I'm just going to pre-warn you, 95% of the photographs in this post are absolutely cringe worthy. So even if you don't like the content, I hope you have a giggle at the photos! I am a MASSIVE fan of fancy dress, and actually worked full time in a party shop during the year out I took before starting uni (thanks for all your nice comments on the last post about my job by the way, much appreciated) We did costume making and hire, balloon decor and party/event planning. It was great fun and although I don't have many pictures of me in fancy dress when I was a child, there seems to be loads from the age of 17+. I have been using Pinterest (finally joined tonight, woo hoo!) and the Fancy Dress Ball party planning app to round up some ideas for my 25th Birthday. You can use it to choose a theme, invite friends, and then choose the appropriate costume and accessories for your event. Thought this would be a fun excuse to show you my dressing up outfits from over the years. Please, be gentle with me... Have tried to make these as chronological as possible.
Jinty McGinty. Think I was 17 here, and this is the sort of clown outfit I used to wear when going out to do face painting and balloon modelling for events. Ohhhh dear.
Santas helper. Also 17 and very orange! We used to run christmas grottos through the costume shop too so most of December I would be helping the big bearded man hand out presents, dressed like this.
I have no idea what this is. Tartan and frilly shirts were the dress code for Scottish banquets we used to organise. Och aye the noo!
Another 17 year old Ayden, trying on a pirate outfit over my work clothes. We used to do this quite a lot on quiet days to save our sanity. That has to be the worst hook I have ever seen!
Goldilocks and Bo-Peep. This was me and Corinne when we went down to Leeds for my cousin Emma's 18th birthday.
Tinkerbell. 18 years old, and my first year of uni hence the freshers weight I was carrying in this picture. That's what months of takeaway food and drinking does :( How strange do I look here with no tattoos?
Moulin Rouge. Still 18, at an Oscars charity night. I actually can't bring myself to say much about all these photos, they're cracking me up :')
Hoola girl. 18 years old, still partying away my first year of uni...
Dora the Explorer! I did this one halloween for a friends house party. Absolutely no one knew who I was apart from my little sister Tyler. Look how tiny she is in the photo :) Also, I was proud of this outfit because you have no idea how hard it is to find a pair of orange shorts in October.
Little Miss Sunshine. I was 19 here, and this was my attempt at a DIY which included chopping up a childs costume from asda and pairing it with whatever yellow and red clothes I could find.
Princess Peach. 20 years old, and my first outfit from Legs Avenue, which do an amazing range of costumes which scale from super cute to super risky.
Not a proper fancy dress outfit, but me and Katrina enjoyed taking some California Girls inspiration for Katy Perrys California Dreams tour. 21 in this photo I think. Lots of candy jewellery and I made us those headbands :)
Princess Peach made a comeback for halloween at the ABC when I was 22. We all went dressed as video game characters so I was glad to get use of this outfit again.
Sugar Skull lady. 23 years old, I had a night out again at the ABC for halloween, and at the Titan Props Halloween party wearing this outfit. Doing the makeup was definitely my favourite part.
Bride of Frankenstein. Last halloween, and 24 years old :) The makeup for this one was fun too even if my eyebrows are a bit mad. We went to the Titan Props Halloween party again, but it was so coat that I kept my fur coat on for the first part of the night and everyone kept asking if I was Amy Winehouse!
That's my history of fancy dress outfits, there might have been a couple more but it took quite a while to go through my entire iphoto library looking for these. It was good fun stumbling across lots of old photos from when I was younger though, I definitely need to look back on them more often :)
In my opinion, fancy dress isn't just for Halloween! I love an excuse to dress up, and all the full posts featuring any sort of fancy dress can be read here. What has been your own favourite fancy dress outfit? And do you like to DIY or buy it off the shelf?
