Welcome to another week and it's slightly manic here at Cloud 9 Towers.
Additionally, our free venue finding service is certainly being well utilised by a raft of clients so we are busy sourcing some great venues for clients locally, nationally and globally.
We are also gearing up for the Alliance of Independent Event Agencies New Year's Honours which take place this Friday at the Holiday Inn in Peterborough. It's fancy dress and the theme is P for Peterborough, so we imagine there will be a raft of Pirates, Policeman and Penelope Pitstop costumes doing the rounds.
Let's be honest here as there are few social situations can be more fraught than a costume party! What
if you’re the only person who dresses up but worse, what if you’re the only one
who doesn’t? We thought we would look up some classic fails when it comes to dressing up and found a very entertaining article in The Guardian which we thought we should share, especially as it mentions Pirates!
The chap in question is Olly Dixon, who went to a Vogue Party dressed as a pirate...
"My
partner was working at Brazilian Vogue as art director, and I was a
freelance graphic designer. We had been living in Sao Paulo for a few
months, and life was pretty good, but we were young and didn’t have much
money so I always felt a little like a fraud among the fashion/art
scene people of Brazil. This was highlighted most spectacularly at a
party Vogue hosted.
The invitations were of course in Portuguese, but we understood them
to a point. The dress code said “Black Tie or Fancy Dress”. I didn’t
have a tuxedo so was reluctant to go, but my wife was keen to make a
good impression and encouraged me to go for the fancy dress option. I
figured it would be fun and to be honest we didn’t give it that much
thought – we were from London, we went to loads of parties, we were used
to this sort of thing.
I opted for a pirate outfit: cut-off jeans, flip flops, and a hook
hand and sword I had purchased from a local toy store a few hours before
the party. Eye liner, eye patch, bandana. My wife wore a beautiful
vintage ball gown. Ready to go.
The party was held at Hotel Unique, a huge modernist luxury hotel and
it was hosted by Naomi Campbell. Gilberto Gil was performing. We turned
up on the red carpet, and not being celebrities we were of little
interest to the paparazzi, but I did feel we had a certain presence and
caught the eye. We entered.
I’m not saying all 600 people turned and looked at me, but it did
feel like that. The editor of Vogue rushed towards us. “What are you
doing ? Why are you dressed as a pirate? And why are you wearing flip
flops to this party?”
“I’m in fancy dress. On the invitation it said Black Tie or Fancy Dress …”
“What? No, no, no. Black Tie or Dress Fancy – wear your finest clothes, or expensive robes. Not ‘Fancy Dress’.”
I pointed at guy dressed as a Sheikh. “What about that guy, he’s dressed up.”
“No, he’s an actual Sheikh.”
On closer inspection, his robes were made of fine golds and luxury
materials. We exchanged a nod of mutual respect (that’s how I saw it).
It actually worked out well; I brought a smile to faces, and got
talking to lots of different people. We even met Naomi Campbell, who
thought it was hilarious."
Have a great week everyone...
Taking place at the Nottingham Contemporary, the event will welcome Short Film makers from around the globe and is supported by the Nottingham Screen Partnership.
The VR Expo Awards takes place on Friday evening again at the Mercure, and on Saturday we start with the NIM Festival Workshops and conclude the day with the One Minute Film Competition.
