Deciding what to wear for a party is never an easy task for a woman, there are many factors to consider. For example, is it casual or formal, can you wear something you already have or will you need to go shopping, should you wear a dress or is it more jeans and a top kind of event, is anyone else wearing a dress, can you fit into what you are planning on wearing, do you have shoes to match the outfit, what jewellery will go with it, etc etc and the questions and dilemmas carry on until you have come up with the perfect solution.

So what happens when a woman needs to dress up in fancy dress? Well all the above questions, and more, apply to the fashion options of today, fancy dress means these questions are multiplied by the amount of choice of decades to choose from, celebrities, action heroes, artists, cartoon characters, and more, so you can imagine the predicament. To help in the quest of finding the perfect fancy dress costume for a woman here are some ideas to choose from.

Fancy Dress Uniforms – going back to when you were little we all used to love getting dressed up and pretending you were someone else. Dressing up in uniform is a popular choice for fancy dress because there are so many options, the entire kit is provided for you, and there is a whole persona attached to it as well. For example would you like to be a police woman for the evening, a cadet, a fighter pilot, a racing car driver, a sailor, a nurse, a maid, or maybe a stewardess? The choice is yours.

Fancy Dress Super Heroes – Well who wouldn’t want to a super hero? Who was your favourite superhero as a kid? Was it Batgirl? Supergirl? Wonder Woman? Cat Woman? Lara Croft? Choose your hero and become them for an evening.

Seasonal Fancy Dress – often if a fancy dress party is being thrown at a particular time of year the fancy dress theme is aimed at that season, such as a Christmas fancy dress party where you have to dress up with Christmas in mind, or Halloween, or Easter, or St. Patrick’s day. There are many outfits to choose from within these categories so not everyone will be dressed as Mrs. Santa at the Christmas party and there won’t be 30 bunnies at the Easter party, there is loads of choice so you can wear an outfit perfect to your taste and for the party.

We all love a good swashbuckling pirate movie.  So a popular idea for a fancy dress party is a Desert Island or Pirate theme. 

Swashbuckling movies:Pirates of the Caribbean Sinbad the sailor Treasure Island  Swiss Family Robinson Peter Pan Muppet Treasure Island  The Crimson PirateBlackbeard

Pirate fancy dress costumes can be home made or shop bought.  If you want to home make your costume rifle through your clothes to find old shirts, skirts and trousers that can be cut up.  If you’re not a hoarder and you can’t find any, ask your friends if they have anything you can cut up to make a pirate fancy dress.  If you’ve exhausted friends and family then scour the charity shops.  You will definitely find something you can cut up to make breeches or a tattered shirt.  Use cotton string for belts and buy some eye patches and theatrical make up.  Pirates are portrayed with heavy black eye make up and lots of tangled flowing black hair and beards.  These can be bought online and should be in stock for a fast delivery.  The wig can be worn over and over again so it’s a good investment.

If you want an authentic pirate fancy dress then buy your costume online.  They’re a good price, well made and you’ll find lots of choice.  You can choose from a lowly rogue pirate, a Captain Hook or an authentic Captain Jack Sparrow outfit from Pirates of the Caribbean.  They come with belts, buckles, trousers and waistcoats.  Check whether the outfit comes complete with a pirate hat and sword.  Usually the price will determine what’s included.  Boots are an extra but some outfits have some kind of boot covers so you can wear them over your normal footwear.

Pirate food:Hearty Meat pies Meat stewsVegetable stewBreadCheeseBeerRum

Pirate food was fresh and plentiful at the beginning of a voyage but became scarce and moldy towards the end.  Just hope your host is serving food eaten at the beginning of the voyage!! Or perhaps you’ll need to call at the chip shop on the way home!

It is that time of year again when everyone seems to be hosting parties, and not just your average run of the mill parties, but yes you have guessed it, fancy dress parties. You have already been to 3 fancy dress parties this year, and you have already gone as Batman, Superman, and James Bond, you have seen 20 Robin Hoods, 30 cowboys, and countless pirates, you are having a fancy dress costume overload. Similarly your partner is in the same situation, but you both still need to organize your outfit for the next party, what to do? One option is to go as a couple! Not just to arrive and hopefully leave together, but to dress up as a famous duo. This opens up a whole new range in the world of fancy dress, plus you and your significant other can literally become one as the concept of your outfit only works with both of you together. As Paul Young once sang ‘Love is in the air’.

So you and your boyfriend, girlfriend, fiancé, husband, wife, spouse, significant other, lover, have decided to go as a costume couple, who is there to choose from?

Movie Fancy Dress – movie couples are great because there are so many of them! You can choose from Austin Powers and Felicity Shagwell, Matrix Neo and Trinity, Thunderbirds Parker and Penelope, Scooby Doo and Shaggy, or Flintstones Fred and Wilma. Have a look at your DVD selection and see what couples come up. It can be as simple as Maverick and Lieutenant ‘Charlie’ Blackwood from Top Gun (Kelly McGillis), or maybe Mulder and Scully. The possibilities are endless and can be as simple or as ‘fancy’ as you like.

Time Period Fancy Dress – your couple doesn’t even have to be a specific famous couple it can simply depict a couple from a certain time. What do we mean? Well you can dress as a couple from the 50’s, or the 60’s or the 1920’s, choose a particular time such as the Victorian times, or the Tudors, or a Western couple. Research the different time periods and have a look to see what takes your ‘fancy’.

Disney Couples – have you always wanted to be Cinderella? Have you ever dreamed of being a Prince and saving your beautiful princess from the evil witch in the bell tower? Now is your chance. There are many Disney couples to choose from: Belle and the Beast, Sleeping Beauty and Prince Phillip, Cinderella and the Prince, Shrek and Fiona, Peter and Wendy and many more. Let your imagination run wild in the world of Disney.

