Jane Asher’s Fancy Dress is a costume design book first published in 1983 by British actress and author Jane Asher. The book offers over 100 costume ideas for both children and adults, complete with detailed instructions on how to create them. The designs range from traditional outfits representing various historical periods to imaginative concepts like “The Future.”
The costumes vary between those that are very easy to make to those that require much time and effort. Materials used include paper cups, postcards, fruit gums, old curtains etc. as well as more conventional but generally inexpensive fabrics. The book is full of fun ideas and never again will you be stuck for ideas of what to wear to a fancy dress party.
Assembling an ensemble cast of seamstresses led by costume designers Vin Burnham and Jill Thraves, Asher began to create an outlandish array of outfits. “Most of them were made at my house. I’d be sketching the ideas and helping with a bit of sewing,” she recalled. “I don’t think coming up with ideas was much of a problem. Because once you start thinking in a lateral way, there’s so many things you can do.”
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| The cover of Jane Asher’s Fancy Dress (1983) |
Every costume was photographed by Asher’s friend and Sunday Times photojournalist Bryan Wharton. The models were a mix of famous and not-so-famous friends and family. “With my good friend Joanna Lumley, you could put her in a bit of crêpe paper and she’d be fantastic,” she said. Other stellar muses include Monty Python member Terry Jones (as Birthday Cake) and actor Martin Shaw (as Club Sandwich).
“When I asked Terry Jones if there was anything particular he would like to be for the book, he immediately said he would like to be a ‘sex object,” having always wondered exactly what such an object would look like,” she said. “He had in mind something faintly surrealist and symbolic and although I had grave doubts about exactly what it should be like, I think the end result is really quite successful. He certainly made us all laugh while he was being photographed — but then Terry could make me laugh whatever he wore. I also made him a more conventional alternative ‘sex object’ costume.”
While the visuals might have aged, the ethos hasn’t; dressing up for all ages is still magical, an innocent form of escapism built on arts, crafts and a lot of sticky tape. Fancy dress still gives us all a chance to shed our skins, play a part and have a party, flipping the script on our quotidian lives and casting ourselves in a new role. It might seem silly and gimmicky, but throw on an extravagant hat, flamboyant frock or a clownish pair of shoes and you’re guaranteed to feel and act differently. Costumes stretch clothes’ personality-altering effect to the extreme, letting us spin new yarns.
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