Halloween Costumes and Fancy Dress Ideas

With the new Star Trek Film just released, I thought that it would be a great time to take a look at what Star Trek Costumes are available.

As I am not an avid Trekkie, I had not realised, before doing some research that the Star Trek uniform has changed fairly often since the Original Series of Star Trek (1966-1969). However the changes have always been minor and the costume has always been recognisable as belonging to that of someone from Starfleet.

Sexy Star Trek Costumes
In the original series of Star Trek female Starfleet officers wore a short skirt, black tights and boots. (see image below), afterwards they began wearing the same costume as their male counterparts. For the new film, the costumes were designed by Michael Kaplan, who wanted the new Star Trek uniforms to be more modern than the original versions but at the same time remain true to the original television series and so just as in the original series, the female Starfleet officers wear skirts.

Star Trek Uniform Colors
Did you know that the colours of the costumes actually represent where in the fleet that person belongs? So science and medical officers wear blue, technicians, engineers and security personnel wear red and command officers wear gold shirts

For more information and where to buy Star Trek Costumes, including a guide to the different costumes used in The Original Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise and the New Star Trek film, check out this excellent page about the Star Trek Costume and Uniforms

To Buy Star Trek Costumes:
Star Trek Costumes on Amazon.com

Star Wars has to be one of the best themes for a fancy dress party of all time, with so many diverse and instantly recognisable characters available there are plenty of fancy dress ideas out there.

Darth Vader Costume, Jedi Knight Costumes, Princess Leia Costume, Yoda Costume, Chewbacca Costume, Obi Wan Kenobi Costume and what about a Stormtrooper Costume? These are all commonly availabe at most good fancy dress shops.

Best of all if you decide to go as either Darth Vader, or a Jedi Knight (Obi Wan Kenobi, Luke Skywalker or Anakin Skywalker) you get to yeild a Lightsaber aswell!

What about using Darth Vader as a Star Wars Halloween Costume? He has to be one of the most "dark" characters of all time.




Check out Jokers' Masquerade for more Star Wars Costume ideas.

As you can see from the list above, "Pirate Costumes" is the most popular search on the web for costumes in 2007 according to Hitwise.

This is probably due to the ever popular Jack Sparrow played by Johnny Depp in the Pirates of the Caribbean films.

Searching on Jokers' Masquerade for Pirate Fancy Dress costumes it is also easy to see why pirates costumes are so popular as there are plenty of different styles for both men and women. From Rogue Pirates to Captain Blackheart to Zombie Pirates, there is a pirate costume to suite everyone.

Fairy Costumes
So what is a fairy and what makes a good fairy costume? A fairy is has human like features, usually with wings and has magical powers. It is for these reasons that a fairy costume is so poular as fancy dress.

Tinkerbell Costume
Tinkerbell, her green costume and wand is probably the most well know fairy, she of course come from the story of Peter Pan and is so called Tinkerbell because her job as a tinker was to fix pots and kettles.

Check out this Fairy Costume page for some great Tinkerbell costume and other fairy costume ideas.

As most people already know, Halloween is the busiest time for fancy dress costumes and none more so than children, trick or treating is massive in the US and continues to grow in the UK and the tradition of kids dressing up in a scary Halloween costume to go trick-or-treating looks here to stay.

With that in mind and as a parent every year you probably have to come up with a new Halloween costume for your children. Sure it is easy to get a scary witch costume, or a skeleton costume, vampire costume or ghost costume. But what about other fancy dress ideas? Are there any unique Halloween costume ideas out there?

Well for starters you could try this blog which has more on Halloween Kids Costumes with a bunch of fancy dress ideas for this Halloween. Another trick is to find an online fancy dress store and see what they have to offer, that for me is one of the best ways of finding fancy dress inspiration. Good luck and happy Halloween!

Having recently watched the 1951 Walt Disney film of Alice in Wonderland, it got me thinking if I could find any Alice in Wonderland costumes on the web.

After some research, not only can you find many Alice costumes, but also ones for The White Rabbit, King of Hearts and Queen of Hearts Costumes are readily available.

The original Story of Alice comes from the book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland written by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, and English author who went under the pseudonym of Lewis Carroll and was published in 1865. The book tells a story about a girl named Alice who follows the White Rabbit down a rabbit hole into a fantastic world called Wonderland populated by strange creatures with human like features.

The main Characters in the book and films are Alice, the White Rabbit, the Queen and King of Hearts. All of these costumes are available in the UK at Jokers' Masquerade: Alice in Wonderland Costumes

For more on Alice in Wonderland and Alice Costumes Check out this Alice in Wonderland Costume Blog post.

Disney characters and Disney fancy dress costumes have always been popular and with awesome characters like Mickey Mouse Costumes, Donald Duck, Woody and Buzz Lightyear costumes from Toystory, Tinkerbell costumes, you can see why. But for me one of my all time favourites has always been Minnie Mouse Costumes.

