Sometimes, the only reason I decide to leave the house , is so I can dress up. So , when a theme party is in question, I’m more than ready to dig into my wardrobe or head out to buy a new outfit for the occasion.

Like how last year Niki Cheong held a pop party for his birthday and everyone put in some effort. There were pop tarts, pop art, pop stars and so on and it was wonderful that everyone came in theme!

And every Halloween how people go to great lengths to make sure they’re not the only lamer not in costume. Or Zouk’s Back To School party mid-2009, where cheerleaders, school prefects and school principals burst onto the scene.

Zouk's Back to School party

I love theme parties so much that when I do show up and discover there was a theme and I’m not dressed accordingly, I get REALLY upset. Just recently my boyfriend’s aunt celebrated her 50th birthday and we headed to the hotel (my boyfriend, his sister and I) and woe was us! We didn’t get the memo that the theme was black and red, and we showed up in Green (me) and yellow (Nadine). Davin wasn’t terribly affected by the mistake but Nadine and I spent the whole night feeling pretty weirded out. (Even his parents got it right )

Anyway, last week we went to La Bodega’s ‘Lock n Key Party’, and the whole week we were stressing out about not having anything to wear. See, the rules were as follows:

Wear RED if you’re Taken

Wear YELLOW if you’re Undecided

Wear GREEN if you’re single and ready to mingle

So me (red) and my friends Alex (red), Steph (red), Nadine (green) and Carol (yellow) painstakingly dug into the deepest recesses of our cupboards to make sure we would be in the spirit of the party. Alex even sliced a red dress in half so she could wear red as a top. We spent some time discussing what we would wear on our daily email thread as well.

Me, Carol and Nadine in theme

Anyway the night of the party came and Carol, Nadine and I headed over to Bangsar to meet Steph and Alex at the party and guess what the girls at the reception do when they see us? They sort of gasp and go:

WOW you guys ACTUALLY dressed according to colour?

Uhhuh, yeah.

So obviously since we were the only ones in the proper colour (as well as Alex and Steph), we totally stood out like sore thumbs! Everyone was given different coloured wristbands, as the organisers probably guessed many wouldn’t come in theme.

We still had a good time, but felt a little silly for putting in so much effort when everyone else seemed to think it was ok to go to a theme party without being in theme.

Come on, people! Where’s the enthusiasm? Think of them poor men, out there on the prowl, the only way they were supposed to know you’re open to the idea of mingling and possibly taking it further than that is to come REAL close to check what colour wristband you’re wearing?

It’s not just that we put in the effort and no one else did, its also the lame-ness of it all. Wouldn’t it have been fun if everyone had come in the ‘traffic-light’ colours? That’s be something of a topic of conversation instead of “Can I try my key in your lock” “Oh, sorry its not working your equipment is faulty”. (Of course, the clever lock and key idea did make for interesting conversation and a great icebreaker).

On the other hand, many may have just come from work and didn’t have time to go home and change but hey, you could have stored a top/shirt/dress/shoes in your car, right?

Our guy friends : Undecided, undecided and single?

Still, its kind of sad that people can’t be less enthusiastic. Bring on the next theme party, Nadine, Carol, Alex, Steph and I will show ya how its done!