I love how they have multiple things to choose from but the price is not always cheap.read more

Great shop on Western Road that has saved me quite a few times when I have left fancy dress outfit…read moreideas til the very last minute! They sell a wide range of outfits here, but I'm mostly impressed with the choice of fancy dress makeup, body paint and glitter. They sell stargazer cosmetics here, vivid colours and great quality. You can also find items like bunting, party decorations and streamers. I also purchased a pinata from here once! The staff are helpful and are on hand to offer advice. I prefer Partido to the other fancy dress shops in town. Partido don't offer fancy dress hire though.

Impulse has combined regular and costume-type make-up in their shop, which is interesting. Perhaps…read morethey want people to question why some types of 'dressing-up' are more socially acceptable than others. Or, perhaps they just sell more stuff this way. The eyeshadow, mascara and other 'normal' make-ups are down the centre of the shop, surrounded by tins of face paint, costumes and accessories (pirate eye patches, crowns, wings, parrots, masks, wigs) are along the outside walls. There's also some party favours and gift ideas (lots for stag and hen parties): silly string, fake boobs, plastic snakes ... a weird mix. I'd recommend checking it out for a fancy dress party, but the day-to-day make-up didn't seem to be very high quality.

Masquerade is an absolute treasure trove of dressing up fun and many peoples, whether it be an open…read moreor repressed, dream come true. This is because it has packed into this quite little store, most things your likely to have seen at a dressing up party, and if it doesn't, most likely, they will be able to order it in from their warehouse a few miles away within a day or so. Masquerade caters to Nightclubs for special nights, as well as film, T.V. and local theatre groups. If you are having a wedding or a party, you can come in for a consultation with one of the dressers to talk about the theme and get yourself, and your guests suited and booted. The staff re incredibly friendly, and look as though they are enjoying themselves in the eccentric and fun environment they work in. Hire costs from around £10 up to about £60 for something a bit more special. This is undoubtedly the first place I'd go to if I really wanted to make an effort to a dressing up party and needed something specific.

I remember when this little shop was a bit of a down-trodden but friendly place to buy cheap…read moreaccessories for your home-made fancy dress costume. Now it seems to be doing a roaring trade as it looks fantastic and organised and has a really attractive and inviting frontage. There's everything you want here to dazzle your fellow party goers when you arrive in your chosen costume but it does come with a price. A decent costume can cost £50 before you start attaching accessories and that seems like a lot of money before you even go out. Ideal if you have the dosh but I'm going to stick to my Casper the friendly ghost costume involving a sheet and a pair of scissors!

Harveys of Hove is outside of Brighton in Portslade however, this place does justify making a…read morelittle trip for as the outfits here range from squirrels to star wars storm troopers. I am not sure on the prices but sometimes it doesn't matter what it costs as turning up to a fancy dress as a horse with moving eyes and mouth is priceless much like the mastercard adverts. It is on the 1 bus route which runs from whitehawk and through Churchill Square shopping Centre. I tried searching for some random dress-ups recently and am annoyed that I have only stumbled across this place recently.

Fancy dress shops tend to be pretty predictable, offering Superman and Batman costumers for a…read moreridiculously large sum of money. Thankfully Harvey's is a bit of change for that norm, offering a brilliant, if not slightly odd range of items to buy and rent. I came here to rent a Star Wars Storm Trooper costume, I was able to get it for three days, and despite returning it 7 hours late, I didn't get a fine. The service was pretty friendly really, the staff explained to me about different price brackets and costs depending on what you wanted to rent. I'd certainly recommend this shop to anybody who has some fancy dress needs.

I'm really not much of a crafty kind of person. Me and sewing machines certainly don't have a good…read morerelaionship. However, even the likes of me occasionally need to buy some fabric - in my case it's generally to accessorise some fancy dress outfit or other. Fabric Fair is stacked high with roll after roll of any kind of material you can imagine - it's hard to see how they fit so much into such a small shop. Prices are really reasonable, and staff are always helpful. They even managed to advise me on how to make a vampire cape.

There are two fabric shops in the Laines- Ditto Fabrics and New Fabric Fair. New Fabric Fair is the…read moremore chaotic of the two! There is loads of good stuff here- chiffons, cotton prints, wool, tweed- you just need to have a bit of time to hunt through to see what you might uncover. If you despair at finding the exact right fabric for that dress pattern then the staff are super helpful and seem to uncannily know what is piled under what. The chaos extends outside where they have rows of ends of lines that you can get for a bargain- you can negotiate on most prices actually but the stuff out front is really reasonable. They also have an excellent stock of ribbons and finishes. If ordered chaos inspires you then this is the place for you!

As a crafting aficionado I'm often found wandering the aisles of this brilliant fabric store on…read moreWestern Road. It's a vast cavern with pretty much everything you could need to fashion something for yourself and if you run out of ideas, don't fear, because there's also a whole section of gifts from picture frames to vases. My favourite place is the second floor though which is an Aladdin's cave of fabrics and haberdashery as well as wools as well as crafting items: beads, paper, canvases and more. I bought myself a couple of feather cushions, buttons and cotton fabric from here for less than £12 recently, just need to find the time to make them now!

I don't know the first thing about sewing or anything like that, but I often find myself in C&H…read morewhen I'm looking for some bits and pieces to add to a fancy dress costume (big fancy dress fan here) I always find the staff extremely helpful when I visit, I always ask a dozen questions when I'm there but I'm never made to feel silly about it. I believe they have started doing sewing/knitting etc classes so it's something I would definitely consider when I get the time. I'm sick of using a hot glue gun for everything!

The windows of Fabric Land never cease to amaze me…read more Everytime I walk past, I usually gasp in horror. Seriously. Who-ever designs the displays obviously thinks the best way to attract potential customers is with eye-catching outfits. The problem is, the ensembles they put on the models always look like they were made for blind goths, disco bunnies and transsexuals. We're talking the most trashy, mis-matching, ill fitting, unisex, halloween outfits I've seen in years. If you can get past the window, Fabric Land has everything you need to make your own more tasteful clothes. Spread over two floors, they have rolls and rolls of cotton, satin, chiffon, calico, denim, cord, velvet, velour, felt, gingham, hessian, lace, leather, patchwork, suede and towelling. They also have zips, buttons, boning, hooping and for those that love the window displays, PVC and fake-fur!

Fabric land is the best fabric shop in brighton. The others are ok, but the ones in the north laine…read morereally are for people who don't know how much fabric ACTUALLY costs, and like to wander around pretty looking shops. Fabric Land is for people who actually want to buy fabric. Fabric land has exceptionally good pricing, a massive range of fabrics, and helpful and fast, qualified staff. Go there first then, if you can't find what your are looking for, go to the others. But ALWAYS go there first. You'll find that the prices are very competitive and, particularly if you are making things to sell, this can drastically affect your margins. The only thing it could do with is a better website, as it's definitely a bit 1998!