Origins of the Minnie Mouse Costume
Walt Disney created Mickey Mouse in 1928 and he knew from his previous hit with Oswald the Luck Rabbit that Mickey would need to have a love interest and that character was to become Minnie Mouse.

The Fancy Dress Minnie Mouse Costume
At the start of Mickey Mouse, Minnie did not have a name yet, but her dress and costume was in the fashion of a flapper girl which was in the 1920's more than just fashion, but also almost a movement, where young women would wear short skirts, wear bobbed hair and mostly listened and danced to Jazz music. They were also initially thought to wear excessive make-up, treated sex in a too casual way, smoked and generally behaved in a way that was looked down on. So for Walt Disney to have the Minnie Mouse Costume in the form of a flapper girl must have been a gamble at the time, but now because of that I think that is what makes the Minnie Mouse costume one of the most popular Disney costumes out there and you can read more about the Minnie Mouse costume on this blog.

So most Minnie Mouse costumes that you can buy online and in fancy dress shops to this day have a dress that resembles a flapper dress and is almost always red with white spots and comes with the iconic mouse ears.

Where you can buy a Minnie Mouse Costume:
I have always got my fancy dress costumes online and my fav place has always been fancy dress from Jokers' Masquerade who have a massive stock of costumes, you will often see me recommend them and I do this because I think they are great. Another excellent website to look is Amazon as they also pretty much always have a large selection of costumes.

Indiana Jones returns with the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the fourth film in the series. As always the Indiana Jones costume consists of the distinctive Indiana Jones hat and leather jacket and the famous Indiana Jones Whip. Many of the Indiana Jones fancy dress costumes available for sale come with a whip, the leather jacket and the distinctive Indiana Jones hat.

The leading role in the new film will once again be played by Harrison Ford who joins Cate Blanchett. Indiana Jones is directed by Stephen Spielberg and Produced by George Lucas.

The film is set in the late 1950's and pits an older and Indiana Jones against an agent of the former Soviet Union, played by Cate Blanchett as they search for the crystal skull.

More on the Indiana Jones Costume

Sailors first started to wear the distinctive white and blue sailor costumes in 1857, but it wasn't until Prince Albert wore a child sailor costume on a sailing trip that it really caught the public's imagination.

There was a time when it was popular for children, both boys and girls to wear sailor costumes and even to this day in many Asian Countries, children wear sailor costumes as their school uniform, this has lead to Japanese cartoons like Sailor Moon and the increase in popularity of sailor moon costumes.

Sailor costumes are popular adult fancy dress costumes for both men and woman and there are many female sailor costumes and sexy sailor costumes out there. Follow the link for more information on sailor costumes, ladies sailor costumes and fancy dress and the sailor suit in general.

with Halloween now a distant memory, then next big event where it is ok to dress up and look funny is Christmas. The most obvious choice for Christmas costumes and fancy dress is a Santa Claus Suit or more commonly known just as the Santa Costume.

On the web you can literally find hundreds of the traditional Santa costumes for sale, as well as slightly different ones like the very cool Grinch Santa Costume. With so many products out there it can be hard to decide which one to get, my advice to finding the right Santa Claus costume for you would be to shop around a bit, and go for the best you can afford. Cheap Santa suits often look cheap and come in really poor quality light material and beards making it really easy to spot you as a fake Santa!

It is sometimes really funny as an adult to dress up as a children's character, something like an adults version of Dennis The Menace from the Beano Comic books is perfect.

But we have to remember that fancy dress is not just for big kids, but for small ones as well. Fancy dress costumes for children is big business but with so many costumes available which do you choose. Most often it is probably what the latest fad is. For instance for a long time, Power Ranger Costumes were all the rage.

Anyway if you are stuck for ideas, Jokers' Masquerade have a large selection of child costumes for you to draw inspiration from.

Another excellent idea or theme for fancy dress for children would be that of High School Musical Costumes.

An excellent story about two high school children, one, Troy Bolton played by actor Zac Efro and the other Gabriella Montez is played by Vanessa Hudgens who both decide to audition for their High school Musical.

Troy is captain of the school basketball team and is really popular whilst Gabriella is a pretty exchange student who is also very shy.

The fact that these two want to part of the musical causes a rift at the school with many of the children looking to spoil their dreams, as always with such films good always prevails and they get their dream. Along the way they also convince some of the other kids that it is pretty cool to follow your dream and not to always bow down to peer pressure.

So basically a light hearted film with plenty of good role models and positive messages to be sending out to your children.

The costumes that they wear are pretty cool and they are now readily available on the web for any aspiring Troy or Gabriella! Give Jokers' Masquerade a try as they have a large range of High School Musical Costumes in stock at the moment.

I think it is crazy to hire fancy dress costumes and here is why:

• You can find fancy dress costumes for sale at the same price or even cheaper than hiring a costume, there are plenty of Cheap fancy dress costumes online.
• If you hire your fancy dress outfits online you never know what condition they are going to be in


• If you hire a costume, you have the pain of having to return it after the costume party


• Looking for ideas for fancy dress themes, browsing an online fancy dress shop is a great place to quickly get loads of fancy dress ideas.
• You will often go to a fancy dress party as a couple, the great thing as there are plenty of costumes for couples available online these days.


