Archive for July, 2013

She’s read about them in her storybooks and seen them in movies. Your little girl is your princess, so why not let her dress as one? Our girls’ princess costumes are high quality and yet affordable enough to make a great present for any little lady!

With gowns made from satin, velvet, and gold or silver mesh, your young princess will be sure to get all the attention that she craves from her family and friends. Puffed up sleeves and a long skirt make your little one into the heir to a medieval throne. And the metallic trim lets you know she’s royalty in the making.

We offer a variety of children’s princess costumes, from the iconic pointed hat and lilac gown, to the airy princess organza dress that’s ideal for shimmering in the warm weather. We also have the accessories that every little princess needs, including tiaras, butterfly halos, glitter wings, and capes.

While princess costumes may excite many girls, others have different tastes. Our children’s tartan dresses, gowns, bodices, robes, fairy costumes, and more ensure that your little girl will find the clothing for the character she most wants to play. Whether she prefers Maid Marian, Rapunzel, or Lady Guinevere, our girls’ princess costumes unlock the imagination of little girls and warm the hearts of their families.

Pirates are among our favorite historical figures with their take-no-prisoners attitude and their love of sailing on the open seas. But how did iconic pirate symbols like the hook and the skull and crossbones emblem become associated with pirates? How historically accurate are the items with which we associate pirates and their plunder today?

The pirate hook is the classic pirate accessory. Eye patches and trifold hats have been used by other recognizable groups throughout history, but the hook prosthesis is uniquely associated with pirates. Was the practice of replacing a severed hand with a hook common among pirates?

Pirates often were injured in their battles on the high seas. The use of peg legs (another stereotypical pirate accessory) and hooks has been known throughout history, but onboard a pirate ship, no doctor was able to properly fit the prosthetic appendages into place. Therefore, the duty fell to the ship’s cook to perform the operation of attaching hooks, pegs, or any other suitable item on the ship into the wound. Although the practice seems to have roots in real-life events, it could not have been very common.

The skull and crossbones, the pirate’s “corporate branding,” as seen on our skull and crossbones cap, is another symbol of pirate life. The skull and crossbones decorated gravestones throughout the 1700s and 1800s, and became synonymous with death. Some pirate captains did fly this imposing design, but others used simple black and red flags. The French rendering for the words ‘pretty red,’ is ‘jolie rouge’, which is likely the origin of the term Jolly Roger.

So the pirate hook and skull and crossbones really do have a place in history, though their meanings have been embellished and exaggerated as time goes on. Whatever their true stories, if you’re preparing a pirate costume, ye shouldn’t be caught without either!