A variation to a Toga fancy dress party, today we offer you Ancient Times as our costume theme.
Most people would tend to go for a Greek, Roman or Egyptian style of costume, especially as we are in the middle of the summer and the weather ‘should’ be hot! We do have a great range of Roman & Egyptian costumes for sale and also some great accessories so you may be able to put your own costume together at home, relatively cheaply.
But you could also look at other costumes including:
July 24, and today we turn our mind to birthday cake as for some reason in the US, certain factions (possibly the cake and candle manufacturers) celebrate ‘Candles on a Cake Day’ – we are not sure if the card makers also get in on the act! The origins of the birthday cake can be traced back to Ancient Greece and offerings made to Artemis, goddess of the Moon – one of the reasons why birthday cakes are traditionally round (although of course nowadays they can come in all shapes, sizes and characters). The addition of candles on the cake seems to derive from the Greeks attempting to emulate the moonlight on their offerings, although others claim a connection to the candles symbolising the light of Life. The blowing out of candles whilst making a wish is also of Ancient Greek origin, with the smoke of the extinguished candles apparently carrying your wish to the gods. Well obviously the theme for today is a birthday party (although many people may already have that idea in mind for their own personal reasons) and of course the party can be themed anyway you wish with our help here at Props and Frocks. Probably the only thing we can’t help with is the cake!
In a month full of holidays and special events, today we stand on the threshold of a long weekend of celebrations, starting with the Royal Wedding tomorrow and after the traditional first day of summer on Mayday, the Bank Holiday on Monday. Most people probably do not need to find excuses to celebrate over the next few days, but when did that ever stop us? As it happens, with Mayday in mind, it seems that the Roman Empire was well ahead of the game as on their calendar, today was the first day of the festival of Floralia which honoured Flora, the goddess of flowers and plants. (Her Greek equivalent was Chloris). The event was marked with several days of drinking, dancing and floral celebrations representing the renewal of the Cycle of Life, with Romans wearing colourful clothes rather than their usual plain attire. Sound familiar?
So, what was good for the Romans is good enough for us as well, so let’s start with weekend with a Roman themed fancy dress party. Props n Frocks has a great range of Roman costumes and Roman accessories for all the family – just add some colourful flowers!
Props n Frocks Fancy Dress is shut on both Bank Holidays this weekend, but we are open on Saturday & Sunday if you want to pop in and pick up a last minute costume.
Get the heating turned up for your Toga fancy dress party. It may be the end of March, but there is still a nip in the air!
Friday 25th of March and it’s Independence Day in Greece, celebrating their break from the Ottoman Empire in 1821, so this is a good excuse for a Greek toga party and a celebration of Greek culture.
At Props n Frocks, we have a large selection of Roman costumes for all the family. Children study Roman history at school, and are quite often encouraged to dress up in a Roman costume. So if you do need a kids Roman costume, just ask Props n Frocks – THE fancy dress experts.
Alternatively in 421, at Noon, apparently Venice, the well-known water-logged city, was born, so a chance for a masked ball, perhaps.
Having said that, March 25th is an interesting date for several other reasons; Firstly, in the days before the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, this was the start of the new year, so that 1751 started on March 25th and the following year 1752 started on January 1st. Furthermore, this is the date of the Annunciation (also known as Lady Day) which is, of course, nine months from Christmas. An extra dimension to this fact is that in Swedish, Vårfrudagen (Our Lady’s Day) sounds very similar to Våffeldagen ‘Waffles Day’ and so today is actually Waffle Day in Sweden. Just a pity appropriate costumes are wafflley difficult to find!
Today we suggest a Toga fancy dress party, but March can be cold so make sure your heating is turned up high otherwise your guests will refuse to remove their coats!
Beware the Ides of March, unless of course it’s your birthday today, in which case Happy Birthday! All months have Ides, but March is really the only one you tend to hear about, as it was on this day in 44BC that Julius Caesar was assassinated. The term Ides actually comes from the Roman calendar and refers to the middle of each month. Thus March, May, July and October are on the 15th, whilst the rest of the year is on the 13th.
So, if it’s not too cold for you, why not think about a Toga party? It’s a simple enough idea, although making them out of white cotton sheets is becoming increasingly difficult, (fitted or coloured sheets just don’t have the same effect). That’s why you need to come to us. Not only do we have Togas, but other Greek and Roman costumes, including Senators and Gladiators. Why not take a look at our range of adult Roman| Egyptian Costumes. We also have a fine selection of children’s Roman| Egyptian costumes for those Ancient Greek, Roman and Egyptian dress-up days at school.
Although toga fancy dress parties are still very popular as a costume theme, would you really liked to have lived during this time in history? Let’s take a little look at what happened
Ladies Roman Costume
this week in history.
October 13th 54AD was a day for dirty deeds in Ancient Rome as Agrippina the Younger, the wife of Claudius (who became Emperor after the tyrannical rule of Caligula) decides that her husband has ruled a little too long. As the marriage was one of political convenience anyway, she sees no harm in poisoning Claudius so that her son (actually Claudius’s grand-nephew but adopted by him when his relatives were killed) Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus (Nero for short) can take over at the top, at the age of just 16 – Rome’s youngest Emperor ever. So we might say that it’s time for another toga party, especially as also on this day the GMT Meridian line in Greenwich was confirmed as the location from which the world took its Universal Standard Time. You might think the setting of time zones is easy – just divide the world up into 24 different zones to match the hours in the day – but no, such are the technical and political considerations currently in play that there are apparently forty different time zones in operation around the world. Getting a ‘Time’ based fancy dress party is always going to be hard, so you could have a time zone party and encourage your guests to dress up costume for a designated time zone. This will give them something to think about and makes a bit of a change. If, however, you decide to stick with the Romans, Props n Frocks can offer you a huge range of roman costumes, including ladies toga fancy dress, and Caesar costumes for the men
Roman or Ancient Times is today’s fancy dress theme suggestion. We travel back in time twice, firstly fifty years ago to October 6th 1960, which saw the film ‘Spartacus’ first released in New York City and then much further back to the age of the Roman Empire. We have great stocks of Roman costumes at Props n Frocks for men, women and children. The recent controversial visit of the Pope to Britain has put Rome firmly back on the agenda and as this is also the tenth year since the release of the film Gladiator (admittedly it was released in May rather than October, but who’s counting?) we thought it’s time to don the Roman armour, or Toga and Sandals and advocate a Roman or Ancient Times event. If you think this is a bit passé, you want to avoid possible disputes as to whoactually is Spartacus and you need more adventure, why not broaden it out to a Heroes & Villains theme? We have a fantastic selection of costumes for both themes.
