When cowboys, lego pieces and rubix cubes come together in darkened townhouse off the Tottenham Park Road it’s definitely time to play. We had scrabble and slinkys and dominos and dolls, all there to celebrate the wonderful Pollocks Toy Museum in it’s darkened glory.
Some of the reported liasons were particularly exciting – we can’t wait to see the product of the lovechild of a toy soldier ( typical) and an airfix model!
The tin soldier band whistled, strummed and banged their way through the night and the toys all responded from the dignified ( the old german doll in the attic was seen gently swaying) to the fired up ( the rocking horse claimed he hadn’t rocked so hard since ’69 ( that’s 1769)).
All the prancing and dancing and drinking and slinking raised a good amount for the museum and we at www.welovefancydress.com were thrilled to have you all. Here’s to next year! ( We heard it might be in a lingerie factory…)
During the 1820s and 1830s, costumes depicting popular characters of romantic poetry and fiction were all the rage. Fanciful representations of ‘foreign peoples’ were also popular, and few were the Fancy Dress parties that didn’t have their Circassian slave or Great Turk. Queen Victoria herself was quite fond of fancy dress and her personal interest in British history and desire for authenticity resulted in the popularity of historical characters and historical themes for Fancy Dress balls during much of the 19th century. By the mid nineteenth century, fancy dress parties were held for almost any occasion, both private and public. The opening of a new bridge; a civic holiday; a daughter’s coming out – Fancy Dress was the theme of choice. The majority of costumes continued to be based upon historical styles, which were thought to be in better taste than exotic or humorous ones. The period now most favored was the eighteenth century, although costumes taken from literature such as Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet or characters from Dickens novels or Tennyson’s poems made their appearance. Many young ladies chose to go dressed as peasant girls ‘from countries where the poor dress picturesquely’, as such costumes could be colorful and piquant, offering excellent opportunities for displaying their charms. Another popular choice for ladies at the fancy dress ball, and a type that had appeared only rarely before, was the emblematic or allegorical costume. At one event no less than twenty-two ladies chose to go dressed as Night, and in addition, ‘Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring, Snow, The Last Rose of Summer, Morning, Undine, Harvest, Ceres – the possibilities were only limited by the imagination of the designer. Ladies AllegoricalAllegorical costumes, which enjoyed quite a vogue during the 1860s were often nothing more than a few stars or flowers sprinkled upon an evening dress and given an exalted name, costume was also often used as an excuse to expose more than merely a lady’s cleverness and many were the ankles that saw the light of day during a fancy dress ball!
