Costumer Magazine
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Anna Kraynova
Halloween 2020 is Over, Now Let’s Focus on a Bricks-and-Mortar Future
Halloween 2020 is finally over. It has to have been one of the most angst-riddled holidays in the history of the costume industry. At first everyone in the industry was all excited that Halloween was falling on a full-moon Saturday…then COVID blasted Read more
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Halloween 2020: The Natural Craving for Attention Will Save Costume Sales
The other day I was interviewed by a BBC reporter about how COVID will affect Halloween, and in particular how it is affecting sales at costume shops. It’s a topic that’s been on my mind a lot lately. Read more
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NCA Launching Help Halloween Happen Campaign
This year’s Halloween was supposed to be giant, since it falls on a full-moon Saturday. Then COVID interfered, and suddenly everyone is worried that Halloween will not be nearly what it should be. Well, the NCA can’t cure COVID, but we can help make Read more
Product Parade
Product Parade: elope Dr. Seuss Neckties
New for 2021: elope is introducing a line of Dr. Seuss Neckties and a Bow Tie Set. We have the classic Cat In the Hat, Thing 1/Thing 2 and The Grinch. Perfect for teachers and Seuss fans of all ages. $6.99 wholesale/$13.99 MSRP. Read more
Jan 14, 2021
5:41 PM
Novelty Facemasks from Underwraps
Underwraps has developed a line of novelty masks that are perfect for the upcoming Halloween season. You can socially distance in style and keep the newest holiday essentials in stock. Styles are available for the entire family. Read more
Jun 25, 2020
2:16 PM
Beistle Skeleton Restroom Door Cover
Skeleton Restroom Door Cover (00014): Measuring 30" wide by 5' tall, this door cover is the perfect spooky decoration to guide your guests to the restroom. Read more
Aug 6, 2020
1:05 PM
Billie Eilish Costume
This BILLIE EILISH CLASSIC GREEN CHILD COSTUME from Disguise includes the top, shorts, headwrap and mask. Item #112579. Read more
Aug 6, 2020
1:09 PM
Product Parade: Dreamgirl Hot Haunts
Dreamgirl: Hot Haunts - Prince of Darkness, style 11939, has a rich velvet tunic with large pentagram patch and attached cape. Also includes belt with attached chains and pentagram charms. Princess of Darkness, style 11940, offers a sleek zip front f Read more
Aug 20, 2020
3:02 PM
Product Parade: Farthingales Rigelene
Woven boning a.k.a. Rigelene is an amazingly versatile product for costumers to create light weight apertures for unique shapes. It comes in various widths and in both black and white. You can cut it with scissors and sew through it, making it easy t Read more
Aug 20, 2020
3:06 PM
Smiffys Announces Launch of New Wig Line in Partnership with Manic Panic®
Smiffys is delighted to announce the launch of their dazzling new range of licensed wigs in partnership with Manic Panic, the leaders in creative hair color and cosmetics. Read more
Oct 5, 2020
5:12 PM
Product Parade: Shimmering Straw Cloth
Celebrate the holidays with fashionable, shimmering straw cloth. Metallic Lurex blended in the weave of Abaca and Pinokpok fabrics. Both are 36 inches wide and sold by the yard and half yard. The Metallic Paris Cloth Abaca has a regular price of $17. Read more
Nov 24, 2020
5:48 PM
Features
First Person: Nigel FeBland, Veteran Costume Industry Sales Rep
Veteran costume industry sales rep Nigel FeBland was recently interviewed by APDSP Executive Director Ed Avis. Here is a “first-person” article about FeBland based on that interview. Read more
Dec 24, 2020
12:42 PM
New NCA Member Go Fun Face: Animal Mask Idea Born on a Plane Ride
The story sounds like a cliché: Guy on a plane strikes up a conversation with the guy in the next seat, talk turns to business, and by the time they land they’re partners in a new company. Only happens in the movies, right? Well, that’s pretty much h Read more
Dec 9, 2020
11:46 AM
Vadym Drobot
Are You Using Your NCA Benefits?
Are you taking advantage of your NCA member benefits? If not, you're missing out on thousands of dollars of savings and having many valuable resources at you fingertips! Here are just some of the benefits you can access: Read more
Nov 24, 2020
4:48 PM
How Was Halloween? NCA Survey Says Not So Good
Depending on who you talk to, Halloween 2020 was either fantastic or a complete bust. The NCA’s own survey, sadly, leans towards the “bust” side of that spectrum. Read more
Nov 11, 2020
4:25 PM
NCA Members: HQ Has Your Back
I know it’s been a crazy, scary, gut-wrenching year so far. Between COVID shutdowns, protests and looting, hurricanes in the Southeast and forest fires in the West, it seems like the body blows keep coming. Now we are on the eve of Halloween – which Read more
Oct 29, 2020
11:05 AM
No Disappearing Act: Stoner’s Funstore Keeps the Magic Alive
As we were researching an article about selling magic tricks and supplies in costume shops, the first few people we spoke to said that the internet has severely cut into their sales of those items. We were starting to lose hope for the topic until we Read more
Oct 29, 2020
10:47 AM
Disguise: Gaming and Adaptive Costumes Key to Success
Disguise was one of eight NCA Vendor Members who supported the association’s Help Halloween Happen campaign. In this Q&A with NCA Executive Director Ed Avis, Disguise General Manager Tara Hefter explains how the company finds and develops its costume Read more
Oct 10, 2020
3:05 PM
Zagone Studios’ Franco Pacini: Pent-Up Demand Will Help Halloween Costume Sales
Zagone Studios was one of eight NCA Vendor Members who supported the association’s Help Halloween Happen campaign. In this Q&A with NCA Executive Director Ed Avis, Zagone Marketing Director Franco Pacini predicts a successful Halloween. Read more
Oct 1, 2020
3:42 PM
Scott Morris: Halloween Décor Sales Dodge COVID Effect
Morris Costumes was one of eight NCA Vendor Members who supported the association’s Help Halloween Happen campaign. Morris Costumes is involved in the costume business in three channels: They operate several retail stores; they manufacture and distri Read more
Oct 1, 2020
3:46 PM
Theatre or No Theatre . . .
