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Fancy dress obsession: 'Why I dressed up every day for a year'

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Mary Saba loves fancy dress. So much so, the digital producer decided to dedicate an entire year to dressing up every single day - for no other reason than it was 'fun'.


Photo: Theme-me.com


“People really have trouble getting their head around that,” says the 27 year old digital product manager. “They always ask if it was for charity or some other reason, but I really did it because it was fun. I didn’t think that was strange reasoning when I started doing it. But that really strikes people as weird.”

Mary, whose friends have dubbed her the ‘costume queen’ documented her journey through her blog Theme Me.

She writes on her About page: "Even before I started this blog I wouldn’t throw out an item of clothing or a prop if I thought I’d be able to use it for a costume. Basically, I’ve been preparing for this my entire life.

"Most people have regular hobbies – reading, writing, dancing, playing sports – but I always received most enjoyment from creating a really funny costume.”



And while people fork out hundreds to hire a costume for a night, amazingly, a whole year of costumes only cost Mary around $450 – largely because around eighty percent of the costumes she was able to make herself out of household items.

“Part of the appeal for people is the funny ways I made the costumes,” she told Yahoo!7. “It wasn’t just, I bought this costume. Instead, I’d use a plastic bag, or turned a jar lid into something, make things out of cardboard, borrowed outfits, used my own wardrobe… People can relate. If they are going to a party they can get inspiration and think, hey I have those things, I can do that.”

Mary’s favourite costume was the pixilated nude, “because it was so simple but so clever", which is also a fan favourite.


Photo: Theme-me.com


While many of Mary’s costumes were simple, like the pixilated nude which is just cardboard, others took days to put together. “Tutankhamun took the longest - I drew all of the hieroglyphics that were based on the real ones.”

Mary finished the challenge at the end of June with a fancy dress party, where ironically, she came dressed as 'herself'. She is currently giving herself a ‘break’ until October, when she plans on doing a post once a week about how she put the costumes together.

“I want to do lots of stuff for Halloween, when people will be hitting my blog pretty hard," says Mary, who relocated from Melbourne to Sydney a few weeks ago. "I have been thinking that I might like do a costume every day for October, but I think i'm going to let myself get settled first!”


GALLERY: Theme Me’s most ingenious fancy dress outfits


Even Mary marvels at how she pulled together the outfits every day.

“Thinking back, it’s strange to think I actually did that everyday. How did I actually do that!? How did I have the mental capacity to come home from work, make the costume, take photos and then put it up on a blog?

“I don’t regret doing it. There were times when it got really bad like when I was really busy and really stressed out, but I got so much enjoyment out of it.”


Photo: Theme-me.com


“I think the biggest thing I took out of this was, if its fun, go do it. I got so much enjoyment from it because I just had fun – and that’s ok! Go do something wacky and crazy and throw it into your life.”

Check out more of Mary’s ingenious costumes at her blog Theme-Me or on her Facebook page.



What is your favourite costume of from Theme Me? Let us know by joining the conversation on Y!7 Lifestyle Facebook page.