The history of fancy dress and costumes starts with the Jester

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by: ashly.ashly0 Total views: 0 Word Count: 212 Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2009 Time: 10:18 PM 0 comments

From regal masquerade balls to children’s parties and Star Wars costumes, people have worn fancy dress costumes for hundreds of years, for a variety of different reasons. One of the earliest forms of fancy dress predates the masquerade masked balls in the royal courts by several hundred years, way back to the Middle Ages. Court Jesters were among the first people to wear fancy dress costumes as they plied their trade of silliness and merriment to entertain the noblemen and royalty watching on. Jesters would dress in brightly coloured outfits, often adorned with bells, as they acted the fool for the amusement of others. Despite their apparent low position in society and their obvious lunacy, Jesters were respected and admired as they had a special relationship with the elite of society and were treated with respect accordingly due to the belief that they were ‘touched by god’ with a gift of madness. Jesters performed for Royalty in Europe and in the UK until the reign of Charles I came to an end with the Civil War. Now Court Jesters are only seen as part of TV and film, and of course as fancy dress costumes for all of us to play the fool at a party.

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