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London's best fancy dress shops

Sometimes, you desperately need a pair of oversized braces, a stick on wart, a latex bald patch and not only when you’re trying to sponge free meals at an old people’s home either. That sometimes is generally on a Saturday, when the biggest, booziest London fancy-dress party of the year looms large on the horizon. Everyone loves a good fancy dress costume – one that says, 'I can take the piss out of myself, but underneath this chest wig I’m hot, honest'. Even better for those whose oversized noses automatically lend themselves to halloween parties – your intended doesn't need to know that once you've taken off your eye of newt, that schnozz ain't going anywhere. Unfortunately a kick-ass fancy dress costume doesn’t come easily, but allow Itchy to give you some tips.

First, you need the idea – nothing too generic (devils, fairies and Austin Powers are worse than no costume at all), but nothing too obscure (explaining your Ken Livingstone outfit might seem like a good ice breaker the first 15 times, but it soon becomes tiresome). It should show a little imagination and preferably an endearingly slapdash home-made element. So, you um and you ah about it over three warm up pints and four early-afternoon hours until you’ve decided on the perfect, most hilarious outfit which you absolutely must wear. Genius. Now you’ve exactly an hour and a half to procure the relevant props and cloths.

If you're looking for somewhere around King's Cross or Euston, there's Laurence Corner (62 Hampstead Road, NW1, 020 7813 1010). It’s a bit of a funny one in that it’s actually an army surplus store with a large fancy dress section, but when it comes to hats and props they’re gob-smackingly well stocked. Though full costumes start from 45 nicker (prop and hat hire from 10) it’s open until 6pm on a Saturday so it gains brownie-points on the availability front even though it’s a bit more pricey.

The thesp-y Londoner would know that on Shaftesbury Avenue, in the heart of Theatreland, there’s a wig, hat and costume emporium known as Angels (119 Shaftesbury Avenue, WC2, 020 7836 5678). It’s a pretty safe bet for all kinds of frocks and frippery, but it has an insanely frustrating set of opening hours, possibly decided by an evil Cinderella who never got to go to her ball and wants to spoil it for everyone else. In some kind of perverse act of temporal elitism, the only time Angels is open outside of office hours is for one measly extra hour on a Wednesday night. Not much good for us on our Saturday mission. We stare longingly at the finery within, consider some kind of dirty protest, but think better of it and go in search of somewhere less vindictively inaccessible.

Two mins from Old Street Tube, Mad World(69-85 Tabernacle Street, EC2, 020 7253 1003) is conveniently central and open 'til 5pm on a Saturday, with a pretty extensive range of costumes including replica Oscar outfits, period dress and ideas for your themed parties (e.g. Tube station parties), but full outfits don’t come cheap – starting at 35 quid and spiralling upwards as they get more elaborate. They also stock wigs, face-paint and all that razzmatazz. Near to Pimlico Tube Pantaloons (119 Lupus Street, SW1, 020 7630 8330) is another one worth trying without straying out of Zone 1. A bit more traditional on the fancy dress front, you’ll find the usual range of angel wings and 118 118 costumes for the imaginatively crippled, but there’s also an interesting range of theatrical costumes that have a little more mojo.

So… there are a few options once Angels has closed the pearly gates on you and if all else fails, remember that many a sterling costume has been rustled up from four bog-rolls and a tube of Pritt Stick.

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