Welly-Bolly-Wood

This year, S's Christmas work function was a Bollywood theme, and I thought I'd share with you a photo of her looking beautiful in her fab outfit! She opted for this Salwar Kameez rather than a Saree, thinking it would be easier to put on and more comfortable. And, she's not a dress / skirt kinda girl as some of you know. Certainly it was easy to put on, and she described it as 'like wearing pajamas' which sounds pretty comfortable to me! She got very lucky with some borrowed jewelry accessories from a friend that matched the colours perfectly. Incidentally, we can recommend a good store for traditional Indian dress over in Newtown.

Now for some further elaboration on the significance of costumes in Wellington...

Costume parties are hugely popular in this city, so much so that it supports no less than four large costume shops for a population under 500,000. Kiwis call them 'dress up' parties. My understanding is that Wellington is somewhat unique among New Zealand towns in it's enthusiasm for dressing up.

A major dress-up event is Wellington's Rugby Sevens. On the day of this event, the streets are teeming with masquerading fans parading around. The costumes range from very clever, to weird, to borderline obscene. It's even gotten the attention of the comparatively liberal police force who now threaten to punish anyone who goes too far with their costume and dares show it off on the streets of Courteney Place

No time of year or holiday is immune. Christmas parties are very often themed and costume-oriented. S's Xmas party last year was a Love Boat theme. I was skeptical up until the moment we walked in the door. Put simply, the concept of a costume Christmas party was completely alien to me. And, interestingly, Halloween is a muted affair here. This may be because it's an American import, regarded with suspicion as an attempt at commercialisation. To be fair, that is probably justified. It's just surprising considering the Welly infatuation with masquerade.

Stranger still is the assumption that parties will most likely be themed, even when it's not mentioned on the invitation. For instance, we were once invited to 'Party Like a Rock Star' but it was not until speaking with another invitee in advance of the party that I realised it was dress-up. He asked me what I was going as...my reaction was 'huh?". Then he proudly told me he was going as Elton John.