Fancy That!

How rad is this?? Best dad ever makes icecream truck fancy dress costume for his handicapped son! Go Buster!

I bloody love fancy dress, me. We're a bit of a fancy dress family over here to be honest, hence the annual pilgrimage to the Secret Garden Party and endless themed house parties. I have no idea why I find it so appealing - is it the challenge of drawing on my imagination and craft resources to make something ingenious, the getting to be somebody completely different for the night, or just the opportunity to wear something thoroughly ridiculous that wouldn't otherwise be socially acceptable? Like a homemade orang-utan costume?

 

I promise you it looked better with the mask and the furry arms....

I've never understood people who don't "get" fancy dress. Is it laziness or the fear of ridicule? Isn't being ridiculed part of the fun of life? And you don't have to be stickler for the unspoken fancy dress rules (buying the whole thing online is a cheat, home-made and bizarre is the ultimate, strictly NOTHING allowed that actually tries to be sexy or retains any sense of self-respect).* You can just wear a silly hat or put a bedsheet over your head and pretend to be a ghost. Nobody will mind.

Generally speaking, of course, there is a theme to be adhered to: tarts and vicars, pirates and ninjas or (I missed this one and regretted it) come-as-your-favourite-old-person. But the best fancy dress of all is when you get total free reign. Those opportunities are rare, but finally we have one coming up next month - our friend Claire's 30th -  where the only limitation is our microscopic budget. Wheeee! What are we going to be? You'll have to wait and find out....

In the meantime I need ideas in case our first choice doesn't work out. What has been your most triumphant fancy dress costume? Seen any ideas I can steal? Think fancy dress is a pile of shit and a 31-year old should know better?


*the Fancy Dress Commandments may just exist in my own head, but I still reserve the right to drunkenly berate anybody who does not adhere to them. Especially if they're wearing a Kigu.