Pirates, Aliens and Men in tights
PREPARATIONS UNDERWAY FOR DARTMOUTH’S TRADITIONAL NEW YEAR CELEBRATIONS!
T
hose who think of Dartmouth as a quiet little town that goes to sleep in winter have obviously never been here at New Year. For some reason, that no-one can quite remember, the town goes crazy on New Year’s Eve with crowds of revellers joined by one common theme – fancy dress. This genteel community kicks up its high heels and parties all over the town, from pub to pub, in wigs, frills, feathers and capes – and that’s just the boys!
It could be the lubrication of the festivities that’s made everyone forgetful, but never mind how it started, the New Year fancy dress tradition is here to stay, according to one of its biggest fans, Joppy Pillar. Born and brought up in
Dartmouth, Joppy has run Pillars Newsagents and Toy Shop with his brother-in-law Gordon Barnes (l & r in above photo) since the 1980s. Sister Bridget is also a partner in the business. The Seventies and Eighties were flamboyant times for clothes and that’s when the idea of fancy dress as a New Year celebration really took off in Dartmouth, although Joppy can’t remember a time when
people didn’t dress up. “We used to do it because the better your costume, the more people would buy you drinks!” said Joppy. “There would be about 20 of us going from pub to pub, and other groups making their way around the town too. We always made our own costumes – wigs and
“I’ve got my costume all ready – this year I’m a showgirl with a purple outfit and feathers in my hair. It’s going to be great!”
everything. We’ve had some brilliant ones over the years – scary fairies, half bride half groom, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, aliens, cowboys and the ever-popular pirates. I love it!”
With such an eye for a good outfit, it was a natural progression for Joppy and Gordon, front of house in the shop, to start selling fancy dress in Pillars. Both regular looking chaps by day, anything goes when it comes to fancy dress and the albums of photos of them modelling their creations are hilarious.
“But not everyone wants to make their own costumes – and most people are very last minute. So about ten years ago we started selling costumes in the shop and we’ve never looked back.” The fancy dress sits alongside cards, confectionery, toys, newspapers and magazines. What would Joppy’s uncle, who founded the shop in 1919, have made of the sequins and dresses? “My uncle had lost a leg at Passchendaele, and came home to Dartmouth with £1,000 compensation. He used the money to open the shop, a quieter place than it is now – a stationers and newsagents with a library at the back,” said Joppy, real name Jonathan (“but only my Mum calls me that – and only on Sundays!”) “My father Edgar and his brother
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