Lara Croft Costumes

I have always thought that Indiana Jones and Lara Croft costumes would make great couples costumes and perfect to wear to any fancy dress party especially if there is a movie or some kind or action hero theme. It was though doing some research into Lara Croft Tomb Raider costumes that I found out that initially she was going to basically be the Indiana Jones of computer games, until one of the designers of the Tomb Raider game noticed that many of his friends would often choose female characters when playing the then popular computer game called "Virtual Fighter"

Once they had decided to make the hero in the game a female it was then decided that she would not be the steriotypical blond bimbo that were used in many games at the time and so Lara Croft has always had long brown hair and brown eyes.

The Lara Croft Costume
Though the Lara Croft tomb raider costume has changed a little over time, like in Underworld, Lara now wears a brown and black halter top with green and black shorts, her traditional iconic costume of the classic green or blue sleeveless shirt, short, tight, light brown shorts, calf-high boots, white socks, fingerless gloves, a small backpack, and two holsters on her utility belt has always remained pretty constant and is probably the most recognisable image of her.

Lara Croft Fancy Dress Costumes
Most of the fancy dress Lara Croft costumes tend to be based on her classic look and I guess you need to have a pretty decent figure to pull off stepping into Angelina Jolie shoes. Still if you can pull it off, I think it is an excellent womans costume.

Where to buy the Lara Croft Halloween Costume
There are a few officially licensed Edios Lara Croft costumes and non licensed look alike costumes available from most fancy dress and Halloween Stores and so you should not have any trouble in finding it. Just make sure that if you think you are buying a licensed costume that you actually get it and because Lara has manny accessories, just check to see if the costume comes with her guns and backpack included in the price and not as an extra.

US Shoppers
Lara Croft Costumes on Amazon.com



UK Shoppers
Jokers' Masquerade Lara Croft Costumes

Lara Croft Costumes on Amazon.co.uk

Pimp my Iron Man Costume!

The Ultimate Iron Man Fancy Dress Costume for Kids?
There are plenty of official and not so official Iron Man costumes for both children and adults available for sale. But none have the gadgetry of this one.

One very lucky and cute kid had his father spent two months modding and pimping out the standard child's Iron Man Costume available on the market.






Not only did he add a CO2 air compressor to fire missiles or repulsor waves, but a complete BeagleBoard computer running a makeshift JARVUS along with an Arduino board to handle all of the advanced suit functions.

Below are all the additions made to the IronMan Costume:

• Missile launcher - Uses CO2 air pump can to launch a paper missile.
• SA magnetic switch sensor lights his repulsor hand light and fades out and in his glowing eyes.
  
• Sound Effects - configured Elightenment17 to playback sound effects using Mplayer script. Mouse buttons activated by Arduino Digital output triggered by sensors.
• A LED night light from Costco embedded in his the chest of the Iron Man Suit.
• Powerful Computer - With BeagleBoard already running in JARVUS box on the back of the Ironman Suit they plan to add more features including a Web cam, mobile router with hotspot and a head-mounted display, VoIP, streaming video of Iron Man view.

The standard Iron Man Costume is available from Amazon.com - is still pretty cool, even without all the extras'

Santa Claus Chimney Hat

Christmas Fancy Dress Ideas

I just happened to find the Santa stuck in the chimney hat whilst I was researching the Christmas tree hats, and thought it was worth a mention as it would surely would do well in a unique Christmas costume hat competition if there was such a thing or if you are looking for something a little different to the traditional Santa Claus Costume

Christmas Tree Hats

If you would like to be a little more subtle than wearing a Christmas tree costume and not as common as a Santa Claus Costume but still want to dress up as one of Christmas's most iconic and easily recognisable icons?

How about this Light-up Christmas Tree Costume Hat that I think is absolutely hilarious.

They, as well as a few other styles are available on Amazon.

US Shoppers
Christmas Tree Hat on Amazon.com

UK Shoppers
Christmas Tree Hat on Amazon.co.uk

Christmas Tree Costumes

Something a little different from the normal Santa Claus costumes and what I think is a pretty cool fancy dress idea for Christmas is a Christmas tree costume. Yes, you read it right, why not dress up as a Christmas tree if you are going to a fancy dress party over the festive period, I guarantee you that it will bring a smile to just about everyone's face at the fancy dress party! A friend of mine wore one to a party that we went to last year and it was by far the most popular and unique costume there.

