This year, for our work Christmas party, we had a fancy dress theme. The brief was to dress as something beginning with your initial. I thought about donning a wig and copius velvet and dressing as Elton. I considered making an eyeball costume and keeping things really on-brand. In the end- and I don’t really know why- I decided to dress as an emu. An online search for emu fancy dress offered many Bernie Clifton-and-his-ostrich-type costumes- not the look I wanted. Instead, I put my own emu fancy dress outfit together which comprised brown bodysuit, brown tutu skirt, tights, feathery eyelashes and rubber gloves for the feet. I cut and pinned brown feather boas to the tutu and coiled the brown maribou into my hair. The beak started life as a cardboard bottle bag which I cut up and covered with brown insulting tape.
Obviously, I wish I’d been named Francesca so I could have dressed as a flamingo, but hey-ho, you get what you’re given so an emu it was.
Do take a look at these blog posts for other more traditional Christmas party outfits.
