Summer is finally upon us and a bit of sunshine puts everyone in the party mood. If you’re planning a party – whether for a bank holiday, a birthday, or just because – then why not make it fancy dress? We have some great ideas for fancy dress outfits so taking a look around our pages is bound to give you some inspiration.
Narrowing your party down into a theme can be a challenge, but can be fun too. Do bear in mind what the limitations of your theme might be – if your theme is particularly limited, but you’ve invited a lot of guests, you might find that there are a lot of repeat costumes. We’ve brought together some of the most popular themes to get you started.
Heroes & Villains
Always a popular choice, this is one theme that can be never ending. With a lot more variants than simple cops and robbers, encourage your guests to be inspired by popular films and TV shows, as well as fairy tale characters and classic comic book superheroes.
Everyone loves a villain, and popular culture has given us plenty to choose from. A quick glance through our vast collection of adult costumes brings up numerous suggestions, such as the Queen of Hearts, the Wicked Witch, Darth Vader, the Joker and gangsters. Our collection of Halloween masks will give you plenty of creepy ideas too, such as the very freaky Scream mask.
If you think you’re more hero or heroine than villain, then we have a whole selection of superhero costumes, which are extremely popular. Take another twist on the theme, and dress up as a nurse, surgeon, doctor or soldier – real life superheroes! If you’re going as a couple, why not make one of you the hero and one the villain? For example, to complement your partner’s Darth Vader costume, you could be Luke Skywalker or Princess Leia.
Hollywood Glamour
Another popular choice, particularly around Oscars night, is to dress as your favourite film or screen star. Decorating the venue will be fairly easy too, with a few fake golden statues – unless you’ve your own real one to hand! – and a mock red carpet.
All Nations
The Eurovision Song Contest and this summer’s Olympics has got us all inspired with international fancy dress outfits. With hundreds of possibilities, this is a great choice for large parties. Get each of your guests to choose a country and dress up in a costume that reflects that. You may wish to allocate countries to your guests yourself, or come up with some other system which will ensure that there aren’t too many repeat costumes.
Another twist can be to get them to bring food or drink from the country too – and this is a great way of boosting the buffet table and saving you some preparations!
Go Back in Time
There are plenty of theme ideas set in the past for you to choose from. Go with something basically, such as simply retro or a costume from the past, or narrow it down to a 70s or 80s theme, or a medieval or Viking party, for example.