How to dress up for the day

Thousands of revellers will be marching through the streets or cheering from the sidelines when the St Patrick's Day Parade 2015 takes place in Birmingham on Sunday, March 15.

It's just two days before St Patrick's Day itself on March 17 - and you can find out all about Ireland's patron saint.

For the St Patrick's celebrations everywhere, it's customary to indulge in what's called 'the wearing of the green.'

Birmingham's Irish community - and many other people in the city - will be in party mood and keen to go green to celebrate the Emerald Isle.

So what are the best ways to rock the shamrock?

Here's ten ways you can fly the flag with fancy dress inspired by the Irish tricolour of green, white and orange.

1. Wave an Irish flag or use the colours as a basis for your St Patrick’s Day outfit. Many hats, garments and even fancy dress spectacles use green, white and orange stripes as colour schemes.
2. Visit charity shops, church jumble sales and ‘pound shop’ discount stores to save money on your outfit. Or recycle old hats and clothes which are lurking at the back of the wardrobe and would otherwise have been thrown away.
3. Get a green, orange or tricolour wig from a fancy dress shop - or make one yourself using tassles or long strips of coloured paper or cloth.
4. You could also go green yourself by dyeing your hair or beard for the occasion, as some revellers have done in the pictures featured in our gallery below.
5. Hats are always a popular choice, especially leprechaun-style top hats, jester hats, floppy hats and bonnets. An ordinary hat can easily be given the St Patrick’s Day look by attaching small flags, shamrock shapes, painted stripes, tassles, tinsel, feathers, rosettes, coloured material or other decorations.
6. Ribbons and bows are a relatively cheap and easy accessory to wear or add to an outfit. You can get these from craft shops and fabric stores, which will also have plenty of options for buying items suiting the colours of the occasion. Wristbands of each of the three colours are simple to put together and wear for the day. A necklace of each colour is another option.
7. For clothes, anything green is good - T-shirts, waistcoats, sweatshirts, hoodies, ties, trousers - and fairly easy to find. Get as close to the colour on the Irish flag as you can, but many people opt for any shade of green that's available. It’s far trickier to come across items featuring all three flag colours, but you could wear a white shirt under your green jacket or waistcoat and then add an orange wig, scarf, tie, feather boa or similar accessory to your outfit. Cut out a shamrock or two from felt or shiny wrapping paper and either glue, pin or sew it on to complete the St Patrick’s Day theme.
8. Paint a shamrock or Irish flag on your face, hand or other exposed skin - but make sure you use proper face and body paints that aren’t harmful and are easy to wash off. You can buy face-painting kits from online stores and party shops.
9. Tie together balloons in the Irish flag colours and carry them or attach to your outfit.
10. You can get a total ready-made look from some costume shops - or from online stores if you have already ordered so it's delivered in time. Check out these St Patrick's Day fancy dress items at Amazon and eBay, for example.

So, get creative, get colourful, and then enjoy the day!

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