• After the fancy dress party, sell your costume on ebay, who knows you may even make a profit!

Jokers' Masquerade have a very cool promotion on at the moment that lasts until the end of the year. All you have to do is dress up as a Smurf, which is a pretty cool costume anyway and then take a photo of you wearing it.

If you happen to be in a really cool place, like Paris, Moscow, Cape Town or any other part of the globe, you could also be added to the Smurfs on holiday map!

If you are confused, take a look at the Smurfs On Holiday page and all will become clear.

Smurfs on Holiday

Win a Deluxe Mr & Mrs Santa Claus Costume Combination worth over £150.00!

If you are looking for a new Santa suit this Christmas or just something to liven up the festive period? Well, why not enter Jokers' Masquerade's Christmas competition where you can win not only a Deluxe Santa Suit but also a Deluxe costume for Mrs Santa Claus too!

Click here to enter the Jokers' Masquerade's Christmas competition

Jokers' Masquerade has the largest on line collection of adult fancy dress costumes and Halloween fancy dress in the United Kingdom today.

Joke.co.uk has been selling on the World Wide Web since 2001 and there are over 10 thousand costumes and accessories to choose from for any fancy dress idea or theme. These include Christmas costumes and Halloween costumes. There is also a huge range of popular fancy dress themes like Starwars, Grease, Ghostbusters, Austin Powers, Marvel Super Heroes like Batman and the Incredible Hulk as well as other super heroes like Wolverine, Supergirl and Wonder Woman just to name a few. Many costumes are exclusive to Jokers' Masquerade and therefore not available elsewhere within the UK.

Choosing your perfect costume could not be easier and shopping on the web with joke.co.uk is completely secure. Your order will be shipped from their 40,000sqft warehouse complex and with most orders that are placed before 4pm are shipped on the day of receipt (excluding weekends and Bank Holidays) complete with order and parcel tracking, you should expect your spanking new costume within 5 days depending on your chosen delivery option.

As their strap line says:
Think Fancy Dress, Think Halloween Costumes, Think Jokers' Masquerade!

The Roman and Greek costume have been really popular ever since the film Animal House was released, this really increased the popularity of the toga party and the toga costume. But there are much more to Greek and Roman fancy dress costumes than toga's although most people will associate that era with that costume.

Greek Costume Ideas
Other ideas for a Roman or Greek costume are a Hercules Costume, Aphrodite Costume, the Goddess of Love, Greek Goddess Costume, King Of Atlantis Costume, Zeus costume, official Spartan Costume from 300 or how about an ancient Greek Warrior Costume?

All of these I have found on Jokers' Masquerade fancy dress, check out all their Greek and Roman Costumes or for more check out this blog post on Greek Costumes

When most people are invited to a fancy dress party, their first thought is to find fancy dress costume shops and to hire a costume, have you ever thought of buying a costume instead?

To make the the correct decision for you, the best way is to go through the positive and negative points of each method.

What are the benefits of fancy dress hire?
Fancy dress costume hire has the advantage in that you can return the costume after the party, but this can also turn out to be a bad thing because not only do you have to pay for the hire of the costume, but you also have to then have the hassle (and the cost) of going back to the fancy dress shop to return the costume.

What are the benefits of purchasing a fancydress costume?
If you buy your costume from an on-line fancy dress shop, like Jokers' Masquerade fancy dress not only do they have a huge variety of fancy dress costumes and accessories (more than ten thousand) to select from, so plenty of fancy dress ideas but you also don't have the hassle of having to go and collect the costume and then having to return it afterwards. Don't forget often when going to a fancy dress party, you'll be going as a couple, the great thing as there are plenty of costumes for couples available now.

Cheap costumes
The majority of people also think that fancy dress hire is less expensive than buying, but this is not always true, sure there are some fancy dress costumes for sale that are expensive like the deluxe starwars costumes, but there are plenty of cheap fancy dress outfits that could cost you even less than costume hire. At a company like Jokers' Masquerade fancy dress, you can even search for costumes by budget, which is handy.

Sure you can find fancy dress hire online options, but to date most don't offer the large selection of costumes that you can find when you buy. What has to be one of the biggest negatives of hiring costumes especially online is that you can never be sure what condition your costume will arrive in, buying a costume has to be the better deal because it arrives brand spanking new, in the box.

If you are also thinking of hosting a costume party, and are looking for some ideas for fancy dress themes, browsing an online fancy dress shop is a great place to quickly get loads of costume ideas.

Also remember if you decide that you don't want to wear the costume again, you could always sell it on an on line auction website after the fancy dress party, who knows your brand new Pirate costume may end up costing you nothing!

If you own a blog or website owners, you could grab yourself a fancy dress costume or two simply by doing what you do best:

Just write a few paragraphs on your site about Jokers' Masquerade and any of their prizes that you could win. Check out the link for more details on how to enter the fancy dress competition

Good luck!