So back in 2007 ish we had a 'Rolf Night' where everyone came dressed as Rolf Harris - I even bought a stylophone on eBay! Wobble boards, didgeridoos, painting competitions - a fun time was had by all but the family photo album hasn't aged well! 🤣
Anyone else got any fancy dress themes that haven't aged well!!? 😬
Anyone else got any fancy dress themes that haven't aged well!!?
At uni (mid/late 90's), we (me and my housemates) were invited to a fancy dress thing (no particular theme) so we went to the local costume place in town, got ourselves all sorted...
Turned up to the fancy dress party and almost no-one else had made any effort at all beyond a funny wig or a sparkly top or something. We were massively overdressed.
What made it worse was one of my housemates was wearing a full German officer uniform, he was very proud of how smart it looked. Think Private Pike in that episode of Dad's Army where they dress up as Nazi soldiers for a film shoot.
Thankfully this was all before cameraphones were a thing and I guess back then dressing up as a Nazi officer didn't have quite the same negative connotations as it does now. But yeah, definitely not one of the best nights out. We left after a couple of hours, feeling very self-conscious in our full costumes.
One of my work colleagues was in his University Rolf Harris appreciation society which made a brief appearance in the audience of This is Your Life in the mid 90's. 🤦
I once dressed as a christmas tree on a uni night out. Witches hat wrqpped in green tissue paper Sewed cheap green tinsel in section all over green clothes. Decorated it with the usual decorations including lights and had a bum bag with an extension cord in it.
Spent the night finding sockets around the union and plugging myself in and dancing like an idiot.
I woke up the next day with about one bit of tinsel remaining and a green tinge from the tinsel that didn't come off my skin for days.
Not offensive but i definitely regretted it
made a brief appearance in the audience of This is Your Life in the mid 90's.
Not quite in the same league but a former colleague got himself a slot on Britain's Got Talent and got 4 red crosses within about 15 seconds of starting his act. Shortest TV appearance ever!
(he wasn't doing anything offensive or even risque, he was just shit!)
I think you'd go a long way to beat the then founder of Planet X, On-One who bought Jimmy Saviles bike collection together with gold tracksuit, curly blonde wig, and a box of cigars at an auction following his death. These were on display at the showroom until the truth came out. He would regularly wear the tracksuit and wig, most notably during a visit/interview by Roulour magazine. This was post the revelations of Saviles atrocities so no defence to that behaviour.
>Anyone else got any fancy dress themes that haven't aged well!!?
Mate dressed up as Jimmy Saville. Brilliant outfit.
A few years later he was quite keen to get those photos removed from the internet.
Not embarassing as such, but we went to a fancy dress party years ago & my sister drove there.
Anyway - her & her husband went as 60s disco divas with the full on fluo shirts, flared trousers & massive afro wigs - literally the largest ones they could find, probably 2ft in diameter.
On the way home she got done by one of those front facing speed cameras and in the photo that accompanied the letter you could clearly see the two of them in the front of the car with their massive afros still on their heads. No idea why they didn't think to take them off before driving home, but I hope someone processing the speeding offence saw it before it went out and had a little chuckle.
My son stitched me and my wife up this year. Threw a big party to celebrate my grandson's 1st birthday - about 50 - 60 people turned up.
Turns out ours was the only invite that said it was a 'Wiggles' themed fancy dress party. Everyone else was in on the joke too. 
Seem to recollect nailing some blocks of wood to a pair of old plimsolls and spraying them silver in preparation for a fancy dress competition as Gary Glitter, in my defence he was probably top of the charts at the time & I would have been about 6.
More recently & a mate hadn't got a costume but we had a fig tree, with a bit of cotton thread he was soon transformed into Adam - got photos too 🤣
Guy i used to work with told me a story about him. Years ago he went to a fancy dress party then went out to the pubs. Drinks flowed and he forgot he was wearing a costume, then went into the local british legion and got chucked out immediately. It was only as he was getting huckled out he remembered it was an SS costume he was wearing.
I guess back then dressing up as a Nazi officer didn't have quite the same negative connotations as it does now
Errrrrr???
