Sinister or Silly - Ladies Fancy Dress Has Never Been Sexier

It is generally well accepted that when it comes to appearance for a night out, be it fancy dress or not, the female gender reign supreme in both the amount of time and effort they put into preparation. I hasten to add that this is not necessarily because they need the additional time to look good, however it is a well recognised cliché that whilst the girls are slaving over their hair, makeup, accessories and various other feminine rituals, the boys are downstairs slaving equally as hard over both an X-Box and a beer.

When comparing, there are vast differences between the styles of men’s and ladies fancy dress costumes. Whereas a man wouldn’t bat an eyelid about turning up to a party dressed like a giant baby or a Pickled Gherkin, female costumes concentrate far more on being sexy, because let’s face it, if you’re going dancing, even in fancy dress, then you have to look good. So whilst the men are playing on their X-Box and then spending 5 minutes to throw on a third-hand costume they borrowed from a friend that never was going to fit them, even before the beer bloat, the girls are able to accessorise, stylise and just generally make their fancy dress look absolutely amazing, because at the end of the day that is what the party is supposed to be all about, isn’t it?

Naturally when someone mentions women’s costumes, a lot of minds will jump to the stereotypical ladies fancy dress ideas such as the classic sexy nurse outfit or French maid costumes. These costumes may have firm places in the fancy dress halls of fame. However, they are only a teeny tiny fraction of what is, in fact, out there. On the internet you can find thousands of outfits to choose from, whether you want to be silly or sexy (or both), a pirate or a bumble bee! Long gone are the days where going out in fancy dress meant an ill fitting, baggy outfit that kind of itches everytime you sit down! With the options available you have a whole host of sexy and seductive costumes to choose from that will have the boys falling to their knees. 

Now let’s face it, a full fancy dress outfit doesn’t finish at the dress. Accessorising is the key, so when getting a costume make sure there’s a huge range of bags, shoes, necklaces, wigs, jewellery or pretty much anything else you can think of to choose between.

When it comes to female fancy dress there really are very few limitations. A lot of girls think that it’s impossible to show off when going to a fancy dress party. However they couldn’t be more wrong! With what is on offer there is absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t look absolutely fantastic, dressed to stun and amaze any man who sets eyes on you. At the end of the day it’s a fantastic way to push the limits of expressing and stylising yourself far beyond what you’d normally do on a Friday or Saturday night out.

The Wide World of Mens Fancy Dress

When peering in at the world of men’s fancy dress, there are a number of ways in which you can describe the costumes that you would see; sexy to surreal, poorly executed to downright ridiculous. I was once told by somewhat of an expert in this field that “once a guy has an idea that his costume will be ridiculous, there is then no limit to how ridiculous it will be”. This means that for male fancy dress outfits there is what can only be described as a vast range of realism, outrageousness, adult humour and just plain silliness to choose from! The nature of man is that all are very viable candidates for his costume.

Realistic men’s outfits are naturally a very popular way to go; a big part of this tends to centre around uniforms - Army and navy officer fancy dress are both very cool, as are pilots or police costumes, not only do you look good but you can also appease your inner man-child who was always angry at you for having grown up and stopped playing with guns and helicopters. Another big part of this is to just dress up as someone who you always wanted to be, for example last week I watched The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, so obviously this week I’m chewing a cigar, wearing a poncho and scowling at everybody. This type of fancy dress naturally includes the pirates, cowboys, Indians, and many other ideas from equally awesome male figures.

If realistic men’s outfits are one side of the fancy dress coin, outrageous outfits are the other side. I mentioned earlier that once the decision has been made to be ridiculous then there is no limit to just how ridiculous that results in - be it a giant baby’s pink onesie, one degree or another of convincing drag, or simply enough body paint to camouflage an elephant. These tend to be the type of fancy dress costumes that suggests that dignity should take a back seat for the evening, because who needs shame when you’re dressed as a giant hot dog... This is a much more fun kind of fancy dress and it tends to be accompanied with both a fair amount of alcohol and a lot of laughs. The big hurdle however for these types of costumes is, as mentioned, of course for the men wearing them to initially make the decision that the theme will be ridiculous, because this type of male fancy dress is far removed from the realistic cool looking outfits outlined earlier.

Overlapping with the outrageous costumes is naturally the adult humour fancy dress, when outfits start to take a very blue route, costumes from this genre can sometimes be elegant, well crafted plays on words and sayings and sometimes, they just plain aren’t. Similar to the outrageous costumes, these are outfits where pride doesn’t really get a say in what goes on because everything else is having far too much fun! These fancy dress costumes are most commonly sighted at infamous “Bad Taste Parties”; obviously it’s not everyone’s cup of tea however it does make one hell of a conversation starter.

So having covered a few of the bases of what is a big blue fancy dress ocean of men’s costumes it shows the sheer potential of themes and ideas for mens fancy dress parties, from the authentic to the ridiculous. Who can really say which is better, but both are definitely a lot of fun!


To buy all kinds of fancy dress costumes including Mens fancy dress, Ladies fancy dress, Childrens fancy dress, etc log on to www.universalfancydress.co.uk.

Tips to Remember While Purchasing Childrens Fancy Dress

Admit it, it is indeed tough to manage children for more than a couple of hours, especially if you are not one of the parents. To keep them entertained and out of mischief is a skill that not everybody is blessed with. For this reason organizing a party for children is not a minor feat. There are different things that you can do for a party for children and a fancy dress party is the best among them. Because not only the children would find it fun to come in different costumes but by introducing a theme you can also add to the communications children would have with each other and develop their creativity. Today, this is quite easy as children’s fancy dress costumes are plenty.

While selecting a costume for children’s fancy dress your choice is just unlimited. Which child wouldn’t want to dress up as a fairy tale princess or pirate or a super hero like Superman or Batman? The best part of a fancy dress costume is that you’ll find a costume for any character that the child wishes to dress up as. In other words, no child would go without a costume. Be it a fictional character like Harry Potter or Cinderella or an animal like tiger or monkey, you can easily choose a fancy dress for a child.

A problem that you would face while going for children’s fancy dress is not that you cannot find the costume that you wanted but that you cannot choose from the myriads of costumes in the market. However, you could search online for some ideas before you purchase a fancy dress costume. There are a whole lot of companies that provide fancy dress costumes for children through their websites. You could either buy or rent the costumes according to your convenience. Here are a few tips that could help you in purchasing one.

• Discuss with your child on what exactly he or she wants. You might find the best costume but if it is not what the child is looking for, the purpose is lost.
• Decide on the theme that you are going to follow. This could avoid confusion and dilemma when you are actually selecting a costume.
• Childrens fancy dress costumes could very easily be overgrown as children get taller fast. Hence, make sure that you purchase a costume that can be worn by the child multiple number of times. Or, check whether you could pass it on to your younger children.
• While purchasing the costume get the accessories also. For example, the costume of Harry Potter would not be complete without the wand. Hence, you need to buy that as well to complete the dressing. The same is the case for all the costumes. Hence to make the costume perfect, get the accessories also.

Finally, once the child is dressed up make sure that you click the picture that is going to make a great addition to your albums that you can store for years to come.