I think it is one of the perennial questions that gets asked year after year. Do I hire or buy a fancy dress costume for myself, child or teenager or should I make one up myself?
There are advantages and disadvantages to any or all of these. It basically boils down to time, skill and money.
If you don’t have the skill or creative flair to make a homemade costume there are plenty of styles and choices already available to make the job easy enough for you.
If you like to sew and be creative why not have fun actually designing your own best fairy costume, Madonna outfit or pirate costume or whatever other fancy dress outfit seems appropriate for your darling child, yourself or the party theme.
Fancy Dress Outfit Ideas For Men, Women and Children
Fancy dress outfits come in all manners of shapes, sizes, themes and colours. This article distinguishes between the main categories of outfit and helps you decide which fancy dress costume to choose when buying or hiring.
First off, the outfits can be categorised into three distinct groups, as follows:
- Mens, Womens and Childrens
Fancy dress accessories are also worthy of a mention as – although not technically outfits – they can be used to create them.
For Men
If you are a man looking for a fancy-dress outfit, there are many options to choose from. Popular fancy dress outfits, as with children, are superheroes such as Batman, Superman, Spiderman and The Incredible Hulk.
These costumes often come complete without the need to augment them with additional accessories, although you might want to take a jacket to your party also – most of these costumes are likely to have no pockets!
Depending on the theme of the fancy dress party you are attending, you will want to wear a fancy dress outfit to match. Below is a list of some suggestions for different fancy-dress costumes for a variety of party themes:
Halloween Outfit Suggestions:
- Edward Scissorhands
- The Predator
- Zombie
- Freddie Krueger / Jason Voorhees
Simple Outfit Suggestions:
- Hawaiian Costume
- Teacher
- Doctor
- Monk
Fairytale & Film Outfit Suggestions:
- Knight
- Leprechaun
- Robin Hood
- Pirate (Captain Jack Sparrow perhaps?)
Most of the outfits listed above can be bought online or in-stores for less than 30, and would be available for hire for much less.
For Women
Women have perhaps the largest range of fancy-dress outfits to choose between, ranging from witches to nuns and little miss riding hood to sexy nurses!
All good fancy dress shops will stock a wide selection of women’s fancy dress outfits both for hire and for sale. So you best decide whether or not your costume is a one time only venture or if it’s simply too fun not to wear again and again.
Women’s fancy-dress outfits – similarly to children’s costumes – have a lot of optional accessories and ‘extras’ which may be well worth considering to make sure your costume is as complete as it can be. There’s nothing worse than putting on a fancy dress outfit only to find it looks nothing like the picture – make sure you know what bits are included and which are not when choosing your costume!
Listed below are a few costume ideas for women to help get you started:
Superheroine Outfit Suggestions:
- Wonder Woman
- Cat Woman
- Bat Girl
- Elektra
60′s, 70′s And 80′s Outfit Suggestions:
- Swinging 60′s Dress
- 70′s Disco Lady
- 70′s Hippy
- 80′s Big Hair
Sexy Outfit Suggestions:
- Sexy School Girl
- Sexy Nurse
- Sexy Cowgirl
- Sexy Bunny Lady
You can expect to find women’s outfits for a similar price to men’s, but with all the additional accessories available you could easily spend a lot more!
Childrens Fancy Dress
Children often have fancy dress birthday parties and so it’s likely that if you are a parent you will be faced with a decision over which costume to get. Depending on the theme of the party, there is generally a wide range of fancy dress outfits available for children. Children’s costumes are also subject to a wider range of sizes; covering ages roughly 3-12.
Many fancy dress outfits for children can be created using a little ingenuity and a lot of face paint – which can be a lot more fun than simply buying a costume.
A selection of children’s costume ideas are shown below:
Fairytale Outfit Suggestions:
- Fairytale Princess
- Robin Hood
- Leprechaun
- Cinderella
Common Outfit Suggestions:
- Clown
- Ghost
- Pirate
- Cowboy
As mentioned above, whichever fancy-dress outfit you decide to buy or hire please be sure to check the contents in case the costume is little more than a t-shirt with optional ‘extras’.
Or go make your own! Grab some material scraps from the local store, some face paints and a little sprinkling of glitter and you’re nearly there. The only reason you might not want to get all tied up in sewing and glueing is that you don’t have a lot of time … and this is where buying or hiring comes into its own
Interesting! I have to say this article is pretty mind-boggling! Mature Women like myself will probably relate pretty well!
For me, making, hiring and buying costumes have benefits. When you make your costumes, you will be able to get what design you really want but you need to provide all the materials that you will be using. While for hiring, you will no longer have to worry about the designs of the costumes because all you need to do is to pick which design do you want. Thus, for buying, you will be sure that the costume will be yours to keep and you can still use it in the future.
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