I guess back then dressing up as a Nazi officer didn't have quite the same negative connotations as it does now
Errrrrr???
It was the time of 'Allo 'Allo - so comedy Nazis were mainstream TV! 🙂
TBH, dressing up in a German Army uniform was ok in most circles until Prince Harry did it and the press decided to make a fuss of it.
Did a "Underground" themed pub crawl years ago. A mate came as Blackfriars. Not cool.
Ever let yourself go full ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’ to the musical, it’s a great night. Admittedly I needed a bit of Dutch courage, which helped greatly with the singing.
What, naively, I had not expected was the need for others to post on the cesspit, FB 🙄. When I last went to the show, it was as a student 40yrs ago and the cesspit did not exist.
Some of the costumes at the musical were spectacular!
I was at a dancy dress party mid-00s where one girl came as the twin towers, replete with half a Boeing sticking out the front.
Some 5-10 years later, there was a story in the Mail etc about someone who had done the same, and the whole country was encouraged to be outraged about this, which they duly were. My old friend was lucky her costume predated social media...
Back in the late 80s early 90s I worked at a brewpub that had a pirate theme. All the decor, menus, drinks etc were in some way pirate. The bar was even built as a galleon, if it had the other half it would have floated.
Anyways, the staff and regulars would regularly go on “boarding parties” to other pubs around the counties, all dressed as pirates, to challenge the other pub to drinking contests, all prearranged. I went on one to one of the Ferkin pubs in Birmingham. Very hazy recollections but I was dropped off on the way back and put in a taxi to get home. I woke up the following morning about 9am on a park bench on the other side of the city. No idea how I got there. I had to catch a couple of buses home still dressed as a pirate, complete with flintlock pistols and a cutlass. I had a LOT of very strange looks that morning. Surprised I didn’t get arrested.
Got dressed up aged about 4 as a postbox.
It was pretty spectacular, right down to the lid as a hat, all corresponding signs on postboxes was correct. A lot of effort was put in by one of the Cranfield university design teams who put it together, as we we living on campus at the time.
Didn't win anything to my memory 🙁 quite cool all the same.
I'm a right miserable sod when it comes to fancy dress. I hate it and avoid it like the plague.
If we get an invite to a party and then get told to wear fancy dress, I decline
I was honestly expecting to see a photo of the former Prince Andrew dressed as Jimmy Saville 'after' Saville's death.
Many years ago we had a glam rock themed cycling club annual dinner, I went as Gary Glitter, thankfully I don't think any photos exist of the event...
Years ago we did a charity fancy dress ride . One bloke had a squirrel suit on and needed a comfort break . So there's 2 blokes stood in a public toilet one behind the other unzipping a squirrel suit , someone walked in on this and promptly skedaddled not bothering to go .😁
I blacked up as.. (see spoiler 🤣 )
Not sure it'd be a great idea in the 2020s.. probably wasn't when I did it tbh!
Spoiler tags work well eh
I went to a fancy-dress event aged 4, dressed as what Maggie from Extras describes as a 'golly toy'.
At that age it obviously wasn't my choice, and my mum, bless her as never intentionally offended anyone in her life - I don't think the full connotations of the costume were clear to her in a small village in the '60s.
I know there was a photo of me in the costume, but oddly I cannot find it anywhere in the family albums.
I don't think the full connotations of the costume were clear to her in a small village in the '60s.
Quick google search suggests that Robinsons didn't drop the character from jam jars until 2001, so your mum is far from the worst offender!
Reminds me of when I was a nipper, my parents sent me to a fancy dress (with judges!) dressed as Frankie Howerd in Up Pompeii... they told me to go up to the judges and stick 2 fingers up and say "Up Pompeii!" ... I had no idea what the gesture meant, but I can still see their baffled faces!
My mate went to a party dressed as Osama bin laden around 2007.
I noticed a few years ago some chap was in the news having been arrested for doing very similar. Charged under the online hate crimes laws as I remember.
Mate of mine had/has a painting of a young girl by Rolf Harris. Signed in the corner.
Bit odd looking at it given the subject.