Rock Legends Fancy Dress Theme

Posted on September 5, 2011 by admin

Today we celebrate with a rock stars fancy dress theme. Not the granite type variety, but the musical kind. This week sees the birthday of a number of rock legends, some of whom are still with us, whilst others are no more, although their music still lives on. We start with the 1950s and the Rock ‘n’ Roll legend Buddy Holly, who would have been 75 in two days time, had he not been tragically killed in a plane crash at the age of just 22. ‘Buddy, the Musical’ is currently doing the rounds at various UK theatres and here at propsnfrocks we get many requests for rock ‘n’ roll outfits from the 1950s, including teddy boys and girls. Another Dead Icon, Freddie Mercury of Queen fame (who was born in Stone Town, Zanzibar, Tanzania, East Africa) would have been 65 today. ‘We Will Rock You’, featuring the music from Queen is still on at the Dominion Theatre in London and next year could be celebrating its 10^th anniversary, which considering its original lynching by the critics has to be an achievement. Tomorrow the 6^th, it’s Roger Waters turn to have a birthday, although aside from a Rocker Costume, we are not too sure how you would depict the legendary rock guitarist from Pink Floyd. Alongside Buddy Holly on September 7th, performer Chrissie Hynde of the 1980s/90s group The Pretenders will be 60, whilst Pink who was originally known for her punk rock style, but has now become more mainstream Rhythm & Blues, celebrates her 32^nd birthday on September 8^th.

Do you know any other rock or musical stars celebrating their birthdays this week?

Some of our Rock Star Style Costumes include:

Kiss
Buddy Holly
Elvis
Freddy Mercury – we stock some great Freddy Mercury costumes
Michael Jackson
Madonna
Beatles
Tina Turner
Punk Outfits
Slade
Status Quo – an easy one to put together at home with tight jeans and a white tee shirt. Finish it off with a Props n frocks wig and inflatable guitar!

Rock n Pop Star Fancy Dress

Posted on August 16, 2011 by admin

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The obvious fancy theme today would be Rock and Pop Idols as August 16^th has been an auspicious date for two legendary performers. Firstly, back in 1958 one Madonna Louise Ciccone was born in Bay City, Michigan, whilst in 1977, the legendary King of Rock n Roll Elvis Presley died. Following his death, his final recording Way Down topped the British singles charts on September 3^rd 1977. Our readers should hopefully realise by now that aside from offering costumes for the above idols, we also have rock and pop costumes from any of the decades:

1950s – Buddy Holly
1960s – The Beatles
1970s – David Bowie
1980s – Adam Ant
1990s – The Spice Girls
The Noughties – Christina Aguilara, plus present day idols such as Lady Gaga

Here are just some of our pop star fancy dress costumes.

At PNF we do however like to be different and not necessarily go for the obvious. Today we are instead going to celebrate the work of another person who was born today in 1954 in Kapuskasing, Ontario, Canada, just four years before Madonna – the producer, director and writer, James Cameron. Unlike the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock who we mentioned a few days ago, whose black & white genre films all had a very distinctive look to them, Cameron’s work tends to be much more expansive with epics such as Titanic and the Abyss (based underwater) and Aliens and Avatar (on other worlds). As several of his films have been set in the future (Terminator 2 & Escape from New York) we thought a Futuristic or Out of this World costume theme might also be worth exploring.

MTV Fancy Dress Party

Posted on August 1, 2011 by admin

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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
Noddy Holder
Freddy Mercury
Boy George
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Kiss
Abba
Michael Jackson – think Thriller, think Zombie costumes
Meatloaf
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).

Pop Stars Fancy Dress

Posted on June 25, 2011 by admin

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Today, we offer a Pop Stars Fancy Dress theme as it is the second anniversary of Michael Jackson’s death, so some may think that a celebration of Michael’s work is the way forward. On the wider scale, given Jacko’s status as a global superstar we can celebrate the anniversary of the ground-breaking ‘Our World’ programme on this date in 1967. This event, conceived by the BBC, was an attempt to create a world-wide broadcast featuring contributions from countries around the globe using the new communications satellite of that time. Although we now take this sort of thing very much for granted, at the time it was a major technological achievement and, despite a last minute glitch, when the Eastern Bloc countries pulled out of the project in protest at the then recent Six Day War, the programme was a major success. In addition to being the first such programme, reaching an audience of around 400 million, there was another first: The UK segment showcased the premier of the Beatles’ especially written new song ‘All You Need Is Love’, broadcast live from a recording studio and featuring other pop stars of the time including Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithful and Keith Moon, drummer for ‘The Who’.

There are lots of pop star costumes that we can offer you, here are just some of them…

Beatles
Abba – stock some fantastic ladies 70s jumpsuits
Michael Jackson
Boy George
Adam Ant
Lady Gaga
Cheryl Cole
Amy Whinehouse
Madonna
Elvis
Freddy Mercury
Tina Turner
Buddy Holly
Gerri Halliwell

Music & Fashion Costume Theme

Posted on June 19, 2011 by admin

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Our blog on the Beatles as a fancy dress theme (and Sir Paul McCartney’s 69^th 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.

Take a look at our range of pop star fancy dress costumes

Musical Stars Fancy Dress theme

Posted on June 3, 2011 by admin

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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

Our Musical Star costumes include:

Madonna
Lady Gaga
Cheryl Cole
Adam Ant
Boy George
Abba Costumes
Michael Jackson – take a look at our range of Pop Star Costumes
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.

Music Stars Fancy Dress

Posted on January 23, 2011 by admin

Today, we offer you a Music Stars Fancy Dress theme. Previously, we have had a Rock & Pop Star fancy dress theme and also Musicals, and there will be overlaps with these themes.

This costume theme is also a little broader, so that it includes famous composers ( Wear a Georgian style costume for Mozart), and what ablout going as a conductor (an easy costume, just wear a tailsuit and hold a baton – or wand, if you have nothing else to hand).

You can still take your costume inspiration from Rock and pop stars, Musical Films, Musicals as well as composersand famous classical musicians, so it really is a broad theme that will give you plenty of costume choices. Take a look at some of our music star costumes to get some more fancy dress ideas.

An auspicious day for music, as on this date in 1986, the newly opened Rock N Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, inducts its first artists. These included James Brown, Little Richard, Elvis Presley, Fats Domino, Ray Charles, Chuck Berry and, as mentioned yesterday, Sam Cooke. Since then many others have been added to their number, as a handful of artists are added each year as a result of voting by their peers (the public are not allowed to vote!)

If the list looks a little American orientated, it is and this caused controversy in 2007, when it was discovered that the induction voting had been rigged to allow Grandmaster Flash (of the US) in, as opposed to the UK’s Dave Clark Five. This wrong was righted the following year. In addition to the ‘stars’, the Hall is equally keen to honour others in the music business from ‘back-room techies’ to DJs, and those who contribute to music as session musicians and ‘sidemen’ (and women). So, today our theme is Music Stars.