A few years ago the only commercial Christmas tree costume available is the one I have displayed here and if you wanted something different you had to make your own Christmas tree costume, which if you are anything like me is way beyond my skill levels! Luckily there are now a few different Christmas costume manufacturers producing tree costumes, so with a little research you are sure to find the costume that fits both your style and budget although I have to say I still feel that this one is the best value for one available.

USA Shoppers
Christmas Tree Costumes on Amazon.com

Christmas Tree Costume on CostumeKingdom.com


UK Shoppers
Christmas tree costumes on Jokers' Masquerade Fancy Dress

Christmas Tree Costumes on Amazon.co.uk

Make Your own Womans Pirate Costume

Rather than buying a Pirate wench Costume, you could always try a home made version.

The awesome video below shows you how you could do it, although to be honest it would be way too advanced for my sewing skills.

Christmas Elf Costumes

Other than the Santa costumes, the next most popular Christmas fancy dress costume are the Santa's little helpers: elf costumes

Traditionally Christmas Elves have a red or yellow and green costume with pointy ears, long noses, and pointy hats. Despite having similar names, Christmas elfs and fantasy elves are not the same species. Christmas elfs are actually more similar to pixies and gnomes than fantasy elves. I think people mistakenly believe that elfs and elves are the same race comes from Santa's elfs being referred to as "Santa's elves"

Whatever the case the Christmas elf costume pictured is probably the best known elf outfit for sale at the moment which you will probably find in most decent fancy dress shops and on-line retailers and comes with the elf hat, coat, trousers, belt, and boots.

To buy any of the Christmas Elf costumes on this page, as well as many other elf costumes, there are a few links below that may help you:


USA Shoppers
Christmas Elf Costumes on Amazon.com

Christmas Elf Costumes on BuyCostumes.com


Elf Costumes & Free shipping on orders at Costumekingdom.com


UK Shoppers
Christmas Elf Costumes on Amazon.co.uk




Sexy Elf Costumes
Female Elf Costume are also popular and there are quite a few very sexy elf costumes available. The deluxe sexy elf costume pictured is not cheap but is well made and comes with the bell-tipped hat and dress with belt and green-striped stockings.



Childrens Elf Costumes
Again there are plenty of outfits to choose from for children, for both boys and girls.



Baby elf Costume
One of the cutest fancy dress costumes for Christmas has to be this Baby Bunting Elf Costume from Smiffys.



If you would rather make your own here is an article on How to Make a Christmas elf costume

Homemade Christmas Elf costume

How to make a Christmas Elf Costume

There are plenty of fancy dress elf costumes available to either hire or buy, but if you would rather make your own childrens elf costume, I managed to find this very easy way to make an elf costume that will also be a great way you can spend some quality time together with your children doing something creative as you make the costume together.

This elf costume is recommended for children of 4 years or older.

To make your own elf costume you will need:

• About two yards of red felt per elf costume (Fabric other than felt can be used, but it will probably require hemming.)
• A few smaller pieces of other colours of felt like green, white, yellow and black
• Non-toxic glue
• Measuring tape
• Tiny bells
• Needle and thread.

Measuring and cutting out the fabric

• Start off by folding over the felt, then ask your child to lie down on it. This fold will become the shoulders of the elf costume which is great news as you don’t have to sew them!
  
• Use a marker to mark the sides of the neck, the lower edges of the armholes and the length of the costume that you want.
  
• Cut out the costume and try it on over your child’s head.
  

The Elfs Hat

• Measure the circumference of your child’s head and mark it on the felt leaving about an inch as spare.
  
• Then Mark the desired height around 1 foot is about right, if it is too long the hat will tend to easily fall off
• Cut out the rectangle that you have just marked out
• Roll it into a cone and place it on your child’s head, it should go down over their ears, to get the right size.
  
• Keep the shape and size, but remove it from your childs head to pin it together.
  
• An extra flap of material will be left over – don’t worry about this. It won’t be seen once the hat is turned inside out.

Time for the Sewing

• Don't worry, there is not much sewing involved and so and it won’t take very long. It is probably best you do this away from your child for safety reasons.
• If you are sewing the costume by hand, use a double thread.
• Sew the sides of the tunic together leaving ample room for the arms.
• Then Turn it inside out so the seams don’t show.
• Then sew the cone hat along the line of safety pins in the hat and turn it inside out.
• Finish by sewing a little bell onto the point of the hat.

And that is the main part of the costume done, you can then encourage your child to decorate the costume by sticking the other pieces of coloured felt to the costume. If he / she is old enough they can cut out shapes.

And that is it - The Easy Peasy Homemade Elf Costume for Kids!

