the question is whether Dan and his fellow actors will be forever associated with the characters that made them household names? Aside from the Harry Potter franchise, we did start looking at other potential childhood stars that offer costuming opportunities but aside from the legendary Shirley Temple, most of the other ones that we came up with, tended to be down the fantasy route, with Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and the Chronicles of Narnia leading the way.
‘Film’ is the costume theme of the day as today, we celebrate the birthday of Francis Ford Coppola. Born in 1939, Coppola has directed, produced and written a wide range of movies, from the major masterpiece about Vietnam ‘Apocalypse Now’ through the Godfather trilogy, to other projects such as ‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula’ and ‘Peggy Sue Got Married’.
With the possible exception of Dracula in its Gothic-Victorian context, few of the films mentioned would generate costuming opportunities, especially for females. More precisely, there are many film genres and themes where females feel rightly short on choice. For Star Wars costumes it’s down to Princess Leia and Queen/Padme Amidala, whilst the epic Lord of the Rings series features just Galadriel, Arwen the Elf Princess, or Eowyn, the daughter of the King of Rohan, who virtually had to disguise herself as a man to get involved in the climactic battles. And as for the ever popular James Bond, it’s either arm-candy or gold-body paint (well actually it isn’t, as here at Props n Frocks we have come up with a few other suggestions – see Bond Fancy Dress). The bottom line is, when choosing your costume theme think through the costuming potential with a view to equal opportunities for all!
We have given you a lot of film costume ideas in previous blogs, so take a look for plenty of great fancy dress inspiration.
Quite often when it comes to a movies themed fancy dress party, people will often require instantly recognisable character costumes such as Buzz Lightyear, Shrek, the various superheroes, Cleopatra, Mark Anthony, etc., rather than individual stars. For those who do not appreciate dressing-up, two of the easiest characters to portray are the comedy duo of the early cinema, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. They do of course require one person to be of the larger persuasion, whilst the other needs to be fairly thin, but aside from this the only costume requirements are usually dark suits, ties and the obligatory bowler hats. The reason we have mentioned them today is Stan Laurel died on February 23rd 1965. With only a few days to go now until the Oscars we thought we would check on the comedy duos wins. In 1960 Stan Laurel received a special Oscar “for his creative pioneering in the field of cinema comedy”, whilst the only Oscar they ever won together was for the short comedy ‘The Music Box’ in 1932. (The one where they are seen dressed in dungarees, moving a piano, if that means anything to you!).
Other ‘easy’ fancy dress options for those of you who are not keen on dressing up are The Blues brothers. Just wear a black suit, wear a black fedora and dark glasses. Finish the entire look with a black tie. We stock all Blues Brothers accessories to help complete this very easy and simple fancy dress costume.
This fancy dress theme comes up so much, so why not check out some of our other blogs on this theme, or take a look at our range of film costumes, where you will find plenty of costume ideas
for the New Year is Movies. Why not take a look back at some of our previous blogs on this Movie theme, to get some inspiration on the characters you could be? Take a look here for some great Movie costume ideas.
