Masks

A party is said to be held when marking occasions, the gathering of loved ones, a time to celebrate a wedding, birthday or new start in someone’s life. They’re a time to enjoy, laugh and then reflect about what the party actually represents. Some unique parties are fancy dress, we put on clothes we wouldn’t wear to take on a new persona for a night, sometimes covering a face and sometimes…hiding behind one.

A joker once told me a good punch can not be rushed, it takes the right amount of juices and spirits to hit the spots required to get a party started, relax your guests and hopefully make certain ruby slippered women eventually pass out!

A house party takes slightly more effort than a night out, the whole family helps as balloons go up, food and nibbles are prepared and the drinks lined up. It then comes to the mad rush to get showered and dressed into the costumes you decided on. The lights dim down and the music starts, guests arrive and the night begins.

When throwing a party the host is meant to circle the guests, making sure people know each other, drinks are flowing and everyone is having a good time. It is then down to the guests to socialise, laugh and start to relax into the true spirit of a good fancy dress party. It can start with the simplest of things, Tinkerbelle dancing in the corner leaving a trail of fairy dust that doesn't stop till the music ends. Scooby Doo running around making noise and jamming his scooter into legs and Sister Mary Clarence, the black Nun that even Willy Wonker can’t work out that she is in-fact white, topping her drink up for the 8th time 5 minutes into the night.

Some people will go to great lengths to get a grand costume. Some will spend lots, some will bargain hunt and some will come as themselves, sometimes to hide behind the clothes they feel most comfortable in and sometimes in fear of looking stupid, but ending up looking odd compared to everyone else. Pretty woman will spread her love with protection in the shape of ribbed, extra safe and flavoured condoms, flooding the party with this outfit extra, only to be found in the strangest of places the morning after. The 2 Jack Sparrows will laugh at the other and try to avoid standing too close. The northern cousin Sparrow will utter something that people still won’t understand, with Batman being his dad and drink flowing even more you start to realise the northern accents merge and even with a Pink Lady translator helping, I’d imagine it would still be near impossible to tell they only wanted another beer!

Laughter, music and dodgy wigs, a Cruella swearing her fur coat is not 101 Dalmatians and Lara Croft mixing snakebite thinking it would be a good idea, but regretting it in the morning when she hangs up her boots.

Then the turning point, people start to grow out of their costumes; they are falling back to their true selves. The white toga Julies Caesar wears, eventually can't hide the energy saving eccentric behind it as he turns off lights to save power, even when people are still dancing. Cleopatra is on a roll, taking pictures after finally getting to grips with the new age technology of the iPhone and never being seen without a drink, probably resulting in her walking like an Egyptian the next morning!
These are just outfits; they are what you put on for a party. In reality though, a costume to one is another’s work suit and a drawn on beauty spot can be a women’s true mark. Everybody has things they hide behind, for some they will sleep around; some will wear a face full of make-up in fear of people seeing what they hate and some wear a smile that really hides pain.

You then realise as you look around and then into the mirror, that the sunglasses which were part of your outfit the moment they were on, hide a tear that comes the moment you remember the reason for the party. You realise you are not Maverick from Topgun and this fancy dress night itself, hides behind the fact that is a leaving do of someone you care a lot about… Someone everyone cares a lot about and will miss. We can dress up and hide for one night, but we know who we are... Even superman couldn't really hide behind those glasses.

With the Terminator preferring to take Toto the dog home instead of a drunken Dorothy, who has tried to hide behind the innocent pigtails that in reality fell out long ago, the final straw then happens, an argument with everybody’s friend and beloved cowboy, Woody... All marking the end of the night, leaving the mess, memories and reflecting the good times had by all.

This fancy dress party was a send off, for a guy dressed in purple with a face painted white. A smile drawn on which he himself partly hid behind because of both the happy and sad reality that he was leaving these people, making a stage exist right into a new journey and hopefully a new career.

The real people hung up their costumes, look back at the photos and smile. Some will go home and continue to wear theirs. We might hide now and then from the way we are or people we are, but at the end of the night the make-up wears off, lights come up and nothing can hide the fact that everyone will miss the clown… something no mask could ever hide.

I guess the thing to remember is, even though people go away or hide behind a costume, they are always still really there... Just maybe they’ll take a little bit longer to reach.

Good Luck You x