We have recently had the pleasure of adding Bill and Ben the Flower Pot Men fancy dress costumes to our fancy dress range. When doing some research on these loveable chaps prior to adding these fancy dress outfits to the website I stumbled across some interesting facts that I thought I’d share with you….

Everyone who knows anything about Bill and Ben will be familiar with their terms “flobbalob” and “flobbadob”. Well it turns out that this isn’t what they were saying at all. Apparently on a closer listen to this flower pot men dialect they were actually saying “loblob” which translates into “lovely” and “flobberpop” which translates into flowerpot, fascinating stuff hey?

Hilda Brabban was the writer of three later Bill and Ben stories. She would base her plots on the antics of her two brothers in their home in Yorkshire. It is said that Hilda sold her rights to her stories to the BBC for three guineas – a bargain if you ask me!

It was a pleasure to see Bill and Ben re-launched a few years ago after gracing our television sets for the first time some fifty years prior. I doubt they’ll be forgotten in a hurry, especially now with this new fancy dress range. So if you’re off to a fancy dress party dressed in Bill and Ben fancy dress costumes, keep a few of these facts under your hat to impress the other party goers.

A charity jogger taking part in a sponsored run for the Gorilla Organisation had a fancy dress experience with a difference last week. Forty-five year old Rory Coleman from Mansfield is a super keen marathon enthusiast, who has clocked up 623 marathons and 150 ultra marathons in the last ten years. In his latest 143 mile run Mr Coleman decided to go all out and run in a black fancy dress gorilla costume. That is a feat in itself as a gorilla fancy dress costume is probably one of the hottest and heaviest fancy dress costumes he could have gone for!

Alas, all in the name of some fancy dress fun and fundraising, nothing was going to stop Mr Coleman….except the police of course! Yes, that’s right he was mistaken for a real gorilla, resulting in the police having to track him down in the interests of public safety. Initially the police were unsure of whether there was a gorilla roaming the streets (especially with Twycross Zoo moments up the road!) On closer inspection they realised that in fact it was a marathon runner in fancy dress…I think it was the trainers and rucksack that gave it away myself!

This isn’t the end of the fancy dress road for Rory Coleman as his fancy dress ideas have continued to develop! To complete his commendable feat he will be taking part in a 7km run with 600 fellow runners, all in gorilla fancy dress costumes. Good luck, cheeky monkeys!

Last weekend saw the community of Leith, Edinburgh hit the streets on fancy dress bikes for a day in a bid to make the town a greener place. This was a chance for the adults and children to let their minds wander and come up with some wacky fancy dress ideas. The fancy dress creations were put together in the Leith Primary School playground, where the kids went to town on their fancy dress oufits. The rules were simple for this fancy dress day with a twist; all adults must be accompanied by a child and everyone should have a fancy dress bike!

There were some splendid bike fancy dress outfits to be seen, including a dragon! What a great way to do your bit for the environment as well as having some fancy dress fun at the same time – well done Leith!

With Halloween looming just around the corner we’ve seen many super organised fancy dressers already sort out their fancy dress costumes this year. I thought I would take this opportunity to update you on which Halloween fancy dress ideas are getting a thumbs up from our customers so far.

Evil Jesters and Gothic Vampires are proving popular fancy dress outfits for the chaps. The “Unhappily Ever After” fancy dress range from Rubies are also getting the nod. These are creepy Halloween fancy dress takes on the classic female fairy tale characters that we all love such as R.I.P.unzel and Snow Fright. Skeletons and pretty witch fancy dress costumes are getting the approval amongst the younger generations.

I hope this helps if you are still scratching your head for some Halloween fancy dress ideas, there are loads of fang-tastic fancy dress costumes to choose from, so happy browsing!

Guten tag fancy dressers!

Over the past couple of weeks we’ve noticed an increasing popularity for our Bavarian fancy dress costumes. This can mean only one thing….Oktoberfest is here! Last Saturday saw the Mayor of Munich kick off the proceedings by tapping the first keg of beer. Oktoberfest has been around since 1810 and involves large volumes of beer, huge amounts of scrumptious traditional food, great music and most importantly fancy dress!

This sixteen day festival has around six million people attending every year – all getting involved in the fun and frolicks of beer drinking and partying. A range of fancy dress ideas will be found in the many party tents. Past years have seen Heidi, Hansel and Gretel, Beer Girls and many Lederhosen fancy dress costumes.

If you are off to Ockoberfest this year be sure to have fun and get involved with some fancy dress, oh look out for any “Bierleichen” (German for beer corpses…the poor souls that can’t handle their drink!).

The largest half marathon in the world is taking place this weekend from Newcastle to Southshields. The 13.1 mile Great North Run will see approximately 54,000 runners hit the streets in a bid to raise money for charities ranging from the British Heart Foundation to the Alzheimer’s Society.

