Judging Fancy Dress

[Silver Bullet]

I was just wondering what criteria you guys use to judge fancy dress competitions.
I get asked to do it from time to time. My first thought is look for somebody who has made an effort (not just gone to the hire shop), then look for originality, finally (if there are any there) avoid my own friends & family members.
Oh, and if there is a booby prize is always goes to the guy in the morphsuit

The reason I ask is, recently I did a lady's 40th, she asked me to judge the competition, then she could not be accused of being biased.
I looked around a room full of Captain Jack Sparrows, and decided the prize for a couple went to Queen Amidala & Darth Maul, obviously hired costumes but the effort put into the make-up was first class. The prize for funniest went to Captain Chaos, the guy had obviously made it himself but it was definitely unique, also I am a big Dom DeLuise fan. The final prize, best overall I awarded to Captain John Dunbar. He was brilliant, a dead ringer for Kevin Costner.
The problem was Dunbar was her brother in law, and Chaos was her husbands best mate.

I had no idea who they were, but the lady was not happy.
It got me thinking how do others go about these things. Would you have asked her who she would like to win, (or not to win) or have you any other formulas you use.

[Dynamic Entertainment]

Yep, originality is up on my list. If theres a room full of Jack Sparrow, i look for whose gone for something different.

Attention to detail is also high on my list.

I also work with the birthday girl/boy as they know names (thats the pretence anyway) and you can get an idea on who they like.

I had one in November. It was tied in the female category to a pirate and Minnie Mouse...Minnie Mouse was hotter...

[chrispeacock]

i usually ask them if they want to judge who they want and i will announce or keep talking about it. mainly because they can name the people and give me their names. this also applies to kids parties with kids games