Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Conversation >

Fur and Feathers

12:42 / 27.08.03

I was wondering, what's the best fancy dress party you've ever been to?

Partly as a cheeky link to my bro's birthday party info...

Tiki birthday.

but also out of curiosity and ideas for future events.

My parents went to a beach-themed party where the guy flooded his own basement for the pool and turned all the heating up to full-blast! The host dressed as a dog as "there's always a dog on the beach"!

12:44 / 27.08.03

During the days when I had a carefully-cultivated goatee beard I attended a (non-themed)fancy dress party as Che Guevara. During pre-party drinks at a nearby pub some drunken yokel staggered up to me and slurred: "Who the fuck are you? Saddam Hussein?"

Needless to say, I started exercising shortly afterwards.

12:54 / 27.08.03

In terms of 'best concept', a friend of mine had a party where you came as a song title. I was a Frontier Psychiatrist, but unfortunately no-one had heard of the bloody song...

13:26 / 27.08.03

What did that look like? Cowboy hat and Freud beard?

I once went to a party as a cross channel swimmer. Swimming costume, swimming hat, goggles. That was the *worst idea ever*, but I was only about eight or nine, so...

13:30 / 27.08.03

Oof, horrible memory just surfaced. When I was a wee 'un I went to a fancy dress party as The Planet of the Apes. Yes, all of it. I had a fantastic monkey costume. There was another kid there in a much crappier Planet of the Apes costume, but because he was slightly mentally disabled he won. I kicked up a stink and sulked all day.

I'd like to say I learned a valuable lesson that day, but the truth is it rankled for years. And possibly still does.

A

13:40 / 27.08.03

Sax, Al Gore knows exactly how you feel.

14:55 / 27.08.03

the fanciest party i ever went to was in toronto. it was a company party (the guy i was seeing at the time worked there) for a prominent dating service. they had drag queens lip synch and perform w/studly male dancers, all w/fancy costumes and all. they had tarot readers, psychics, palm readers, and graphologists, all for free! they had a huuuge spread of food, including--this i will never forget--a tabletop *fountain* of chocolate fondue. and fruit and rice crispy treats for dipping!
cash bar, though. blah. you can't have everything.

but cool themes? i've been to a few. a dress to get laid party, a pajama party. both had $10 covers, $5 if you dressed up, so everyone did. i threw a tiki party myself once, we even had a kiddie pool in the basement, and a 5 foot tall inflatable palm tree. and everyone was dressed in bathing suits, hawaiian shirts, etc. even though it was march. in the midwest.
the best, though, was my early 90's party i never got to have. i was gonna call it 'totally krossed out!' cos the 80's are played, yo! i had collected over 3 hours of early 90's music ('89 to '93, exactly), and i hadn't even begun on the grunge yet. i had 'damn i wish i was yr lover,' 'motownphilly,' milli vanilli, color me badd, and more. amazing. the shyt you forgot about. and i had all ready my black and white striped tights to wear. i was hoping people were gonna come in cross colors shirts, and 'these colors don't run' desert storm shirts! not to mention flannel and tight-rolled pants. i was so excited.
but then we had to move out of our house. >:C i'm still bitter. it would have been the best party!

15:01 / 27.08.03

I think I qualify for the laziest costume award. Afew years ago I went to a fancy-dress party wearing nowt but a badge bearing my twin brother's name, and some of his clothes.

A truly shit costume.

15:30 / 27.08.03

I recall my college doing an annual semi-formal with the theme "Havana '59". That was fun - it gave you enough latitude to dress up or down... gamblers, peasants, guerillas in fake beards. I shaved a pencil mustache (and mascaraed it - it was very blonde/wispy), pompadoured my hair. That was fun.

No star here laces

15:47 / 27.08.03

My absolute all-time favourite was actually my own "offensive stereotypes" party.

We had a paedophile, a plantation slave, a nazi, a hasidic jew, a thieving scouser and a spastic. Plus many many more. One guy turned out to be a magician and did tricks. A guy with one eye fell down the stairs and then went back up to do it again. Somebody got the ketamine out and there was a pile of bodies in the middle of the dancefloor with the nazi guy kicking them. So many amusing scenes...

Other good themes were "tassels and falafels", and "White wedding".

15:49 / 27.08.03

I went as a nun to a Sound of Music party once, suffering for my sins in the summer heat. When I got there, I quickly realised I'd misheard and everybody else was dressed in grass skirts and beach wear à la South Pacific. Arse.

The best fancy dress party I was ever at was in hana-bi's old flat (of happy and tightly squeezed in memory). The theme was just cult films. I was Nosferatu. Ganesh was Edward Scissorhands (again). Travis Bickle nearly shagged me up against the fridge but sadly the sexy Droog didn't.

