Jokers’ Masquerade, a company that sells fancy dress costumes exclusively on the web have recently launched a new fancy dress costume, known as a “Blue Gnome” it is based on the Smurfs and has been a real success according to Beatrice Butler, who is the marketing manager for Jokers’ Masquerade fancy dress costumes.
Created by a Belgian cartoonist called Peyo, the Smurfs who started as series of cartoon strips that first appeared in a Belgian magazine in 1958 and tells the story a fictional group of small sky blue creatures who live “somewhere” in the woods.
“The success of the Blue Gnome has taken us a little by surprise especially when we started getting people sending us pictures of themselves wearing the costume from all over the globe, it was then that we decided to create the Smurf Holiday Map” says Butler. The Smurf Holiday Map allows people who have dressed up in a Smurf costume to send in the photo of themselves wearing the costume, to be placed on the map with the idea of seeing all the interesting places that the Smurf’s have gone on “holiday”
So far there are photos of the Smurfs holidaying in destinations as exotic as Las Vegas in America, the Gambia in West Africa, Dublin in Ireland, Amsterdam in the Netherlands, Copenhagen in Denmark and skiing in the French Alps!
People who send in their entries not only get the chance to be added to the map, but also have a chance of winning a voucher to buy more costumes!
Jokers’ Masquerade has the largest on-line collection of adult fancy dress costumes and Halloween costumes in the UK today.
Follow the link for more on the Jokers’ Masquerade, Blue Gnome Smurf Costumes and The Smurf Holiday Map.
Costumes and fancy dress from Disney have always been very popular and with the classic Disney characters like Mickey Mouse Costumes, Donald Duck, Woody and Buzz Lightyear costumes from Toystory, Tinkerbell costumes from the Peter Pan story and Disney film, you can see why. But for me one of my faves has always been Minnie Mouse Costumes.
Where did Minnie Mouse and her fancy dress come from?
Mickey Mouse, the brain child of Walt Disney was created in 1928 and he knew from his prior hit with Oswald the Luck Rabbit that Mickey would need to have a sweetheart and that character was to become Minnie Mouse.
Fancy Dress and the Minnie Mouse Costume
In the beginning of Mickey Mouse, Minnie did not yet have a name, but her dress and costume was in the fashion of a flapper girl which was in the 1920′s more than just fashion, but also almost a movement, where young women would wear short skirts, wear bobbed hair and mostly listened and danced to Jazz music. They were also initially thought to wear excessive makeup, were too casual with their views on sex, smoked and generally behaved in such a way that was looked down on. So for Walt Disney to have the Minnie Mouse Costume in the form of a flapper girl must have been a gamble at the time, but now because of that I think that is what makes the Minnie Mouse costume one of the most popular Disney costumes out there.
So most Minnie Mouse costumes that you can buy on-line and in fancy dress shops to this day have a dress that resembles a flapper dress and is almost always red with white spots and comes with the black mouse ears.
Places on the web to buy a Minnie Mouse Costume:
I have always purchased my fancy dress costumes on-line and my fave places are Amazon, Buy Costumes and Costume Kingdom who have a huge range of fancy dress costumes, you will always see me recommend them on my blog on the Minnie Mouse Costume and I do this because I think they are great. Another excellent website to look is Amazon as they also have a large selection of fancy dress costumes.
Shoppers from The USA
Minnie Mouse Costumes
on Amazon.com
Amazon have a massive range of Minnie mouse costumes, in both adult and child sizes.
Shoppers from The UK
Minnie Mouse Costume
on Amazon.co.uk
Like their American cousins, Amazon.co.uk have a huge selection of Minnie Mouse Costumes in all sizes and all at really good prices and so you should be able to find what you are looking for.
Having recently watched the Disney feature film of Alice in Wonderland, it got me to thinking if you could find Alice in Wonderland Costumes for sale on the web. After some research, I found not only are there many fancy dress Alice costumes out there, but also many of the other characters including The White Rabbit Costumes, King of Hearts Costumes and The Queen of Hearts Costumes.
