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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that fancy dress is just..urrgh

66 replies

taxiforme · 28/10/2013 23:12

That's it really. I am going away on a hen weekend next week organised by a close friend. Two themed nights. I would rather eat my own hair than dress up as a pirate or a nun. Or Star Wars character. I am mad and passive aggressive..why can't I just say I would rather wear my own (very nice) going out clothes that I don't get to wear very often.

Sorry, that's it.

OP posts:
Sparklingbrook · 28/10/2013 23:21

Fancy dress for children=great
Fancy dress for adults=sad.

But then Hen Nights are quite scary these days from what I can gather. Sad

landrover · 28/10/2013 23:22

OOOhhh I love fancy dress!!!! (sorry that is completely no help to you xxxxx)

Sparklingbrook · 28/10/2013 23:26

So taxi are you going to embrace the daftness or go and buy a naice dress?

Dahlen · 28/10/2013 23:26

I love fancy dress. It's a great ice breaker at parties. I'm far less keen on it in hen or stag weekends though, where it seems all too often to go hand in hand with drunken idiotic behaviour. I'm sure your friends aren't like that so why not just tell them the truth or dress in your normal clothes and pretend to be the superhero in disguise. wink

Caitlin17 · 28/10/2013 23:28

Usually they are awful on hen nights (and Edinburgh gets more than its fair share) but I saw a fantastic one recently where the theme must have been "sailors". And not naff "sexy" sailor mini skirts .

There were about a dozen girls in combinations of fantastic wide legged trousers, Coco Chanel style stripy tops, 50s style sailor dresses, cute hats. They looked great.

Original poster
taxiforme · 28/10/2013 23:39

I love dressing up.

In. My. Own. Clothes.

I don't want to be a tiger or.. I am not making this up, a crayola crayon. It's all getting a bit bitchy now as the thin girls are doing sexy and my organising friend is clucking round like a righteous angry hen at them for going off fancy dress

OP posts:
Preciousbane · 28/10/2013 23:41

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
taxiforme · 28/10/2013 23:41

Thanks Caitlin I have tried that one with her!
As Charlie's angels. Flicks and jumpsuits and big sunnies and knee high boots and flares. Stylish 70's.

Nope, it's a pirate or a nun.

OP posts:
WallyBantersJunkBox · 28/10/2013 23:48

If recall there were some famous female pirates Mary Reade and Anne Bonny?

I like authentic dress, but I'd balk at sexy pirate.

I'd probably go as Mother Theresa.

krankykitty · 28/10/2013 23:53

Zombie mother Theresa :)

princessnumber2 · 29/10/2013 00:01

I once went to a fancy dress party as Fidel Castro. Every woman there was either Marilyn Monroe, cleopatra, tinker bell or a fucking cat. I had a cigar, a beard, khaki ill-fitting clothes and a Cuban flag.

I didn't pull but everyone said my outfit was great. Grin

springylippy · 29/10/2013 00:41

I'm normally don't like fancy dress but I have some friends who always throw fancy dress parties and they're BRILLIANT. They did a christmas party last year and we had to go dressed as a character from the nativity. Surprisingly few shepherds I'm glad to say; but a fair few sheep (sheepskin coats worn inside out). A few people in swaddling clothes.

However, I agree that this hen night doesnt sound so good. Ignore the bitchy thin people who will look like tarts and be creative and enjoy yourself. What's the theme? There should be a theme. Tell the bossy organiser that there should be a theme.

WallyBantersJunkBox · 29/10/2013 00:43

I did Edward Scissorhands one year as I was so fed up of all the bloody sexy kittens and sexy nurses at Halloween. That was a great costume.

Then we had a beach party and after hearing all the "ooh bikini and Hawaiian shirt or just bikini" talk a group of us decided to do something different.

So we went as an oil slick. Grin

Fidel Castro - brilliant!

TrucksAndDinosaurs · 29/10/2013 00:48

Fancy dress for adults should be an opportunity to feel good or amuse yourself IMO. If you have broad shoulders and great legs go be a principal boy or a seash buckling pirate or Peter Pan or whatever, if you look great with heavy eye makeup and a fringe work Cleopatra, if your boobs are magnificent be Nell Gwynn or a wench. If you look wow with a beard then go you.

However hen party fancy dress is always tiresome and vulgar.

MrsTerryPratchett · 29/10/2013 01:18

I once wore my own clothes to a fancy dress party and took a Starbucks. When people asked what I was I said, "a hypocrite". Hilarity ensued.

NumTumRedRum · 29/10/2013 01:26

Yanbu. I hate themed hen nights. Mine was unthemed. And as a result we got very little aggravation unlike the three other parties in our venue who attracted every knobend going.

SomethingOnce · 29/10/2013 01:26

10/10 for Castro.

Generally though, fancy dress is a pain in the arse and as for all the desperate-for-attention tits-out efforts that blur the line between fancy dress and those delightful Ann Summers outfits...

AdoraBell · 29/10/2013 01:28

Grin at MrsTerryPrattchet

I don't like doing fancy dress either, so much so that I never have.

OP is the theme actually Pirate / nun? I'd be inclined to wear my own normal clothes.

Pachacuti · 29/10/2013 01:33

A lot of nuns these days wear normal dress with a discreet lapel pin or similar... Grin

JoinYourPlayfuckers · 29/10/2013 01:38

YANBU

I HATE, HATE, HATE fancy fucking dress.

KeatsiePie · 29/10/2013 03:08

"Nope, it's a pirate or a nun." But ... why??? That's ... that's weird.

I like a costume party once a year or so, but you have to let people dress up as whatever they want. I would be so very unthrilled to be spending money on a plastic sword and an eyepatch, plus who knows what for the actual clothes. A jerkin? (Not actually sure what that is.) A ruffled Seinfeld shirt?

And I love my party dresses, but have so few chances to wear them, so doubly annoying to miss a chance.

Thumbfuckerwitch · 29/10/2013 03:19

I quite like fancy dress but prefer to choose my own, I don't like "themed" hen parties or similar.
I also like to dress up in proper posh clothes for going out, particularly balls and such but I'm a bit old for those now :( and don't know anyone who could invite me to one any more.

Dressing up as a pirate - well I've done that but it was quite easy because I had relevant clothes that I'd kept from the New Romantic period of the 80s (I'm dreadful for hanging onto clothes just in case - and the only times I've ever got rid of stuff, I've needed it again within a year and been unable to buy it!) but dressing up as a nun? No thanks. I did go to Sing-a-long Sound of Music once but in my long leather coat, as a member of the gestapo.

I don't like hiring costumes either though, I like to be creative with what I have in the wardrobe (and I have quite a lot of interesting clothes). Or make my own - I have a fab Morticia-style dress in brushed lycra with a lace trail but I'm too fat to wear it now

LondonNightmareInGhostlyBoots · 29/10/2013 08:28

All the nuns I know wear smart, discreet clothing, shirts and trousers or knee length skirts, some wear habit like veils. these are optional. they also wear crucifixes ans carry rosaries. sorted. the only one I know who wears remotely proper nun like wears a, 87 and b, wears a long blue skirt and shirt.

Pirate, wear skinny jeans in red , black or brown, a ruffled shirt, or one two sizes too bigand and cinch the waist, knee boots and maybe a waistcoat from primark, and hoop earrings with heavy makeup. big hair, and maybe a belt with sparkly bits on it.

expatinscotland · 29/10/2013 08:30

I hate it. I decline such invites or make up an excuse.

misskatamari · 29/10/2013 09:13

I love fancy dress for a fancy dress party. Fancy dress and going out - ugh! Especially hen party fancy dress!