The Dressing-up Box: #1 The Roaring '20s

A dressing-up box

When finding your costume for a murder-mystery party, there a few issues with buying your outfit entirely from a fancy dress shop. Such 'fancy dress' is usually made of highly synthetic fabric and looks like it was designed to feature in a bad porno. Not really a good look, unless, of course, you want to get cast in a bad porno (not what this blog is about, in case you were wondering).

I recommend instead a dressing-up box, so you can gradually collect bits and pieces and then fit them together for each murder-mystery party. I say this so casually; of course, I don't have a box myself so much as a collection cotton bags under the bed. But when I grow up I hope to have a massive oak trunk to keep my costumes in... and a big house by the sea, french doors leading onto a rambling garden, shabby velvet armchairs etc. (None of the latter are looking terribly likely but I live in hope that the box, at least, will be mine.)

This week I seem to want 1920s-style things, and I've found them all over the place (the 1920s, apparently, are having a second wind) but mostly on my nemesis Asos (vortex of wasted time and money) and Etsy (much better as it supports small, independent sellers).

If you decide to do a '20s murder mystery, think decadence and glamour. Also think drinking too much and at least one guest accidentally incinerating your curtains with a cigarette in a long holder. Good times will be had by all.

Below are the main characteristics of 1920s fashion.

1920s fashion

* Drop-waisted dresses, just-below-the-knee in length. (If that looks as bad on you as it does on me, you can skirt around this issue - excuse the pun - by getting something with '20s fringing, sequins or feathers but of a shorter length.)

* Close-fitting hats or sequined caps or turbans. (Headbands, although popularly associated with the 1920s, in fact had their heyday in the early 1900s, and are more associated with art nouveau than deco.)

* Shoes with a smallish heel and gently rounded point, and often T-bar or with an ankle strap.

* Pearls, art deco jewellery.

* Lots of exotic beading, feathers and fur

* Clothes and jewellery inspired by ancient Egypt. (Tutankhamen's tomb was discovered in 1922 and piqued public interest.)

  

Some great 1920s-style bits and pieces around at the moment (January 2012): Sass and Bide ‘Winding Road’ feather and Battenburg dress, SOS; Detail of beautiful beading, vintage 1920s bag, Etsy; 1920s replica ‘Ritz’ shoe; Revival Retro; Faux fox fur stole, Wrap Me In Couture, Etsy; Black metallic turban, ASOS

 

1920s-themed murder-mystery games

A First Class Murder, Paul Lamond Games

Murder at the Four Deuces, Dinner and a Murder

The Chicago Caper, How to Host a Murder

My Deadly Valentine, Whodunnit Dinners

Pyramids of Giza, Paul Lamond Games

I hope you enjoy being a flapper for the night, if you need a few tips on hosting a 1920s dinner party, click here. And if you want to check out my fun downloadable murder mystery dinner party games, click here.

Jessica xxx

A Day in the Life of a Murder-Mystery Game Writer

Alongside my full-time job, I am currently writing a 16-player interactive murder-mystery game for the lovely, ever-patient Freeform Games. Something tells me I should have been rather less ambitious.
   Most of the time I love writing, but some days, like today, turn out like this:

10:00 Get up. Make coffee. See the laptop glinting in the morning light. Suddenly have a mysterious urge to clean the fridge. End up cleaning the entire flat surrounding the fridge too.

13:30 Square up to ancient laptop. Turn it on. It is making a malevolent buzzing noise. It is probably thinking about crashing and then blowing up, for something to do.

14:00 Realise I haven't eaten anything yet. Inhale three shortbread biscuits, followed by more coffee.


17:00 Am forced to acknowledge that instead of writing my game I have wasted hours looking up murder-mystery weekends and Orient Express trips, neither of which I can afford. Feel bad about not having left the flat or achieved anything; get up and walk around, flapping arms, as though this is a substitute for either of these.

17:20 Actually start doing some work.

17:25 Am suddenly hungry. Get up and make 'salad' of cucumber, tinned chickpeas, cheddar, lemon juice and black pepper, messing up newly-cleaned kitchen in the process. It is verging on unpleasant, but I eat it anyway.

17:40 Hate Zoho. Shout at it for being a rubbish program. Think about drinking something other than coffee, but don't. Wish I was a smoker so the anguished writer scene would at least be picturesque.

18:00 Realise I am stuck. Cry. Consider turning to Poirot box-set for comfort but decide to soldier on.

18:20 Admit defeat, wondering what other, normal people have done with their Sunday.

A Study in Scarlet

Ah, well, where do I start? I love theatre. I love detective fiction. I love vintage fashion. But most of all, my heart starts to thud when I open up a new murder-mystery party game.

I love nothing better than to immerse myself in a nostalgic world, recreating all the tiny details, donning a costume and spending an evening pretending to be someone I'm not. (What a psychologist would have to say about that, I dread to think. Luckily, I don't know any, and if I did, I certainly wouldn't invite them to my murder-mystery parties.)

Others must share my obsessive love of murder mystery parties, I mused. I typed in murder-mystery game blog in Google. Nothing. Not a cocktail sausage. Aside from a few weak looking posts by companies advertising dubious looking downloadables, the tumble weed blows in cyberspace upon the subject of murder-mystery games.

So here I am, representing for the murder-mystery gaming world. At best a pioneer of vintage entertainment, at worst a rambling lunatic, who still hasn't progressed past her dressing-up box. At any rate, I do hope that you find some nuggets of useful information in amongst my murder-mystery game posts.

Toodle pip,

Jessica