Kings & Queens is today’s fancy dress theme even though for some people, the coming week will be all about tennis, as Wimbledon starts today, but aside from the royalty of the tennis racquet, coronations feature heavily in June. Although Elizabeth II became Queen of the United Kingdom, upon the death of her father King George VI on February 6th 1952, she was not officially crowned until June 2nd 1953. Likewise Queen Victoria became Queen on the death of William IV on 20 June 1837, but her actual coronation was not until the following year, June 28th 1838. So why are we mentioning these now?
Well, next year sees the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and you know how we love a party here at Props n Frocks. With the possibility of year-long celebrations, plus the Spring bank holiday being moved to June 4th to make June 5th the official Diamond Jubilee, we are starting to get prepared now. After all, it’s not every day you have events where the whole country can celebrate. Queen Victoria herself was the longest reigning British monarch, having done so for 64 years, from age 18 until her death on January 22nd 1901, age 81. Although Elizabeth II was 25 when she became queen, it is generally accepted that people are living longer and although she is currently 85 (four years older than Victoria, when she died) there is a relatively strong possibility of her surpassing Victoria’s record. But as we all know anything can happen in a short period of time.
Costume ideas for a Kings & Queens Theme? well, you can stick to the standard monarchs from around the world, or look a bit outside the box to the King of Rock n Roll (Elvis) or various Disney Prince & Princesses. Rather than repeat ourselves again, we have loads of Kings & Queen costume ideas on these 3 blogs – each one gives some variations on costume ideas that you may not have thought about.
Royalty is today’s fancy dress theme after our own royal event yesterday, there are celebrations across the North Sea today as our neighbours in the Netherlands celebrate Queen’s Day, a major National Holiday. The festival honours Queen Wilhelmina upon whose birthday (30th August) the festival was founded in 1885. When she was succeeded by Queen Juliana the date was moved to April. Because the current Queen Beatrix’s birthday is in January, the April date has been retained in memory of her mother (and because of the potentially better weather!). Hence orange (after the royal lineage of the House of Orange, who also ruled in this country for a time) is the colour of the day in Holland, An excellent day to go Dutch! However, we thought that this costume theme would be too limiting so have broadened it out to encompass everything Royal.
We have some great Royalty Costume ideas on previous blogs, or why not just wear orange? When you think about it, this costume theme gives so many choices. Here are a few more Royalty costume ideas…
On the 29th of next month it will the big day for Prince William and Catherine Middleton. How are you thinking of celebrating this event? You may get inspiration from our ‘Kings & Queens’ blog post.
If you are holding a street party have you thought about all the party goods you might need? From red, white and blue decorations, to tablecloths, serviettes, party hats, balloons, cutlery, etc., there are so many things you may need. Some people are choosing to celebrate the wedding by holding a street party in fancy dress. Although you might think that a Prince and Princess theme a good idea, in reality particularly with children the scope of this can be quite limited. So today, in honour of the fact that on this day in 1871 Queen Victoria opened the Albert Hall, in memory of her Prince, we thought we might suggest a royal theme. After all you have so many monarchs to choose from, not only from British history but also from Europe and the rest of the world.
Having a ‘Royalty’ theme opens up the costume theme, and the ‘Kings & queens ‘ blog post should have given you some ‘outside the box’ costume ideas. See below for a few of our costume ideas that may give you further inspiraiton…
Henry VIII
Henry VIII’s wives – you have a few to choose from!
about tennis, as Wimbledon starts today, but aside from the royalty of the tennis racquet, coronations feature heavily in June. Although Elizabeth II became Queen of the United Kingdom, upon the death of her father King George VI on February 6th 1952, she was not officially crowned until June 2nd 1953. Likewise Queen Victoria became Queen on the death of William IV on 20 June 1837, but her actual coronation was not until the following year, June 28th 1838. So why are we mentioning these now?
