If you get it right, your Halloween fancy dress party could be the best party of the year – and definitely the spookiest! However, as with all fancy dress parties, the key to success is all in the planning. With this in mind, how do you host the perfect horror fancy dress party?

Theme

If you really want to make things easy on yourself, try matching your party to a particular theme. This way, choosing the music and even the costumes will be much easier. However, you will need to ensure that your theme is broad enough that it allows for people to dress in different costumes. A great idea for a theme would be a Halloween based 1980s fancy dress party, as arguably it was the age of horror – and there are some great 80s horror idols and music, such as Michael Jackson’s Thriller, to provide inspiration.

Food

Halloween is the perfect time to get creative with your eatables, and simply by giving your food a horror twist will you bring a smile to the face of your guests – and hopefully a few screams too! Why not try setting some fake flies into some jelly, for a real food-based scare.

The Costumes

Arguably the most important thing about Halloween parties are the costumes, and Halloween is an occasion where you can really unleash that inner monster. As previously mentioned, setting a theme could help you decide on Halloween costumes, or even better why not visit us at Fancy Dress Ball for some truly gruesome inspiration!

If you’re attending an 80s fancy dress party and you’ve decided upon the costume, your complete 80s makeover shouldn’t end there, as the 80s fashion statement was also strongly achieved through the use of accessories. So, take a look at the fantastic range of accessories that Fancy Dress Ball has to over to make sure your 80s fancy dress costume has the ultimate wow-factor.

Hairstyles – the 80s was very influential when it came to hair styles. Men dared to be different with big hair and hairstyles became very androgynous. Why not try:
-    Multi-coloured hair
-    Hair tied in a ponytail to one side
-    Brightly coloured headbands or bandanas
-    Crimped hair
-    Big clips in your hair
-    Hair Bows
-    Messy, big, knotted hair (both male and female)
-    No parting to the hair.

Accessories – these were worn wherever possible – the head, the arms, on the clothing – so be sure to have as many 80s costume accessories as possible:
-    Leg warmers
-    Big Earrings
-    Men wearing one earring in their left ear
-    Bracelets (as many different colours and as many as possible). The rubber bracelets were incredibly popular during this time
-    Black hats; take a look at Boy George’s style to ensure the right type of hat
-    Sunglasses
-    Gloves with no fingers. “Punk gloves” were leather and fingerless. Equally, leather gloves with spikes on them are even more outrageously 80s
-    Leather jewellery with spikes; chokers, bracelets and so on
-    Beads and feathers
-    Bows tied anywhere; e.g. around the waist
-    Leather clothing items with chains attached
-    Beauty Moles
-    Purses and bags that are see-through.

Just looking at this list you can see that almost anything goes in your 80s fancy dress outfit, so be confident and experimental when putting together your fancy dress. You’re sure to find all of these accessories and more here at Fancy Dress Ball.

Gentleman, you may have recoiled at the thought of having to dress up as an 80s star when you heard you were invited to an 80s fancy dress party. However, once you start delving into the many possibilities of characters you could impersonate, you’ll realise you have the perfect excuse to dye your hair, wear face paint – or even just some extrovert clothing. Here are just some of the male fashion icons from the 80s to give you some food for thought and inspiration.

Boy George – if you’re feeling pretty confident for your eighties fancy dress party, and you’d like to do what the 80s did best and make a statement, dressing up as Boy George is the perfect idea for you. Just as Annie Lennox provided the androgynous look for the ladies, Boy George does exactly the same for the gentlemen. With the use of make-up, bows, feminine clothing (not dresses!) and so on, this look symbolises the 80s.

U2 – are you going to an 80s fancy dress party but still want to cling onto some of the security of the present, why not opt for a step back in time with U2? Still fast-selling artists at present, U2 were just as, if not more iconic in the 80s with their statement music taking over from other artist’s use of statement fashion. Due to their more subtle approach to fashion, they are perhaps “cooler” than other more outrageous artists. With the use of leather jackets, big hair and fur collars you’ll soon release the 80s punk-rocker.

For 80′s-inspired looks that light up with authenticity, contact Fancy Dress Ball today for genuine, good-quality fancy dress costumes.

Annie Lennox – should definitely be a contender in one of your 80s fancy dress icon ideas, as Annie herself was an entirely different icon to all the others. Completely unique in her fashion, Annie was as bold and outrageous as the rest and is often referred to as the “androgyny diva” (dressing to both male and female fashions) which was also incorporated in Boy George’s fashion. Annie Lennox isn’t only someone that should remain confined to the 80s fancy dress party as she her fashion trend can still be seen to this very day.

Olivia Newton-John – this style icon gives you a whole host of possibilities. If you take her career as a singer, you could find yourself covered from head to toe in lycra. Or, you could adopt her super sexy style from her character Sandy in Grease, again wearing spandex trousers and tight tops. However, if you’d like to tone down the outrageous dress sense of the eighties fancy dress party you could also dress in the classic Sandy costume from Grease, with the chic girl-next-door look.

Molly Ringwald – she was so 80’s, with her glamorous attitude both in the film Pretty in Pink and in real life celebrity stardom. Everyone wanted to be like her, so why not take the opportunity to now?

If you’ve been invited to an 80s fancy dress party, it’s the ideal opportunity to dress like the childhood icons you all loved and adored. With glamorous costumes, Fancy Dress Ball offer a wide range of 80s fancy dress outfits for you to choose from, so you’ll soon be an 80s style icon in your own right!

One key feature of 80s fashion was its use (and overuse!) of accessories. Whilst back in the day this led to some practical issues regrding fashion, but nowadays it affords us some fabulous oppourtunities in terms of 80s fancy dress.

Bracelets and bangles are a simple way to add a bit of 80s extravagance to any outfit, and are a great way to add an authentic finish to any 80s fancy dress. To give that characteristic 80s feel, you should opt for bangles that are oversized and brightly coloured – preferably in 80s colours, like neon and shocking pinks.

To truly exude 80s glamour you’ll need to spend a lot attention getting your hair just right; ideally, 80s fancy dress hair should be as big as possible, teased and should be clipped or tied by a bulky 80s hair band. If you don’t have big hair, a great solution is to were a novelty wig – that way you can be sure of getting your 80s hair just right!

Some fingerless gloves are a great way of adding a stylish element to any 1980s fancy dress costume, and will immediately add a little Madonna-style to your costume

Sweatbands of any colour will do, but for the definitive 1980s fancy dress costume feel you should opt for are Day-GLO colours. Sweatbands are great fancy dress accessories because they cause maximum impact for little cost – and will absorb all your party sweat!