Womens Santa Claus Costumes

Christmas Fancy Dress Ideas: Santa Claus Costumes for Women
In this modern world Santa does not HAVE to be male, in fact if take a look there are almost as many Santa costumes for women as there are the men's version.

Sexy Santa Costumes
Ok, so we all know that the traditional Santa is supposed to be a big fat bloke with a beard, well for a far more sexier alternative, there are plenty of sexy Santa costumes available out there. Possibly more of a Christmas present for your partner than for yourself though! I also have a sneaky suspicion which version of Santa most teenage boys would rather have deliver their xmas presents to as well!

So for a little bit of fun and if you have got it why not flaunt it this Christmas in a sexy Santa costume! Amazon is a great place to start looking, they have a large selection of just about everything, but also many sexy Santa outfits for Christmas:

USA
Sexy Santa Costumes on Amazon.com



UK
Sexy Santa Costumes on Amazon.co.uk



Womans Santa Costumes
If dressing up in a sexy costume is not your thing there are also plenty of womens Santa Clause costumes available that whilst can never be fully traditional (Santa is a man!) they focus a little more on tradition and a little less on sexy than the one featured above!

Crazy Santa Costumes

Fancy Dress Ideas For Christmas
If you are a little bored of the traditional red and white image of Santa, here are a few alternative fancy dress ideas for Santa this Christmas that I have managed to find on the web.

The Grinch Santa Claus Costume
The Grinch Santa costume is also fun. If you do not know the story, the Grinch is a character that was developed by Dr Seuss and it was he that stole Christmas and I think makes a fun alternative to the traditional white bearded Santa. This Grinch fancy dress costume comes with the Grinch mask with attached green fur fabric whiskers. The Headpiece has the red Santa hat attached. Red long sleeved Santa jacket and completed by a wide black belt with an over-sized brassed belt buckle.

Bad Santa Costumes
Red and White not the colours for you? How about black and white? I managed to find this Bad Santa costume that has the words 'Bah Humbug' written on the Santa hat, perfect for the Santa with a bad streak in him!

Take a look here if you are looking for a Traditional Santa Claus costume

Traditional Santa Claus Costumes

The Traditional Red and White Santa Outfits
So where did this iconic image of Santa in his red suit come from? Some people incorrectly think that the Coca-Cola Company invented the red Santa costume in the 1930's. Coca-Cola only used the character because his well-known colour scheme is similar to that of the company logo. So even though Coke were not the first to put the red suit on Santa, the company did play a large role in making the character much more popular. It was way back in 1885 that we find the first Christmas card depicting Santa Claus in his famous red suit. Printed in Boston by by Louis Prang although I am not sure if he was the first to put Santa into the red and white. The original inspiration came from Saint Nicholas of Myra, in the Netherlands. In Dutch he was called Sinterklaas, who was helped by his servants called Zwarte Pieten, who we now call his elves.


Fancy Dress Santa Claus Costumes

I guess these days when we think of Christmas, the first name that comes to mind is Santa Claus. The great thing about Santa as a character is his well known fancy dress costume. The red and white Santa Costume, or Santa suit with long white beard and Santa hat is about as well known an icon in the fancy dress world as you can get. If you are looking to buy a Santa outfit there are literally thousands to choose from and all from the outside look fairly similar. From the super deluxe Santa suits to cheap Santa beards and hats, you are sure to find a costume that will suit your needs as well as how deep your pocket goes, but all this choice can also be a little daunting. My advice with so much choice would be to shop around, spend a bit of time and you are sure to fined the right xmas costume for you.

A great place to start is with a shop like Amazon who have a huge variety of costumes that you can quickly browse through:

USA:
Santa Costumes on Amazon.com


UK:
Santa Costumes on Amazon.co.uk

Top Selling Halloween Costumes for 2008

Jokers' Masquerade Halloween Costumes recently published an article on their website, featuring the best selling Halloween costumes for 2008. It actually makes quite interesting reading and is a nice insight into how well certain costumes do over the busiest time of the year for the fancy dress industry. I have listed the top 10 Halloween costumes below in order of popularity.


Interesting points:

• The Ghostbusters costume has been number one for the last two years!
• 8 out of the top ten Halloween costumes are adult male costumes, I would have thought more womens Halloween costumes would have made the top ten? Perhaps girls like trying different costumes and to make sure that they are not wearing the same dress as someone else at the fancy dress party!
  
