Best (fancy) dress code for party?

[queenbrunhilda]

Birthday coming up - planning some sort of party and have always fancied doing something which involves an element of dressing up (but flexible enough to accommodate people who want to do as little as possible). Would love to know about your experiences and ideas.

Current possible 'codes' include:

Come as:

• your alter ego;
• a member of your youth tribe;
• a character from your favourite film.

"On safari" was quite good fun.

Picking a letter and you can come as anything with that letter

Come as someone else who has been invited to the party (requires thick skin and ability to laugh at oneself!)

Books

Tube stations
Places

90s theme (can be a character from the 90s or just general 90s gear) - was hilarious

"When I grow up I want to be"
We had people come as various jobs, celebrities, animals, fictional characters, the devil...

I like youth tribe though- depending on the age group of invitees! Less funny if only in 20s anyway.

Depending on your friends - traffic lights.

Red = married
Green = single
Orange = somewhere inbetween!

The best fancy dress code is no fancy dress code. I hate fancy dress with a passion and probably wouldn't go on that basis alone (although I appreciate you probably weren't contemplating inviting me ). I do love proper dressing up, black tie, etc. Then people can feel confident that they actually look their best, rather than looking daft!

I hate fancy dress too and have also politely declined invitations on that basis.

In the gardens fun. I dressed as a spider. With extra legs. (Extra legs got annoying after a while) but loads of fairies , gnomes, bugs etc.

Or movie characters.

I would say a Hollywood theme.

That way people can dress as pretty much anything movie related or for the fancy dress haters they can just put on a nice dress or outfit and call it a red carpet look.

I also hate fancy dress. Really loathe it. Why not make it black tie instead?

I don't mind fancy dress but I know so many people hate it.
Could you do an evening of glamour.
So everyone can get dolled up.
Or a James Bond night so men in Tux's and girls in cocktail gowns?
I love getting dressed up and looking nice as do a lot of women.

Otherwise for me, I love the 80's so that would be my theme!
80's dress theme, 80's music, 80's food, 80's decorations, 80's games, 80's sweets, but I'm old.

Thanks all. My calculation is I'd get more refuseniks for black tie than any other code! Attendees would be mainly in late 30s, 40s and 50s. Do like the 'what will I be when grow up' one - especially as there is plenty of scope to come in non-fancy dress.

Bad taste

Celts and Romans is a good one. Or Greek Gods. Or the old vicars and tarts is a favourite.

I've been to and hosted many many fancy dress parties with a range of themes, and by far and away the biggest success was Pirates. There was a massive range of how seriously people took it, and even the more shy came with a token eye patch or head scarf. It's the only fancy dress party I've been to when every single person at least made a token effort.

Second biggest hits would be a tie between "Animals" and "The Olden Days" which had people coming in all sorts - one guy dressed as Jesus, and lots of people in 20s or 60s/70s/80s outfits they'd been looking for an excuse to wear.

Book/movie/letter of the alphabet/profession type themes never seemed to go quite so well