Themed parties that require certain outfits and allow guests to appear in any way are always extremely popular. But among them, several of the most popular topics stand out: “The Adams Family”, “90s”, “Rock and Roll”, “Harry Potter” and, of course, a Chicago-style party.
America of the 30s excites the imagination of guests and provides a lot of opportunities for the organizers. Such an evening can successfully take place at home in close company and gather a record number of guests in the largest and most expensive night club.
It is the venue that dictates the restrictions on what exactly will become a party in the style of Chicago 30s, and what it will require.
Is it possible to organize at home and how?
You can immerse yourself in the world of gangsters and prohibition everywhere, a city apartment is no exception. However, before you start organizing, you need to objectively evaluate your own home. If this is a two-story suburban mansion with an entrance for cars, then the possibilities for maintaining the evening, the requirements for the surroundings and other moments will be one, and during the event in a one-room “Khrushchev”, they will be completely different.
First of all, you need to decide not on the number of guests or the decor, but on whether the existing room will be divided into zones, or whether the event will be held in a "single" large room. All subsequent ones depend on this moment.
When dividing the venue, you need to design each corner according to its purpose. If not one person organizes the home event, but spouses or friends, then this should be used. One may become a "bartender" and sell alcohol "from under the floor", the other - "work" the croupier. In the presence of karaoke, you can arrange a club stage and provide someone with the role of “singing girl”. Of course, you need to learn the repertoire. In general, each corner, implying a specific purpose, must be designed in accordance with it so that it is immediately clear what it is.
You can decorate a single room with several touches, turning it into something concrete, for example, in the same casino or stage with a hall.
After questions of registration, you need to think about the number of guests and the availability of the necessary utensils. The dishes are determined by the design of the area where the Chicago-style party will take place. If this is a family dinner of the Italian mafia, you will need a large pot filled with pasta and coarse plates. If this is a casino, you will need cone-shaped glasses and glasses with thick legs.
After solving this issue, you need to issue invitations for guests. Invitations may prescribe a person to any image and style of behavior, for example:
“Olga, we invite you to a party in the style of Chicago. Your image is a cabaret singer in love with a bank robber. Beginning at 18:00. Don’t be late, otherwise your burglar will clean our cash desk from boredom. ”
However, prescribing the style of behavior and image to the guests of such an event, one must proceed from their capabilities and desires. You should not turn into a croupier a shy and uncommunicative friend. He is better suited as an undercover FBI agent.
Or, invitations can be sent without prescribing images, and at the entrance to ask each guest to draw lots. In this case, you can make badges with the role name and a brief summary.
Once the questions regarding the guests, the choice of design and the main core of the evening are over, you need to think about music. If the design is poor and there are not enough entourage items, then it’s quite possible to turn on the video collection of “gangster chronicles” or films on this topic without sound.
In order to succeed in a 30s Chicago-style home party, the photo of which can then be printed out, put into albums in the appropriate style and presented to each guest, you should not forget about the little things.
In the hallway there should be enough space for guests to change their shoes, for example, in winter it is relevant, and undressed quietly. That is, there should be enough hangers, it makes sense to purchase an inexpensive shoe rack so that shoes and boots do not occupy the entire space on the floor. And so that people do not interfere with each other, in the invitations you need to indicate the time of their waiting with an interval of 10-15 minutes.
In the rooms reserved for the event, the windows should be tightly curtained. Unnecessary details of modern life can ruin the atmosphere, and in addition, on the windowsills you can remove everything that is not required in the room where the Chicago-style party of the 30s is held.
It is necessary to accentuate the event on the basis of what it is dedicated to. For example, on New Year’s it is possible to announce the abolition of Prohibition along with the chimes, and if it’s someone’s birthday, then announce the prize in the lottery and present this “prize”.
It is quite interesting if the guests have printed "toy dollars" with them, which they pay, give bribes and, in principle, manage according to the contents of the evening.
Also, when planning to have a home party, you need to choose the day and time suitable for the fun, for example, Friday evening, and warn your neighbors about their plans. This is necessary, since the audibility in most apartment buildings is very high.
How can I divide the room?
You can split the place where you are planning a Chicago-style 30s party into the following zones:
- Casino.
- Bar.
- Stage.
- Dressing room, next to which "gangsters solve their problems" or just play billiards.
- Bank, in the presence of such a "corner" must be organized and its robbery.
- FBI office or police station.
