Costume Shops

Costume shops may be best suited to a bit of preliminary research and trying on of clothes. Since their clothes are most often rented for parties and to casual wearers, check the condition of the clothing very carefully. If it is simply a problem of cleanliness, most reputable stores will clean the costume at your request. If you plan to rent a costume from them, be sure to ask if they have different rental policies for the month of October. We're still three weeks away from Hallowe'en, but that may be close enough for some shops to treat it differently.

Local phonebooks or theatrically-inclined friends can usually point you toward the theatres in question. Who you will want to speak with will vary with the size of the theatre, certainly; who ever you speak with, be sure to be very clear about the duration of the potential loan, and your willingness to comply with their requirements. Sadly, some theatres have had bad luck with loaning costumes, and it may have made them leery of doing it again.

Happily, if you are working directly with the costume mistress/master, you will have the chance to speak with someone who works not only with costuming, but with actors, training them to move correctly and easily within unfamiliar clothes. If you decide to wear something quite different from your everyday clothes, this knowledge can be very useful!

Shakespeare is a mainstay of many theatres closely tied to academia, and although productions are not infrequently in some innovative design, there are still quite a few productions that are put on in full Elizabethan regalia. If you want to wear something in a late Renaissance style, you may find some excellent options here. In addition, pirates populate many a Gilbert and Sullivan stage, and wenches, nobles, and peasants fill out the casts of revels and madrigal feasts.

As with a community theatre, you will want to be quite clear about your intents. Some departments will class their resources as college property, which usually carries quite strict restrictions on its use. Again, though, should you have a chance to work with the costume shop, you will be dealing with enthusiastic and well-informed people, who will be an excellent resource.