• The Jigsaw, Wizard Wanda and Joker Costumes are new costumes for this year.
• 6 of the top ten Halloween costumes are inspired by movies. (Ghostbusters, Edward Scissorhands, The Saw, Batman, Nightmare On Elm Street and Harry Potter)
• There are 2 zombie costumes in the top 10 and no Ghosts costumes

Below are the top 10 best selling Halloween Costumes at Jokers' Masquerade in 2008:

1) Adult Official Deluxe Ghostbusters Costume
I find the popularity of the Ghostbusters Halloween costumes somewhat perplexing, sure during it's time way back in the 80's it was a great film and yes the fancy dress costume is pretty cool, but for it to be the No. 1 selling Halloween costume for two years running is quite an achievement!

2) Adult Edward Scissorhands Costume
Again, like the Ghostbusters costume, the Edward Scissorhands Costume comes from a film, and this one is not even really about ghosts or Halloween, so again for me it is pretty interesting that it is one of the most popular Halloween costumes.

3) Adult Grave Groom Zombie Costume
Finally coming in at number 3 is a typical Halloween type fancy dress costume. It aint a ghost but what could be better than a scary zombie Halloween costume.

4) Adult Tinkerspell Costume
The first womans Halloween costume and it is a twist on a scary witch costume with a hint of a fairy costume included. I think what makes this costume popular is that most girls want to look good at a party, even Halloween parties, so who would pick a witch costume when you can dress in a sexy evil fairy costume!

5) Complete Zombie Adult Costume
The second Zombie costume, and still no ghost costumes (only a ghost killer) - kind of obvious who is winning the zombie / ghost popularity contest at Halloween!

6) Adult Official Saw Jigsaw Puppet Costume
Another costume that takes it's inspiration from a film, this time it is the very scary Saw series of horror films.

7) Adult Evil Jester Costume
One of my favourite themes as being the most scary costumes are scary clown costumes and you don't get much better than this very popular evil jester costume.

8) Adult The Joker Deluxe Costume
I thought that with the popularity of the Dark Knight Batman film and the sad passing away of Keith Ledger, that The Joker Costume may have been higher up the list than in 8th place.

9) Adult Freddy Krueger Costume
A Nightmare On Elm Street is another popular Halloween film and so makes a popular Halloween Costume.

10) Adult Wizard Wanda Costume
This is an interesting one at number 10 as it comes from the Harry Potter films, so I guess will be more popular in the UK than the USA and only the second female Halloween fancy dress costume in the top 10.

Lewis Hamilton Costume

I have some friends that work for Vodafone and they were saying that the new and youngest ever Formula 1 world champion, Lewis Hamilton was coming in to visit their offices as part of his sponsor obligations. They were really excited and said that some people were going to be given the change to race against him on a simulator. This got me thinking are there any formula one fancy dress costumes or even better Lewis Hamilton costumes?

Lewis Hamilton Costume
Well to my surprise there are! The Official Lewis Hamilton fancy dress costume is actually the Mclaren Racing overalls which could equally be called by Lewis's team mate, a Heikki Kovalainen costume. What ever your favourite driver, the F1 racing suit only comes in childrens sizes for ages from 3 to 7 and is fully quilted and has embroidered sponsorship logos.

lewis hamilton costume on Amazon.co.uk


There are also Fararri costumes available, but I could not find any other F1 teams fancy dress costumes out there.


Valentino Rossi Costume
If cars are not your thing and you child is into motorbikes, you could also be the current MotoGP world champion in the Valentino Rossi Costume, which also only comes in childrens sizes.

Valentino Rossi Costume on Amazon.co.uk

Sexy Batgirl Costume: Superhero Costumes

As a fancy dress theme, superhero costumes are one of the most popular, it seems that everyone secretly wishes that they had superpowers. Well if you can't manage to learn how to fly or lift cars with your small finger the next best thing is to dress up in a Superhero costume and pretend.

Batgirl Costumes
One of the best selling superhero fancy dress costumes for women is this sexy Batgirl costume from the super sexy secret wishes DC super hero's range. The costume includes the black one piece dress with attached cape and embroidered bat logo, two burnished glovelets, rubber belt, matching knee high boot tops plus the distinctive Batgirl eyemask. This Batgirl outfit comes in most adult sizes including plus size and there are also teen versions of the costume as well.

