Fancy that? Why London is scarily serious about dressing up

Costumed revellers are divided into two camps: the try-hards and the care-nots. While you might think you’d rather be in the latter camp, yours is not a studied cool but in fact an ignorance of this season’s most frolicsome trend. The new fancy dress means go hard or go home.

“The great thing about fancy dress and the British is we’ve been doing it since Roman times,” says Violet Naylor-Leyland, the mastermind behind cult fancy dress brand Violet’s Box. “It’s never really gone out of fashion, although I think at the moment it’s really become more popular than ever. This Halloween has been our biggest yet.”

You might say it’s gone viral. The Fox, a parodic music video by Norwegian band Ylvis featuring a cast of people dressed as woodland animals, has had more than 150 million views on YouTube. Overnight, London seemingly ran out of fox costumes; rumours of a black market are unconfirmed but presumed likely. Seems foxy is the way to go this Halloween.

However, if you’re still sitting in an animal onesie, then this is the wake-up klaxon you need. Regrettably but predictably, it has suffered a classic case of overexposure. Plus, the onesie takes the fun out of fancy dress, bypassing the thrill of sourcing the different components of your costume, sitting splay-legged on a newspaper painstakingly gluing sequins onto cardboard, or hanging on eBay till 4am bidding on feathers for your masquerade mask.

“It’s interesting speaking to parents about fancy dress,” muses one colleague (clue: he’s the skeleton). “In their day they say it just wasn’t a thing: they had a few fancy dress parties but it was a real rarity. Nowadays I’d say about one in four house parties are fancy dress.”

Looking silly confirms you have a sense of humour and will ensure you have a good night whatever you do — you can’t fail to when you’re surrounded by berks dressed just as stupidly as you are. On the other hand, there’s always “sexy” — another favourite — which gave rise to that famous Mean Girls adage, “Halloween is the one night a year when a girl can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it.” However, if you’re going to go risqué, perhaps match up with a trusted friend (safety in numbers) and do check your costume from all angles. It is probably also advisable to drunk-proof it — avoid anything that is likely to fall down (or off).

“We love to dress up and our customers often ask for tips on how to accessorise an outfit for a themed party they are going to,” agrees Katie Canvin, owner of cult King’s Road boutique Austique, which is hosting an in-store fancy dress pop-up with Violet’s Box.

“I think to me, the sheer joy of fancy dress is that it allows you to take a break from our very carefully considered and constructed identities,” says Kate Reardon, editor of Tatler and a fancy-dress enthusiast. “It represents infinite freedom: a backlash against everyone being a bit po-faced and uptight. When did you last have fun being dignified?”

Tatler goes wild for Halloween: there are big stakes prizes for the best costumes worn to the office and extra points are rewarded for effort and stamina — if you can prove you wore yours on the Tube without the moral support of a similarly attired friend then you’re doing well. Stay the course of the day and you’re a trouper.

Frontline observations? “My rabbit suit was deeply uncomfortable, at least while wearing the head,” said our bunny. “On the other hand, the total anonymity it offers may encourage outrageous behaviour. For the purposes of the photo-shoot, this stretched no further than baiting the features editor (in her fox costume), though after a few drinks I can see anyone in this suit potentially behaving like quite a bad bunny.”