Probably the only time I've gone to such where everybody made the effort. I like fancy dress. Shame we're airing our kilts at a wedding in Yorkshire and can't tiki up this weekend.

19:21 / 27.08.03

I went as a nun to a Sound of Music party once, suffering for my sins in the summer heat. When I got there, I quickly realised I'd misheard and everybody else was dressed in grass skirts and beach wear à la South Pacific. Arse.
xoc, did you make this up? this is high-larious. it could be in an adam sandler movie or something. only then it wouldn't be funny.

21:58 / 27.08.03

I went to one party as the pope... The pope hat was half as tall as I was. I was told it was quite amusing to watch it cut through the crowds like a shark fin in water.

Also went to a Dr.Seuss themed party. I was Thing 1 and a friend was Thing 2. Good times were had by all.

22:42 / 27.08.03

I've only ever been to one fancy dress party, and I went as a Guardian Angel. (The theme was "angels and insects".) You know, with a CND logo on my halo and stuff. It was funny at the time.

Goodness Gracious Meme

22:53 / 27.08.03

I love dress-up...

Just been on a bisexual weekender which culminated in a costume party. wasn't too keen on the theme, a 'faerie ball' but there were many fabulous costumes. My favourite had to be a guy wearing nothing but silver shoes and tiny shorts and angel wings traced out by *scarification* he was very bouncy *g*

I went in my 'subtly kinky flapper' persona: flapper dress/pink heart-patterned stockings, boots, fluffy handbag and cuffs, cig holder etc...

In recent years, i've been to the same friends' excellent halloween party (sleaze and cherry will attest to its fabulousness) as Cruella de Vil and God. We've had Jimmy Saville, John Leslie, Patrick Bateman and the twin towers in attendance...

Got a little tricky when John leslie's mushrooms kicked in and he ran off, a little concerned that he was going to get stuck in (appallingly sleazy) character...

Similar to the offensive stereotypes, we held a 'your worst nightmare' party in a flat in London, remember a cross-dressing Bernard Manning. urrgghhh

09:36 / 28.08.03

I went to a fancy dress party earlier this year as Lester Bangs, to the total bemusement of everybody. I just dressed the way I normally do, but with a leather jacket and false moustache. The likeness was uncanny.

My friend went as Lou Reed, so I had to kind of drunkenly interview him and stuff..

16:05 / 28.08.03

No, mantis, sadly all too true. I still have pictures of my nun persona, deeply spiritual and still sporting the big clone moustache in those days. Surrounded by pasty-white Scottish boys in Speedos (so it wasn't a total waste of time).

When I were but a lad, all the "gay scene" consisted of in Edinburgh was one crowded pub (that shut at 10 every night) and the monthly "Drag Balls" at Tiffany's in St Stephen's Street. Despite my incredibly butch demeanour (honest... ) I had a wonderful time in borrowed ballgowns (see, those rich kids came in handy) with my face expertly made up by female friends (the few who had not ceremonially burnt their make-up in those fiercely feminist times).

There are one hundred and one ways that I could now critique that whole false, Warholesque underground from a political standpoint but, by God, we had some fun!

17:07 / 28.08.03

Bengali's right about those mushrooms. I WAS THAT JOHN LESLIE. Came to a head as people were dancing around me in a circle singing "I want your JOHN LESLIE!" to the tune of Love Action by the Human League.

My favourite costume was the vampyre penis with glow in the dark teeth which spunked both semen and blood. There were lots of fantastic costumes that halloween. One guy built a giant cardboard exo skelleton, Best Boyce dressed entirely as a penis and who could forget BA Honours with his absurd pro hunting outfit with the variously maimed stuffed toys stapled to his farmer's tweed jacket. Such a fucking wrong night.

Goodness Gracious Meme

22:44 / 28.08.03

gawd, I'd forgotten about the bloody stuffed toys...eergh. And i seem to remember getting home tripping and *covered* in vampire cock blood....

I made a beautiful sight for my sleeping partner, i'm sure.

Also seem to remember there being a serial killer (is it Texas Chainsaw Massacre with the overalls and hockey mask??) carrying a *heart around in paper bag*

Yeuurrgghhh.

Oh,and another one from the 'worst nightmares' party, a loved-up Mussolini.

Yeah. I know.

ONLY NICE THINGS

22:53 / 28.08.03

A friend at college was big on these things - the "come as something spelled by your initials" was kind of fun - the Drug-Peddling Vain Shepherd won (mirror, smock, sheep, plate of sweeties). Then there was the "come as an adjective" party - I cheated because people were prone to describing actions as very Haus, so turned up as myself but more so. Props to one who shall remain nameless, who arrived dressed as a schoolgirl, bummed fags off people and declared that she was "tight"...