- The outlet, here you should "sell" oranges, flowers, apples, decorative cigarettes or cigarettes, bottles with cider or cola and many other little things.
Of course, this is not a complete list of places that can be in the room where the Chicago-style party is held. Photos laid out from such events contain “Italian cuisine”, the union meeting room, and even cellars with the production of underground wine, which guests pour into bottles labeled “Olive Oil” as a background. That is, the organizer's imagination is limited only by his knowledge of the subculture of the American 30s, associations, room facilities and budget.
How to make out?
The design of the room where the Chicago-style party will take place, the clothes for this event, its program and even the utensils used are subject to only one word - vintage. This style direction determines everything - from the interior to the color of the varnish on the nails.
Oddly enough, but a large club for the event "Party in the style of Chicago" is much easier to arrange than an ordinary apartment. In a small room where people live, that is, there is furniture, the palace lies and so on, there are too many things that prevent the creation of the right atmosphere.
Moreover, in apartments there is such an eternal problem as lighting. Side lights with dim lights, able to “obscure” excess parts, but not immersing in the dark, rarely anyone has.
Of course, this moment is played out, something is announced to the guests like: "Trade unions, who advocate the interests of workers in the city power station, decided that they needed a day off." After that, candles are lit or “disposable” lamps imitating them.
All the desired items and decor in the apartments usually just do not fit. The most common housing mistake is an excess of surroundings. There is no need to put a toy roulette if there is no place to arrange a casino.
For the design of residential premises, you need to choose several large recognizable details that clearly send exactly to Chicago in the 30s. A good option is to decorate the wall with a large photo collage depicting Chicago street of that time. For lack of an empty wall, the collage can be fixed on the curtains.
Images should be chosen the most recognizable, in creating an atmosphere of originality, guests should see where they got. The same applies to clubs. Of course, one should not forget such a classic version as Wanted posters. Not a single Chicago-style party is complete without them. Photos of guests should be placed on posters, pre-processed in the desired style. However, using this technique in the design, you need to pay attention and put up posters made exactly under the 30s, without confusing them with the “cowboy times” of the Wild West.
How to dress?
If you are planning a Chicago-style party, how to dress is a question that interests everyone who is going to the event. Clothing style, which obeys the external image of those years, is a vintage. Accordingly, suitable items can be found in vintage stores or ordered online. However, choosing, you need not make a mistake. After all, vintage is not only Chicago in the days of Prohibition. This is also the 20th, 40th and even 50s.
In order not to get lost in a series of externally similar photographs from different decades and in numerous tips, it makes sense to watch films about those times. For example, you can very well consider clothes, shoes, hairstyles, makeup, table decoration, other details and even the style of behavior of various “thematic characters” in the movie “Johnny D”. Looking through documentary chronicles, if there is a party in the Chicago style, how to get dressed will not help. In such frames, not a single detail of the costumes can be seen, it is impossible to make out the makeup technique and so on.
Where to get clothes?
Costume for a party in the style of Chicago, you can not buy. As a rule, in every major city there is a company engaged in the provision of things for rent.
Such an agency is definitely worth a visit and familiarize yourself with what is being offered. As a rule, only a dress or a man's three is rented, Chicago party accessories will have to be purchased independently, like shoes.
What details will create the image?
Even a real 30s movie star dress or a suit taken at Universal Studios would be completely useless with a ponytail or sneakers. When attending the Chicago Style Party event, how to dress is not the most important thing; any thematic look is created by details - hair, makeup, accessories.
The easiest way is to visit a vintage store, 30s accessories department, real or virtual. If prices or assortment are not satisfied, then you just need to remember what jewelry, bags, gloves look like, and go in search of analogues.
Accessories that create a feminine look:
- long beads, preferably pearl;
- a bracelet-thread that matches with beads;
- a hoop, not to be confused with a rim, with a magnificent bird feather on the side;
- fabric gloves to the elbow;
- silk clutch bag on thin hoops;
- hats in the shape of a head made of fabric or crocheted; knitwear is unacceptable;
- a small watch on a narrow leather strap;
- mouthpiece;
- boa;
- stockings with a mandatory back seam;
- shoes with a stable heel no higher than 7 cm, with a slightly dull toe or with a round, with a narrow fastener in front.
The material of the dress is silk. Other fabrics were worn at that time, but all the evening dresses for ladies were sewn from silk. Dress cut - a rectangle. An emphasis was often placed on the hips with a belt, there was no waist in this style.
