The Jancy Dress Dance

“What shall I go as?”

This season there are going to be ever so many informal fancy dress dances—they are great fun and often far more interesting than the usual dance. There is something really fascinating about adopting a strange, unusual costume, and being able to escape from yourself and be someone truly great for one evening—forgetting that you are an ordinary twentieth century business girl and being transformed into a stately Queen Elizabeth—a dusky and alluring Carmen—a dainty Dresden china shepherdess. Think of the excitement of wearing a mask—of dancing with a “black domino” who may or may not be, in real life—a bank clerk. For the moment he is a romantic shape evoked from the past—a storybook hero alive and mysterious for a night.

As a rule fancy dress dances are more or less impromptu affairs—there is very little time to make your costume, which usually has to be something you already have.

If you have a little imagination you will be able to do wonders with a discarded frock—you'll find heaps of ancient things which happen to be just what you want.

If you are adopting an historical costume it must be correct in every detail—nothing is more absurd than a mixture of the Elizabethan and Victorian—or of the typical French with the typical English. If you are not quite sure and haven't much time, it is easier and more attractive to be an imaginary figure—someone quaint and fantastic—a personality created for yourself—a vagabond gypsy—a picturesque fisher-girl bare-legged and kerchiefed—a wandering minstrel boy—a beggar maid. All these delightful characters can be created from a simple costume manufactured on the spur of the moment.

Before deciding the great question you must give a thought to your individual type—imagine a fair-haired, fluffy girl as an exotic Eastern water carrier, or a dusky, vivid creature as a Watteau shepherdess. There is a fancy-dress for everyone—and often it is far more becoming than the dress of everyday which fashion forces us to wear—the tall and the short, the fat and the thin alike.

One last word—try and act your part—forget your little self and become for a brief moment—a mediaEval page, a pirate girl, and Aladdin or a Peter Pan. Step out from the pages of history and legend and become someone else. As you know—a wave of the magic wand once turned pumpkins into carriages—and it will do so again!