But before we get into the dressing up as Alice characters, I also found out a few interesting things about where the story comes from. Like did you know that the original book of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was written by Lewis Carroll who’s real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson in 1865. From this book we get to meet most of the characters that we know of today, including Alice, The White Rabbit and The King and Queen of Hearts. He later wrote Through the Looking-Glass where we get the characters of Tweedledee, Tweedledum, Humpty Dumpty, and the Jabberwock.
The story of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland basically tells of a story about Alice who falls down a rabbit hole after following the White Rabbit, into the magical world of Wonderland and all the adventures that she finds there.
Because it is such an excellent story, things like the word “Alice bands” actually come from the story where she is depicted with her hair being held back with a wide black ribbon. This has also passed down to fancy dress and the popularity of Alice in Wonderland Costumes, which would also make an excellent theme for world book day costumes.
If you want to learn more about Alice Costumes and the story check out this blog post on Alice in Wonderland Costumes
Where to Buy Alice Costumes
An excellent source of Alice Costumes, and they even have Sexy Alice in Wonderland Costumes for Adults is Amazon fancy dress:
Shoppers from The USA
Alice in Wonderland Costumes on Amazon.com
Amazon have a massive range of Alice in Wonderland Costumes, in both adult and child sizes.
Shoppers from The UK
Alice in Wonderland Costumes on Amazon.co.uk
Like the American version, Amazon.co.uk have a huge selection of Alice Costumes in all sizes and all at really good prices and so you should be able to find what you are looking for.
I have just heard through the grapevine that Klaxons are going to wear fancy dress costumes for the
Big Gig that is going to happen after the
Shockwaves NME Awards on February 28.
Nobody seems to know exactly what costumes the band are going to wear…. watch this space.
When most people are invited to a fancy dress party, their first thought is to find fancy dress costume shops and to hire a garment, have you ever thought of buying a fancy dress costume instead?
To make the the correct decision for you, the best way is to go through the advantages and disadvantages of each method.
What are the benefits of fancy dress hire?
Fancy dress costume hire has the advantage in that you can return the costume after the party, but this can also turn out to be a bad thing because not only do you have to pay for the hire of the costume, but you also have to then have the hassle (and the cost) of going back to the fancy dress shop to return the costume.
So what are the benefits of purchasing a fancydress costume?
If you buy your fancy dress costume from an on-line fancy dress shop, like Jokers’ Masquerade fancy dress not only do they have a huge variety of costumes and accessories (over 10,000) to pick from, so plenty of fancy dress ideas but you also don’t have the hassle of having to collect the garment and then having to take it back when you are done. Also remember often when going to a costume party, you’ll be going as a couple, the great thing as there are plenty of costumes for couples available these days.
Cheap fancy dress costumes
Most people also think that fancy dress hire is less expensive than buying, but this is not always true, sure there are some fancy dress costumes for sale that are expensive like the deluxe starwars costumes, but there are plenty of cheap fancy dress outfits that could cost you even less than costume hire. At a company like Jokers’ Masquerade fancy dress, you can even search for costumes by price, which is handy.
It is possible to find fancy dress hire online options, but to date most don’t offer the huge choice of costumes that you can find when you buy. What has to be one of the biggest negatives of hiring costumes especially on the web is that you can never be sure what condition your costume will arrive in, buying a costume has to be the better deal because it arrives brand new, in shiny new packaging.
If you are also thinking of hosting a fancy dress party, and are looking for some ideas for fancy dress themes, browsing an online fancy dress shop is a great place to quickly get loads of fancy dress ideas.
Also remember if you decide that you don’t want to wear the costume again, you could always sell it on an on line auction website after the fancy dress party, who knows your brand new Pirate Jack Sparrow costume may end up costing you nothing, or better yet, making you some money!