I guess one of the reasons that the Batgirl fancy dress costume has become so popular has to do with the Batman film The Dark Knight. Since the release of the film both Batman and The Joker costumes have become extremely popular, this is especially true for the Joker Costume which was one of the best selling Halloween costumes all around the globe this year. So I guess why should the girls not join in the action with Batgirl? Created by Bob Kane and Sheldon Moldoff, Batgirl first appeared in a Batman comic (#139) way back in 1961 where her name was originally "Bat-Girl"

US Shoppers
Batgirl Costume on Amazon.com

UK Shoppers
Find the Batgirl Costume on Amazon.co.uk

If you are looking for a similar costume, sexy and still a Superhero, try the Catwoman Costume

oogh and one last thing: Did you know that the image of a bat on the Batman and Batgirl fancy dress costume is there to frighten criminals... woo scary stuff!

Angel Costumes: Christmas Costume Ideas

An Angel fancy dress costume as a Christmas costume idea is something that I think many people miss when trying to come up with something slightly different to wear to the office Christmas costume party. We all know that an Angle or Star is often placed on top of the Christmas tree, but have you ever wondered why?

Couples Costumes
Both the Angel and the Star come from the Nativity story with the star representing the Star of Bethlehem and the angel from the host of angels. With this in mind I suppose a great idea for Christmas couples costumes could be to get your partner to dress up in a Star costume and you could dress up in an as the angel!

Adult Angel Costumes
An angle outfit For me make excellent elegant outfit as a Christmas theme costume. If you look on the web there are plenty of adult angel Halloween costumes out there and I have even found plus size angel costumes available so you should not have much difficulty in finding one in your size, price range and style.

Fallen Angel Costumes
These devil angel costumes are for those of you who would rather be a little wicked this Christmas! There are some excellent dark angel costumes available. Look out for the Naughty and Nice Angel Halloween Costume, that is half a devil and half an angel, for those that can't decide what side of the fence to sit on! Find a Fallen Angel Costume

Sexy Angle Costumes
I suppose another twist on the fallen angel would be a sexy angel costume. I never really thought of angels as being sexy before, surely they are fare to innocent to be sexy, but yes there are plenty of sexy angel Halloween costumes out there and I suppose if you have the figure to pull it off why not - perhaps this sexy fancy dress could could even turn out to be a present for your partner!

Child Angel Costumes
Just like the adult versions these days there are plenty of options for kids angel costumes in terms of sizes and price ranges available. One thing that I have noticed though is that within the range of childrens angels costumes is that there are very few of the "fallen angle" type available, perhaps though this is a good thing!

Infant Angel Costumes
Unfortunately I have not been able to find any infant or toddler angel costumes, there are plenty of toddler lamb costumes but no angels, which is a shame as I think they would be excellent. If anyone else happens to find any, please leave a comment to let me know about it. I suppose you could always make your own angel costume, here is how to make an angel costume: Home Made Angel Costume

Nativity Costumes
I don't feel that Nativity costumes have to be exclusively for children, I think is a great idea if you are looking at dressing up as a group. There are some great Christmas costume ideas here: The Three Wise Men Costumes, Shepherd Costumes, Sheep Costumes, Donkey Costume, Mary, Joseph and even a Jesus costume although personally I would treat these with respect. Then as mentioned there are the Angel costumes as well as the Star costume.

Where to Buy Angel Costumes
Good places to get all these angel costumes this Christmas include Amazon Angel Costumes
as well as Jokers' Masquerade Christmas Costumes

Here is hoping you have a very Merry Christmas!

Cheap Christmas Fancy Dress Costumes

If you are planning to have a fancy dress party or dress up in a costume this Christmas, don't wait until the last minute, now is the time to buy you Santa costumes, elf costumes and sexy Santa costumes (if you are a girl.)

I have just done a quick look at most of the major fancy dress websites out there and quite a few of them have Christmas themed costumes on special offer or in the sale categories. I bet you this will soon change in time for Christmas once the demand rises.

For example Jokers' Masquerade fancy dress have already updated their website for Christmas, but if you take a look at their winter sale costumes there are a bunch of Christmas themed costumes in there including:

Santa Suit
An adult deluxe Santa suit costume which is on sale at £99 and is probably a little too pricey for most people, but if you are after a quality Santa costume this may save you a few pounds.







Sexy Santa Costume
I also quite like this Miss Santa Deluxe Trousers Top & Hat is a real sexy Santa costume which has been reduced from £29.99 down to £14.99, so a good bargain for a quality costume.









Childrens Santa Costume
If you are after cheap Christmas costume for your children, I really like this Santa Scooby-Doo Christmas Costume that is now for sale at £17.99 which I think is pretty decent value for money as it is a fully licensed product.


These are just a few of the cheap Christmas costumes available from the Jokers' Masquerade winter sale that you may wish to check out.