Outrageous Fancy Dress Slip-ups

Fancy dress is one of those things that can so easily go wrong. Take the example of Colin Terry whose very poor fancy dress costume choice may cost him his reputation. Mr Terry is a Chief Superintendent with Devon and Cornwall police who has been serving in Afghanistan as an advisor to the Afghan Government, on policing and counter terrorism. His fancy dress choice of wearing an Osama Bin Laden outfit and mask to a summer carnival parade in his home town in Cornwall was intended as an in-joke for his friends to guess who he was, as he travelled past on the parade. Unfortunately for Mr Terry the joke backfired when a local journalist photographed his fancy dress choice. Mr Terry has had a complaint about him made to Police Complaints Commission, and the police force in Devon and Cornwall have condemned his poor costume choice.

This is not an isolated incident of a fancy dress misjudgement, cast your mind back to 2005 when Prince Harry made the choice to attend a “colonials and natives” fancy dress party as a Nazi soldier in desert uniform. This poor choice landed him in hot water with the public and press, and lead a former minister for the armed forces Doug Henderson to state that the prince was clearly unsuitable to take up a position at the Sandhurst Military Academy. If only he had followed his brothers fancy dress lead, and gone as a lion.

The organisers of parties can also get things very wrong. Take the Converso Call Centre in Southend that frequently organises staff events including fancy dress parties. One of their parties had a cops and robbers themed event. Unfortunately a member of the public spotted two of the fancy dress wearing revellers arriving. Normally this would not be a issue, but this particular member of the public described the two armed men dressed in dark clothing entering an office building after hours, to the local police. Having a police armed response unit raid your office fancy dress party certainly makes it a night to remember, but not for the right reasons.

Southend has had problems like this before when local man Lawrence Corcoran attended a fancy dress party dressed as Rambo. At the end of the party Mr Corcoran invited some friends back to his house to continue the celebrations. Unfortunately walking down the street on the way back to his house Mr Corcoran was seen waving his toy gun at friends and also aimed it at passing vehicles, some of which swerved out of the line of fire. The party ended abruptly when two armed response teams and police dog handlers arrived, closing the street and ordering everyone out of the house. Mr Corcoran was ordered by the court to do 80 hours of community service and pay a sixty pound fine.

Few people could ever get it as mixed a response to their fancy dress costume as a conservative councilor for Barnet, Brian Gordon. Mr Gordon is a big fan of Fancy Dress, having dressed up as a number of famous political leaders including Ronald Regan, Boris Yeltsin and Ariel Sharon. Unusual fancy dress choices, but nothing distasteful about them. The problem occurs when you add Nelson Mandela to the list, and black up in the process. Mr Gordon thought nothing of it and even had a photograph taken and sent it to the local press himself. When questions were raised about whether it was right for a local politician to black up, Mr Gordon confronted his critics saying he always dresses as major political figures at fancy dress parties and surely it would be racist to exclude Nelson Mandela from his choices just because he is black.

The mistakes are obvious, but not to the fancy dress wearers at the time. It’s ok to dress up and make a fool of yourself but don’t go into controversial subjects. If you must go as a soldier choose an allied soldier not Nazi, if you must go as a terrorist try Guy Fawkes not Osama, and most of all leave the weapons behind.