Hats for an April Fool

What better excuse is there to wear a stylish and silly hat?

Wonderful and outlandish these velvet party hats are great fun to wear especially today.

All of these hats are available to purchase from our on-line store www.admiralcostumes.co.uk  www.admiralcostumes.co.uk

If you cannot find what you are looking for then call us on 01908 372504, we are here to help.

The Jester

I love the jester character with his brightly coloured clothes and zany ways and April Fool’s Day makes a great excuse to wear a jesters hat or play a practical joke.

The Fool or jester originated as an entertainer for the nobility in medieval and tudor times. A good jester would sing songs, play music, tell stories, perform acrobatics, juggling and magic.

The fool would often wear a hat with ass ears attached and this character appears a lot in Shakespeare. Although outwardly a fool, the jester was extremely intelligent and often advised the king giving him advice and bad news he didn’t want to hear disguised as a story or joke.

The jester is a sign of fun and the unexpected and you see it in Tarot and playing cards as the joker.

“A fool must now and then be right by chance”

We have some great jester outfits for hire and often put together bespoke jester costumes to specific requirements.

For jester hats look on our on-line store www.admiralcostumes.co.uk

Sailor Costumes

Sailors feature surprisingly often in musicals and plays and it is increasingly rare to find good quality costumes in a variety of sizes to suit your costume budget.

Sailors abound in The Tempest, The Sound of Music, Cabaret, Anything Goes and South Pacific to name but a few and we are often asked to supply sailors costumes for both males and females ranging from children to adults.

In store we have some great Naval Admiral jackets and caps, bosun and pea jackets, mess jackets and naval cadets.

We also have oversized sailor tunics for comic sailors, striped t-shirts in a variety of sizes, shirts and separate collars and lots of caps in various sizes, some with navy trim.

The Sound of Music requires seven sailor costumes for the Von Trapp children and we have several sets of these in sizes ranging from age 4 up to adult, for both boys and girls.

For more information on our sailor costumes for hire, call 01908 372504 or visit our website www.admiralcostumes.co.uk 

Gloves - all types and styles

Gloves are a wonderful accessory and make a huge difference to your outfit. Gloves can make a summer dress look 40's, a plain evening dress look glamorous and add authority to any uniform.

We offer gloves and accessories together with our costume hires to make a complete and authentic outfit. For example, 20's flappers wore long gloves, often over the elbow and we have a great selection of these in store for hire in all colours to complement your choice of outfit.

From gents white gloves used for policemen, butlers or mime through to PVC, lace, satin, ruched and glitter there is something for everyone.

We even have scary halloween gloves with fingernails.

If you prefer to buy gloves then visit http://www.admiralcostumes.co.uk/index.php?wpsc_product_category=gloves-accessories  to view a huge selection and purchase on-line

For more information on our gloves and accessories call 01908 372504 we are here to help.

Order on line or give us a call on 01908 372504

Fawlty Towers at the Chrysalis

Another three episodes from the popular TV series Fawlty Towers, were superbly presented by Milton Keynes Theatre of Comedy at the Chrysalis Theatre last night.

The set was cleverly arranged to show both upstairs and down with views of the kitchen, bar area and lobby.

The Builders, The Anniversary and Gourmet Night were great fun with skilful acting and perfect comic timing, to make the episodes just as funny as the originals.

With excellent acting, a great set and authentic costumes, we are proud to be associated with this show.

The show runs until 22^nd March so don’t miss this treat.

Whatever happened to Christopher Robin?

World Book day brought lots of enquiries for last minute costumes for both children and adults wanting to dress up as characters from their favourite books.

Willy Wonka was a favourite this year along with the usual Alice in Wonderland, Captain Hook, Charlie Bucket, Harry Potter and the Queen of Hearts.

What was noticeable and rather sad was that a lot of children appeared to have not ever opened the cover of a book and certainly could not reel off any memorable characters at all. Completely nonplussed by my enquiry as to what was their favourite book, one small boy could only ask for a list of warriors from his computer game. 

Many children requested characters from films, like Woody from Toy Story or Simba from The Lion King. These children are convinced that these characters are from books, they do not realise that  the book has been generated from the film.

A whole generation are missing out on the delights of a good book, the depth of the characters portrayed there and the opportunity to use their own imagination as to what the characters look like.

Children today seem terrified of using their own imagination or being strong in saying “ I think the character in that book would wear this, or I imagined that he would look like that” all costumes these days have to be exactly like the film version.

Who is Christopher Robin? What happened to Treasure Island, Stig of the Dump, Swallows and Amazons, Swiss family Robinson and The Just So stories? Not one child had heard of these.

I do hope that our children’s reading skills will reach a level where they can enjoy a good book, or they will miss out on so much. Inter-relationships, feelings and character’s thoughts cannot be portrayed easily onto film which is why it is so often the case that the original book is generally better than the film, it just has more depth.

World Book Day is a marvellous event that focusses our attention onto books, but just dressing up for the day as a ninja turtle really hasn’t helped some children.

For more information on our costumes call us on 01908 372504 or visit www.admiralcostumes.co.uk