Musical Icons is today’s fancy dress theme. This costume theme does give a broad range of costumes, you could even look at West End shows to get your costume inspiration from.
Madness – wear black suits, Pork Pie hats and dark glasses (don’t forget the white socks!)
A day of mixed musical styles today, as we celebrate the anniversaries of three musicians, each leaders in their field. Henry Mancini (born 1924) was a renowned composer and conductor, probably best known for his ‘easy listening’ music and film themes such as ‘The Pink Panther’ and the award winning ‘Moonriver’ from ‘Breakfast at Tiffanys’. The singer Bobby Vinton (born 1936) was a master of the romantic song in the 1960s and on into the 1970s. ‘Roses Are Red’ and ‘Sealed With a Kiss’ were major hits for him and David Lynch is said to have named his film ‘Blue Velvet’ after Vinton’s song of the same name. Possibly our most famous star of the day, though, is Dusty Springfield (born in 1939 as Mary O’Brien). Her work as a respected singer and solo artist who helped develop ‘white soul’ music in this country influenced many singers, most recently Adele. She was also amongst the first to adopt a trademark ‘look’ – heavy eye-make-up and beehive hairdo – which, of course, was echoed in the persona adopted by the late lamented Amy Winehouse. Definitely a day to celebrate musical icons.
Music Icons is today’s fancy dress theme as two pop legends celebrate their birthdays today. Today’s the anniversary of the birth of both The King of Rock n Roll himself, Elvis Presley (1935) and David Bowie (1947). Between them they have influenced the music and musicians of successive decades. This gives us a chance to mention in passing that should you choose to use their anniversaries as the basis of a Decades or Pop Icons event, we’re currently offering some really good deals on retro fashion costumes. Details can be found elsewhere on this site.
What is not in doubt was that to this day Presley retains records for the most hits at every cut-off point (Top 5, Top 10, Top 20, etc.). Needless to say, true Elvis fans need no excuse to celebrate his music and films but this is an opportunity for the rest of us to get involved.
Props n Frocks stocks a great range of Elvis accessories, including wigs, sideburns, chest hair, medallions, rings, and of course, Elvis Glasses. We also stock a range of Elvis fancy dress outfits, including a fun joke Fat Elvis costume.
Now Elvis also starred in many films, so broaden out your costume search to include possible a character from one of his films, or celebrate his army career.
We have written many blogs on Music/pop idols so we will not repeat them all here again, but if you need music idol costume ideas, just follow the link.
Meanwhile we thought we’d also focus on the fact that we’ve recently seen the 25th anniversary of the fantasy film ‘Labyrinth’, in which Bowie starred as Jareth the Goblin King. The film involved other major talents such as George Lucas, Terry Jones (of Monty Python) and, possibly most important in giving the movie its unique style, a massive array of characters from Jim Henson’s Creature Workshop. The film was a masterpiece of fantasy and although Jim Henson himself has passed on, his greatest creations, the Muppets continue to live on, returning to our movie screens at the end of this month (and there are actually some Muppet costumes becoming available!).
Today’s fancy dress theme is all about MTV as it was thirty years ago today that the cable channel MTV launched in the USA, with ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’ by The Buggles. The music video had found a home and now MTV and its online clones and social networks are a part of our lives. Somehow the theme ‘The Hills Are Alive With The Sound of Music’ suggests itself, but it is Monday and early in the week!
Having MTV as your costume theme allows your guests to choose from a huge range of Pop Stars both current and yesteryear, so there will be something for everyone. Although you cna get plenty of inspiration from our standard pop star costumes, MTV is all based around video, so think about some songs that you liked and the video that went with it, and you will come up with all sorts of great ideas. Here are just some of our own MTV Costume Ideas…
Lady Gaga
Cheryl Cole
Amy Whinehouse
Elvis
Spice Girls
Madonna – Vogue & Like A Prayer are great videos
Adam Ant – wear a New Romantic costume or a Dick Turpin style costume for Stand & Deliver
The Bangles – think video, Walk Like An Egyptian (Belly Dancer or Egyptian costumes)
If you want something a bit different, think about what novelty songs there have been over the years, featuring amongst many others Bob the Builder & The Wombles…
If you do not fancy a MTV costume theme, why not also look at a Red & White themed party as the first of August sees the National Day of Switzerland. Whilst we could suggest a Swiss cheese event such as a fondue party, the costume potential is as limited for this as it would be for cuckoo clocks and Alps. Donning the lederhosen could be an interesting idea (depends how the males rate their knees).