Two famous pirate villains are Captain Jack Sparrow and Captain Hook, both are excellent choices for a fancy dress costume.

Pirate Fancy Dress- Captain Jack SparrowTreasure, pirates, the governor’s daughter, swordfights, and clever dialogue, Pirates of the Caribbean was a huge box office success and deservedly so.  The main character Captain Jack Sparrow was charming, daring and endearing.  Johnny Depp stole the show with Orlando Bloom, Kiera Knightly and the rest of the crew snapping at his heels. 

If you want an authentic pirate fancy dress look no further than a Captain Jack Sparrow costume.  You get a blue waistcoat with sash and buckle, a mock cotton shirt with big blouson sleeves, a pair of grey knitted trousers with brown boot covers already attached.  Included is a pirate hat with bandana and sword, so all you need to buy is a wig and beard. The Caribbean beard and tache can be bought separately and is self adhesive so you don’t need to buy any glue.  

Pirate Fancy Dress- Captain HookPirates, Heroes, children, Peter Pan and Tinkerbelle, Hook was a 1991 film made for children and adults.In J M Barrie’s classic book Peter Pan the villain of the tale was the notorious Captain Hook.  Several films have been made based on the book, including an underrated Hook, where Dustin Hoffman plays Captain Hook and Robin Williams plays an adult Peter Pan.  A wonderful tale of childhood, fantasy, pirates and Tinkerbelle the fairy, this is an excellent choice for your pirate fancy dress.

The costume includes a long black coat with buttons and gold trim.  There’s a white lace ruffle you can attach to your shirt and it includes the famous hook.  You need to wear black trousers and will need to buy a tricorn hat, a thick black tache and a long curly black wig. Long black Pirate boots are also available online.

If you fancy being the villain of the night choose one of these two characters.

Ladies fancy dress – 6 tips for choosing your costume:

• Jot some ideas down about what you’d like to wear. Think of the actual outfit rather than a specific costume: trousers, mini skirt, long dress, outrageous comic character costume, sexy costume.  This will give you a starting point to build your costume on.

• Does quality matter or is the fun element more important? – if you were attending a masquerade wedding then obviously the quality of the outfit and matching accessories must be pretty high standard and you should think about hiring a outfit or buying one of the better quality costumes.

• Will you wear the outfit more than once?  Many ladies fancy dress can be worn more than once and are suitable for numerous occasions. If you are on a budget then choose an outfit that you’d be just as comfortable wearing to a family fancy dress celebration or the office Xmas party. 

• Should you take comfort into consideration? Or is the Wow impact more important to you on this occasion? Visualise your entrance to the party, would the outfit make you feel comfortable, squirm with embarrassment or are you excited just thinking about it?  Decide on the impact you want to have.

• Jot down some accessories you would love to wear and make a list of the accessories you would never wear.  If you can’t stand to wear a mask then this step will rule out the fancy dress costumes that are reliant on masks.  Do you want to allocate a large part of your budget to accessories or would you rather make this as minimal as possible?  Choosing the finishing touches for your costume can be fun and sometimes it’s the accessories that will determine whether your fancy dress outfit will work.

• Does it come in my size? Ladies fancy dress sizing is pretty easy to work out and good websites will have measurement information or will sell their outfits in dress sizes. Once you’ve determined what size you need then check on availability. Can you order this outfit in your size? Writing a checklist of do’s and don’ts for your costume will give you a good overall picture of the category of outfits you should be looking at.  Start looking for outfits plenty of time before the party, take your time and if you don’t like your first choice go back and start again.

Fancy dress is great for adults because they have an excuse to dress up and be silly, they don’t have to be the sensible and respectful adult they are on a daily basis, for one night they can dress up and be anyone they want to be. Fortunately for kids they can dress up, be silly, and play make believe all day everyday! Fancy dress for kids isn’t limited to fancy dress parties or Halloween; it’s for everyday use, for when your friends come round to play, for going to the supermarket because mummy has run out of cheese, or simply for watching the Disney channel before bath time. Any time of day and any day of the week is perfect for dressing up when you are a child.

With so many opportunities for dress up there are many fancy dress costumes to choose from for kids, here is a look at a few of them.

Fancy Dress Princesses – a common concept amongst little girls is that they love Princesses and fairytales. They love the Princess’ pretty dress, their beautiful hair, and the way they dance and sing, they love everything about them and want to be just like them. There are many costumes along these lines such as Belle, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, or a generic Princess or Fairy costume. An idea to think about is a 2 in 1 costume, you can buy a costume that is reversible, for example a dress that is Snow White on one side, turn it inside out and it’s Belle – perfect for your little princess.

Fancy Dress Super Heroes – now you may think your little boy is a hero anyway but he will want to dress up and prove it to the world! Usually little boys love to dress up as their favourite action man or super hero whether it is Superman flying around from one sofa to the other, or Spiderman climbing up the walls, or maybe it’s the Incredible Hulk (hopefully he won’t rip the costume apart playing this one) but whichever your child’s fantasy hero is there is a costume to choose from.

Just Like Mum or Dad – are you a nurse, a policeman, a doctor, or something along those lines? Kids copy everything you do and say, they always want to be like and dress up like their mummy or daddy. There are many kiddie costumes of uniforms such as the fireman, the S.W.A.T policeman, the ER doctor, the paramedic, and many more. Maybe you have something from work you can tailor to fit your child, or maybe you need to buy the costume but they can borrow a few items that fit well to finish off the outfit, have a look around and see what you can come up with.