When I first began working in the world of Halloween costumes or fancy dress as we tend to refer to it in the UK due to the year round demand rather its season appeal over the Atlantic, I can recall the photography work on many of the header cards suggesting that the item inside was fun, that the item that lived beneath the see-through wrapping was to be worn on a birthday party night out or to a New Year’s Eve bash. The image typically would display an attractive model in a fun pose and costume was, well, fun and nothing more.

Leaps And Bounds

My overuse of the word fun, I feel is very precise because that’s pretty much all it was 10 years ago. My case in point is going to be something that I have had to dig up out of the Jokers’ Masquerade image archives dating back to 2005. Take a look below at the two images. Both costumes were designed and manufactured for leading British fancy dress wholesaler Smiffy’s. One was released back in the early 2000s and the other was released post 2010. No prizes for guessing which is which.

I’m sure you’ll agree that the image on the right not only features a better model (no disrespect, the lady on the left, she’s very attractive don’t get me wrong), features a superior photography & lighting and is far, far, far more fashionable. That’s how far fancy dress has come in this country. It’s way more appealing and definitely sexier at this point in time, don’t you think?

Today Smiffy’s have developed an entire range of fashionable fancy dress and even branded it ‘Fever’ and are enjoying much success from what I understand. However, they were not the first to really take the lead and attempt to make fancy dress more fashionable. That bestowment we need to award to an American company called Leg Avenue.

Leg Avenue, The Trend Setter

The Leg Avenue began its life as a hosiery business owned by the Tsai family. Plying their trade in L.A.’s down town fashion district in 1984 they evolved their business to craft and sell lingerie before developing innovative ideas that effectively launched Leg Avenue in 1999.

I actually really like the outfits that Leg Avenue produce, they invest loads of money in sourcing gorgeous models, male and female and produce high-quality catwalk shows every year at the Halloween costume Party Expo. Leg Avenue are so cutting edge in the items that they design that in 2009, when I was in attendance at the Las Vegas expo I saw no less than three photographers with telephoto lenses snapping photos of these brand new costumes which were no doubt sent to rival costume manufacturers to be copied and replicated at a diminished quality.

Below is the Deluxe Card Queen costume by Leg Avenue, it was unveiled as a new design back in 2012 and today looks every bit as good as when released. It features my trio of requirements that make a great fashionable fancy dress costume. The model, the photography and a beautiful garment.

So there you have it. If you are fashion conscience and you find yourself looking for a fancy dress costume you do not have to settle for a costume that is less than glamorous, less than stylish. After all, it’s not 2005 any more, and that gap, if you ask me, has indeed been bridged.

My name’s Ian, I’ve worked here at Jokers’ Masquerade in the fancy dress industry for over 10 years and have seen the industry evolve from fancy dress being a novelty item to, in some cases, highly fashionable items of clothing that turn heads at parties.