We three costumes

December 16, 2012 12:24 PM

Please give me ideas for a fancy dress costume for 3 adults. A 60-year-old (but look/act decades younger) couple and their late-20s child. They need to be WARM as they will be worn outdoors on New Year's Eve in a Cornish seaside town, but it also needs to be possible to eat a restaurant meal in them.

Me and my mum and dad need costumes for New Years Eve, as we will be in a town where pretty much if you are out of doors on NYE, you are in fancy dress. Last year we went in full 18th century clothes and wigs rented from a theatrical costumier, but this year my dad says he doesn't want to have to drive the costumes back to the rental place (I can't drive, so only he or my mum could return them). We are in nicely descending heights, so I wanted us to be Gandalf, Aragorn and Frodo, but it's looking increasingly unlikely we will be able to assemble anything that complicated this year, and my 5'1" mother is concerned about wearing short trousers/hobbit feet in the cold. She wants us to be the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but we are having trouble convincing my dad to be the wardrobe, and it is difficult to see how a wardrobe sits down in a fancy restaurant and eats dinner. Please suggest alternative fun trio costume ideas. Note: I will be dressing as a male or neuter thing unless the costume idea requiring otherwise is utterly mindblowingly fucking brilliant. So probably assume I will be a male or neuter thing.

posted by Acheman to grab bag (11 answers total)

The first idea that popped into my head is that you should all go as lobsters. But I'm not sure how you would assemble three lobster costumes without resorting to a rental house or complicated custom sewing project.

Will other people in this restaurant be in costume, or just y'all? In other words, do you need costumes that can pass for normal clothes in a restaurant, or do you just need to physically be able to sit down and manipulate food into your mouths using reasonably OK table manners?

What about Red Riding Hood, The Big Bad Wolf, and The Woodsman?
posted by Sara C. at 12:31 PM on December 16, 2012

Everyone in the restaurant will be in costume. Last year we were on a table next to the Blues Brothers, and just past them were a squirrel and a knight on one table and a packet of crayons on another. Against the wall were a group consisting of surgeons and a single power ranger.
posted by Acheman at 12:33 PM on December 16, 2012 [6 favorites]

The first thing I thought of for three people was Rock Paper Scissors.
posted by elizardbits at 12:36 PM on December 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

The Butcher, The Baker, and the Candlestick Maker?
posted by Sara C. at 12:37 PM on December 16, 2012 [3 favorites]

Can you get bear costumes (warm) and carry a doll as Goldilocks?
posted by infini at 12:37 PM on December 16, 2012 [5 favorites]

Henry VIII, Ann Boleyn and Elizabeth I? Would people be snippy about the historical accuracy?

Three magi is an alternative as well with many voluminous robes.
posted by jadepearl at 1:25 PM on December 16, 2012

Where's Waldo, his girlfriend Wenda and that one Wizard that is always in the Waldo books too.
posted by dottiechang at 2:00 PM on December 16, 2012

OK, it has just occurred to me that we could go as the Yalta Conference. Need to discuss this with my parents ASAP.
posted by Acheman at 2:00 PM on December 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

My Dad says nobody will know what the Yalta conference is. :( I would have been the best Stalin.
However, my mother is very excited by the idea of Red Riding Hood: "I could go a bit wild. I could be the Margaret Atwood Red Riding Hood!" And I quite like the idea of dragging out one of my checked shirts and being a very lesbo woodcutter. So that is currently the working plan, unless we go as a hotdog and condiments.
posted by Acheman at 2:22 PM on December 16, 2012 [3 favorites]

Are you going to Mevagissey for new years? I used to live there and for nye It truly is the best. I would recommend hotdog and condiments. Group costumes that are very easily recognisable will get you more kudos and free drinks.
posted by By The Grace of God at 1:29 AM on December 17, 2012

The Yalta Conference would have been awesome, and you should tell your dad that an internets stranger is frowning at him disapprovingly.

If you want recognizable the three of you should dress as the Jonas Brothers, or as Edward, Bella, and Jacob. And that would just be embarrassing.
posted by elizardbits at 11:31 AM on December 17, 2012