Manny runners choose to wear fancy dress when taking part in the half marathon, just to make it a little more fun! Two gentleman who have both lost parents to cancer want to spice up their run by wearing fancy dress costumes. After going through many fancy dress ideas the settled on dressing up as a “pushmipullu” from Doctor Dolittle. The fascinating thing about this fancy dress costume is that it will require one of the runners to run backwards! Now that’s a challenge – good luck guys!

There will be many other runners wearing a range of fancy dress costumes. Over the years we have seen some super fancy dress ideas attempt the half marathon such as human banana’s, Wonder Woman and many more! I can’t wait to see what fancy dress delights turn up!

This afternoon a tired and blister ridden Eddie Izzard is in the final stages of completing his amazing feat of 43 marathons in 51 days – I’m sure he is glad to have the finish line in sight. This reminded me of a few weeks ago when this cross dressing comic was in the early stages of his Sport Relief Challenge….I was driving into Party Britain HQ one morning and who do I see warming up at the side of the road, just meters from our fancy dress haven…Eddie Izzard himself – celeb spotting in Wales, excellent! I gave him and a toot and a heckle of support of course! Having spent much of his childhood growing up not far from here I’m sure he drummed up heaps of local support.

We’re quite fond of Eddie, not just because of the local ties but also because of his cross dressing antics. It seems that cross dressing is actually quite popular in the fancy dress world. We have recently launched a series of “half and half” fancy dress costumes, which includes a hysterical man/woman outfit. This costume is split down the middle with one half being a plush red velour evening dress and the other half being a gentlemen’s dinner jacket – it is proving rather popular! If you are stuck for a cross dressing fancy dress idea then we do have a few fancy dress costumes that might just be worth looking at. We have a convict beauty, a sexy French maid and even a nun!

Crikey Eddie, what have you started……

Last weekend saw the delights of Bestival 2009 at Robin Hill Country Park, Isle of Wight. With a great line up all getting down with the euphoric “out of space” theme and Elbow closing the show in style with a sing a long Star Trek theme tune – radical. There was a range of fancy dress ideas amongst the performers including Little Boots who went for a Thunderbirds theme, Mr Hudson dressing his crew up as Star Trek characters and Lily Allen going for a skimpy Jetson’s style number.

It wasn’t only the performers that embraced this years fancy dress idea, the crowds got involved too. There was a real cosmic mix to be found; aliens, Buzz Lightyear, Dalek’s, super heroes and many more. There was even an area where random fancy dress creations were rustled up for those Besti-goers that forgot their own.

This colourful fancy dress spectacle of laid back music lovers really was a pleasing sight. I wonder if there were visits from any real extra terrestrial music lovers, they certainly would have fitted in unnoticed…..cue creepy X-Files theme tune…..

Ahoy me hearties!

Shiver me timbers it’s almost that time of year again….5 days to go until Talk Like A Pirate Day! Many wannabe pirates take this day one step further by wearing their best pirate fancy dress outfits – to really feel the part! Some organise sponsored fundraising events, student parties, pub crawls, barn dances – the list is endless!

For those of you who haven’t heard of this annual international event of Pirate fun then let me fill you in. In the early 1990’s two American chaps, John Baur and Mark Summers were playing a spot of tennis that was unintentionally riddled with pirate slang –ohh arrr! After enjoying the banter so much the guys decided right there that Talk Like A Pirate Day was to be launched. For the first few years the day was celebrated solely by its creators and close friends until they had a little help from a gentleman by the name of Dave Barry (author, columnist and Pulitzer Prize winner). Dave helped get the word out there and eventually Talk Like a Pirate Day was transformed from a low key affair to an international sensation.

So with 5 days to go you had better get your pirate lingo and fancy dress costumes sorted! There are heaps of pirate fancy dress ideas out there…Captain Jack Sparrow, pirate king’s, sexy swashbucklers, pirates mates and even pirate ghostships! If you are taking part in this day of swashbuckling fancy dress fun, by the powers that be, be sure to enjoy it!

What will they think of next……

Being based in South Wales we always like to take an interest in what’s going on locally. On browsing the internet earlier today I stumbled across an article about a series of fancy dress walks taking place for charity just a few miles away from Party Britain HQ!

The charity walks in Rhonnda Cynon Taf have been organised to help raise money for people with mental health problems. But these aren’t your normal walks in the park, the fund raisers have decided to don their fancy dress gear for the one mile strolls. What a great idea, I’m sure we’ll see a whole range of fancy dress costumes! I wonder if Daffyd will make an appearance….

Lets hope that lots of money is raised for the mental health charities across the counties. We’ll try and keep you updated with the fancy dress ideas that the fund raisers decide to go for!