Sometimes in Chicago Style Party events, the script implies a lack of authenticity. In this case, the accessories must be left appropriate to the time, but the dress can be worn from “scales” and in silhouette.
Men's Accessories:
- a flower in the buttonhole;
- hat of the "real gangster";
- dark leather gloves;
- Thompson revolver or machine gun;
- pocket watch on a chain;
- gas lighter;
- cigars or cigarillos; black or brown thick cigarettes may be used;
- cufflinks or rolled up sleeves;
- tie;
- muffler;
- classic men's shoes with an oval toe.
“The Chicago Style Party event, how to dress, a photo to be gangster,” - this is how men most often turn to sellers in thematic costume stores or to consultants in rental stores.
The most photogenic gangster will be a man in a three-piece suit, dark in color - blue or chocolate, but not black. The image should be supplemented with a hat and tie without a pin, and if there is a photo shoot on the street - a cashmere long light coat and muffler.
How to comb your hair?
A gangster party in the style of Chicago requires not only clothes and accessories, but also corresponding to the time hairstyles.
Everything is simple with men - a short haircut or a “classic”, the hair is combed back, it is allowed to use wax or gel, which do not create a wet effect.
But the ladies will have to visit the hairdresser, moreover, find a master who not only remembers from the training course what “cold waves” are, but can also make them. You can try styling your hair yourself by reading all about the “cold wave” method, but then you should pre-train.
It is not necessary to spread the waves over the entire head, it is enough to make two scattering from the parting. In the worst case, you can use a hat.
What about makeup?
The classic image of that time was pale skin, dark eyeliner, arrows, lush eyelashes and a bright, shiny mouth.
It is not necessary to draw lips with a “bow” and give them subtlety - this remained in the 20s. In the 30s, the shape of the lips was surrounded by a bold line along the natural contour, dusted and lipstick was applied on top. Mouth was the main focus of makeup, and all colors were allowed except for delicate shades, very dark and pink tones. That is, ruby, cherry, classic red will be perfect. You can use burgundy and brick-brown tones.
Eyes should not be overloaded with shadows. Colored shadows will not be useful at all. The gaze was highlighted by black shadows and a contour-arrow drawn with a soft pencil. Particular attention should be paid to eyelashes, there should be a lot of mascara. Eyebrows did not stand out.
What kind of music to choose?
The best music for a party in the style of Chicago is the one that was performed in those years in local, ceremonial and entertainment places, but in a modern arrangement. In style it is jazz and blues. They were at the peak of popularity in the United States in the 30s of the last century.
Finding individual compositions is not worth it, unless, of course, there is such a desire. You can find ready-made thematic multi-hour collections on any music site. Of course, you should first listen to the entire audio track to avoid embarrassment and unpleasant surprises.
What is worth thinking about?
As a rule, when a Chicago-style home party is conceived, at the preliminary stages the organizers want to allow themselves many times more than is possible in the existing room. This applies to the content of the evening, and the number of guests, and musical design, and items of entourage, and many other moments.
Very often people get upset and generally abandon the idea of such a holiday. Meanwhile, there is a fairly good way out of this situation. In every city there are small cafes, which in today's realities in the literal sense of the word "make ends meet." Cafes that are empty in the evenings are everywhere. It makes sense to find such an institution and communicate with the leadership.
There is no talk about renting an institution; you can only agree on the fact of bringing guests who will buy drinks and snacks. As a rule, there is always a mutually beneficial solution and the event is no longer in the apartment, but in a small institution.
It’s worth thinking about this way of holding a party if the number of guests is at least ten. You also need to choose the day when the invitees have time and availability of funds. Since we are talking about an evening that will have to be spent, the time of receiving an advance or salary should be taken into account by the organizer.
If part of the invitations has already been sent, then in no case should it be said that “plans have changed” and so on. This approach to informing will discount the party in the eyes of the guests.
A beautifully designed alert should be sent, with approximately the following text:
“Olga, we became aware that the police are preparing a raid. But you can not worry - all the necessary measures have been taken. Your meeting with a bank robber will take place at the address (place name, location description), at 18:00, date and signature. ”
That is, a change of venue should be part of the evening's script; it is not necessary to notify the invitees that the organizer doubts the size of his own home and its suitability for the holiday.
It is not necessary to be too picky about the elements of the surroundings, the appearance of the guests and other similar moments, all the same it will not work to achieve complete authenticity.