Costumes
If you need a costume, you have come to the right place! We have thousands of costumes, accessories and more to make your costume the hit of the party! Check out our great selection of costumes below!
|
|
Costumes give people the opportunity to be something they’re not, at least not on the outside. It isn't that people don’t like themselves; it’s just that there are hidden parts of their personality that want the chance to come out and play too. In the U.S., wearing a disguise is usually reserved for the Halloween holiday. Other celebrations that bring out the inner reveler are Christmas and Easter. In Catholic cultures around the world that observe Lent, costumes are a huge part of Mardi Gras festivities. The best place for costume ideas, materials and accessories is a store that sells party supplies.
Halloween disguises are a fairly recent innovation. In medieval Europe, November 1, All Hallows Day or All Saints Day, was marked with ribald frivolity because it roughly coincided with a Celtic fertility festival called Samhain. Over time, this imaginative festival migrated to All Hallows Eve or Halloween, the night before the holy day. The earliest Halloween costumes were homemade homages to pagan deities such as Pan and Dionysius. In the 1930s, however, several American companies began manufacturing the inexpensive plastic masks and silk-screened costumes that are most closely associated with Halloween today. Witches, devils and ghosts are perennial favorites; television and movie characters, celebrities and politicians are popular too, but vary from year to year.
Costumes say many things about the people who wear them; they're an excellent guide to true personality.
A woman who goes the vamp route with a French Maid outfit, or a Naughty Nurse uniform, is dying to let her inhibitions down and flaunt her sexuality, while the man who goes in for ghoulish disguises, such as Frankenstein, Dracula or a flesh-eating zombie from Night of the Living Dead, is secure enough in his own good looks to risk being ugly for a single night. People who impersonate celebrities may well be unsure of their own appeal, anxious for others to recognize them. Some people devise amazingly original costumes year after year: a Freudian Slip, a Man In Labor, a Life-sized Sock Puppet. Clearly these are people who think outside the box just like many people, on the other hand, who dress up in the same disguise, at party after party after party. These are individuals whose ostensible respect for tradition often masks panic at the thought of change.
What’s the best way to choose a costume? A store or website that sells party supplies is the ideal place to begin the search. Purveyors of party supplies, whether a brick-and-mortar store or a website, have something for every disguise seeker, be it a pre-manufactured costume or the source materials from which to create a one-of-a-kind inspiration.
|
|
|
