Fete des Tetes presents Moviestars 2016 edition

Celebrating New Year’s Eve at Fete des Tetes

I’m not particularly a fan of New Year’s Eve. Especially not in the Netherlands, with all the super scary, dangerous fireworks flying around your ears and all.

But when I stumbled upon a dressed-up theme and dance party at the Toneelschuur, we decided to buy tickets for that event.

What appealed to us was that -unlike 95% of all New Year’s Eve parties- this one did not seem to focus on 20-year old’s and the music was more disco and funk than house and techno. AND….and….it was a costumed party with Moviestars as theme.

So, what’s not to like?!

Well, only getting there was not funny. Walking from home to the Toneelschuur and back on that night freaked me out! Loud bangs, the smell of gunpowder…. But thanks to earplugs, a hoodie and a huge shawl wrapped around that hood, I made it! Yay!

Dressing up; yay or nay?

I LOOOOVE dressing up.

Wearing ethnic hats in the Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore. Hm, that headwear looks better on the indigenous people, I have to say.

Why I enjoy dressing up, you ask?

• I can let my creativity and playfulness run wild
  

  For the last Halloween, I made Ice-crowns for Frits, for my inflatable cat Spooky (what’s in a name) and for myself. Hours and hours of making icicles from hot glue!

• I’m a fan of ‘more is more’
  

  Being a ‘more is more’ person, I loved joining the Traveling Yellow Skirt Roadshow. I turned myself into Frida Kahlo and Iris Apfel; clearly both ‘more is more’ personalities and idols of mine.

• Costumes are fantastic ice-breakers, even more so for shy people like myself. That’s why and how we effortlessly struck up a conversation with Holly Golightly and Jep Gambardella (La Grande Bellezza). Aka Emma and Michel. Further down you see me on a picture with her. Imagine my surprise when I discovered afterwards, that she is a blogger, like me. You can read her blogpost about Fetes des Tetes here.
  

  A different way of ‘dressing up’. Hilarious, right? This was during a road trip through Nevada.

• Dressing up is simply fun!
  

  Luckily I have a boyfriend who is willing to participate and play along. A real good sport, he is!

  

  My bonus-daughter Simone enjoys dressing up too.

• You can break out of your daily routines and be different for a short while. Become someone else.
  

  Put a wig on and you look and feel very different instantly! And no, I prefer my own hair; blond and curly.

  

  Halloween-looks that Frits and I created.

So it’s a YAY for me for sure!

Any location and occasion is a good one for dressing up, as far as I’m concerned.

Unfortunately many people (in Holland) don’t like to dress up. I guess they find it silly and ‘too much’.

I found that out when Frits and I organized a theme-party last summer.

All dressed up at our own tropical beach theme-party.

Instead of creating excitement and fun anticipation amongst my invited friends, many of them almost did not come because of the request to dress up. Wow, what a bummer that was:-(.

(Thanks again everyone that did come AND that dressed up. You rock!)

Fete des Tetes 2016

It was my first time attending this party, soI had no idea what to expect.

Would the other guests really make an effort to dress up? Would the average age really be higher than at most other parties? Would the music be good and to our liking?

Well, I was not disappointed at all!

More than half of the people was in costume, the music was cool with lots of disco, funk and soul and the crowd was not super young. Thumbs up for the organizers of Fete des Tetes!

If we happen to be in Haarlem on New Year’s Eve in 2017, this party definitely is an option for us.

Only next time we will decide sooner, which will give me more time to create an original, (partly) self-made outfit.

Now our decision was so last-minute, that we could only come up with not very original costumes. I wore a non-descript Charleston-outfit, which I could explain with “…from the Great Gatsby…”.

Great Gatsby meets 007. Lazy, predictable costumes, but we do look festive, right?

Frits looked smoking hot in his suit with bowtie and his fancy shoes , personifying James Bond.

Same, same, but different, lah

(Above: a typical Singaporean expression, so a bit of an insider’s joke; sorry;-).)

I never feel bad, when I see somebody else at a theme-party with a similar outfit. How fun is it to gather up two, three or more ‘look-a-likes’ and take welfies?!

At Fete des Tetes I spotted three Holly Golightly’s (Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s), several Catwomen, a couple of Batmen and at least three Jack Sparrow’s (Johnny Depp in Pirate of the Caribbean).

Doubles and triples at Fetes des Tetes. No problem! Double or triple fun.

And yes, there were three or four Charleston-ladies like myself. Told ya, not very original.

Left: with Cruella from 101 Dalmatians, middle: with Emma as Holly GoLightly and on the right with one of my co-stars in the Great Gatsby. All four of us had a long cigarette-holder with us.

How about you? Do you like dressing up? Theme-parties? Halloween?

How was your New Year’s Eve? Did you have a good time?

Best wishes for 2017, by the way!