Our blog on the Beatles as a fancy dress theme (and Sir Paul McCartney’s 69th birthday yesterday) got us thinking about the sixties and fashion trends both in general and the music world in particular. When the 1960s started, the fashion amongst the musical stars of the times was basically men in suits. Whether this was the loud American influence of stars such as Bill Hailey, Buddy Holly Music and Elvis Presley or the more restrained British style. As the decade progressed British fashion suddenly dominated the scene. Films such as the Austin Powers series (see our range of Austin Powers costumes) , portray many of the British designed iconic images of the time. Towards the end of the sixties, the psychedelic era gave way to the glam rock, punk, and disco stars of the 1970s, followed by the New Romantics, Stadium Rock and Grunge images of the 1980s and early 1990s. Over the past twenty years it has been the female stars that have tended to dominate the fashion and music scene, with the Spice Girls, Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Lily Allen, Pink and Lady Gaga all having their own distinctive outfits (although with Lady Gaga sometimes it can be difficult to keep up!). However, in the case of the boy bands and male solo performers of today, there does not appear to be many distinctive outfits which can be portrayed through fancy dress.
Today we celebrate with a Musical Stars Fancy Dress theme and start with a time when female singers were not so prolific and the charts were not dominated by Adele, Rihanna, Jessie J, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, etc.. Yes, we are talking about the 1970s, when male artists and pop groups ruled the airwaves. One lady who was in a class of her own was the diminutive figure of Suzi Quatro, who was born this day in 1950 and had a string of hits during the glam rock and pop era of the 1970s, including Can the Can, Devil Gate Drive and 48 crash. Seen as the pioneer in female rock, she paved the way for many of the female stars of today. Dressed in black leather, she was probably not quite so adventurous with her stage outfits as the performers of nowadays, but a musical stars theme could create some interesting looks.
Now ‘Musical Stars’ as a fancy dress theme is quite varied as Music is used in many genres. If you look at these Musical Stars blogs that have been done previously, you will see that they have loads of Musical films, Musicals & Pop Star Costume Ideas
Rocky Horror Costumes, we stock all the 4 licensed costumes
Grease Costumes, we stock all the licensed costumes for this fabulous show
Chicargo – we stock a great range of ladies 20s costumes
Phantom Of the Opera – an easy costume to put together – just purchase a Phantom mask and add a black cape over a dinner suit.
Pavarotti – wear a dinner, or tail suit and add a bit of padding
Somewhere Over the Rainbow – look at our wizard Of Oz costumes
Another good way to get some costume inspiration is to look at videos that have been produced for pop songs, this will give you loads of possibilities.
Today, 65 years ago singer and actress Cher was born as Cherilyn Sarkisian in El Centro, California. During the 1960s she became a pop star and celebrity as part of the duo Sonny and Cher. They even had their own TV series. Over the past five decades, she has been well known for her fashion statements. Although costumes may have varied (along with her hair colour/wigs) long hair (straight or curly) and black eye make-up have become her trademark look. If you are going to a Pop Stars or even a Movies party then Cher is a great character to go for. Some of her outfits may be somewhat risqué, particularly the outfit worn for the Oscars ceremony back in 1986, but if you have the figure to carry it off, then go for it. Whatever your take on the Cher look, here at Props n Frocks we have a range of wigs, accessories and even the odd outfit to help you achieve your aims.
Today we celebrate the birthday of Liza Minneli with a Musical Fancy Dress Theme.
Liza Minneli was born on this day in 1946. The daughter of Judy Garland and film director Vincent Minnelli, she quickly followed in her mother’s footsteps as both a singer and actress. Most will agree that her breakthrough role was as Sally Bowles in the film version of ‘Cabaret’ (1972) but she has many other notable appearances to her credit and despite health problems, continues to work, being seen recently playing herself in Sex and the City 2. Obviously the potential theme suggestion is ‘Cabaret’, but the short skimpy look might not suit everyone (although with the current enthusiasm for all things Burlesque, people are certainly prepared to give it a go). As one of Miss Minnelli’s shows was ‘Liza with a Z’ an alternative to Cabaret could be ‘Costumes starting with Z’ party. Need suggestions? Look at this hub we prepared earlier! http://hubpages.com/hub/Costumes-Starting-With-The-Letters-XYZ
Broadening out this theme to include all Musicals will undoubtedly make this a fancy dress theme far easier for your guests. Now we have already given loads of musical film costume ideas in other hubs, so take a look at them and then take a look at this other blog that is full of Musical costume ideas.
look at West End shows to get your costume inspiration from.