Editor’s Note: With the business world all topsy, turvy these days, nobody can be quite sure where the costuming is headed. Hearing from NCA members is one way we try to keep our finger on the pulse of the industry. Here, NCA board member Gene Flahar Read more
Sep 28, 2020
2:52 PM
Dreamgirl: We Can Make This a Great Halloween!
Dreamgirl was one of eight NCA Vendor Members who have supported the association’s Help Halloween Happen campaign. In this Q&A with NCA Executive Director Ed Avis, Dreamgirl President Barry Revzen and National Sales Manager Gihan Gabor discuss the co Read more
Sep 24, 2020
3:37 PM
Ghoulish Productions: Helping Halloween Take the Stress Away
Ghoulish Productions was one of eight NCA Vendor Members who have supported the association’s Help Halloween Happen campaign. In this Q&A with NCA Executive Director Ed Avis, Ghoulish Sales Director Esteban Esponda and Sales Manager Adriana Espinosa Read more
Sep 24, 2020
3:34 PM
“Blood and Guts” Leading Sales at Graftobian
Graftobian Make-Up Company was one of eight NCA Vendor Members who have supported the association’s Help Halloween Happen campaign. In this Q&A with NCA Executive Director Ed Avis, Graftobian President Eric Coffman discusses the company’s views on th Read more
Sep 16, 2020
7:40 PM
Curtains Up Costumes Liquidates Stock: NCA-member shop offering great prices on high-quality inventory
From Head to Toe, One Costume or Your Entire Show…For more than three decades, that has been the scope of the inventory Curtains Up Costumes in Keota, Iowa, has offered professional and amateur theatre groups looking for high-quality, artistic costum Read more
Sep 16, 2020
2:34 PM
Five Generations Keep Arlene’s Costumes Going
No matter what your age, when you think of incredible costumes, you think of Arlene’s Costumes in Rochester. The store, which offers costumes for children and adults as well as makeup, accessories and novelties to meet its theatrical, business, schoo Read more
Sep 14, 2020
3:24 PM
History Corner: 1928 Costumer: Hallowe'en Issue
The NCA was only about five years old -- and newly incorporated -- when this issue of Costumer magazine was published. This sample of pages includes some interesting ads and an article about Halloween (or rather, Hallowe'en). Enjoy! Read more
Sep 3, 2020
10:26 AM
Spread ‘Em Out: How to Space Out Your Halloween Customers in the COVID Era
Everyone needs more customers right now, but nobody wants crowds potentially spreading COVID. With Halloween on the horizon – and hopefully lots of costume and makeup sales – how do you address this conundrum? By incentivizing customers to shop early Read more
Aug 20, 2020
2:37 PM
“Can I Try It On?” A Scary Question in the Time of COVID
When a customer walks into your store and starts looking around, you know that eventually he or she is going to find something to like. Back in the B.C. times (Before Covid), you’d gladly let that customer try on a costume or mask and never think twi Read more
Jul 23, 2020
4:14 PM
NCA Survey: Just a Trickle of Customers, Worried about Halloween
A survey of costume businesses in late June showed that shops are slowly reopening, but customers are not flooding back. Read more
Jul 9, 2020
4:09 PM
Safety Top of Mind as Atlanta Costume Shop Reopens
If anyone wonders how seriously Costumes ETC in Atlanta, Georgia is taking safety as it reopens, one sentence sums it up. Even the costumes are quarantined! Read more
Jul 9, 2020
2:58 PM
5 Ways You Can Beat the 90-Day Stores this Halloween
Halloween used to be great for costume shops, right? All those folks piling into the store to get their costumes for trick-or-treating or parties meant your cash register was smokin’! Read more
Jun 25, 2020
4:12 PM
7 Takeaways from Today’s Halloween 2020 Webinar
Halloween is going to happen! That was the key lesson from today’s NCA webinar on Halloween 2020. Despite the COVID fears and general anxieties in the world at the moment, people want to get out and celebrate. Read more
Jun 25, 2020
3:52 PM
Video Posted: Webinar on Reopening Your Costume Shop
The end of the COVID shutdown is near, and some costume shops have already started opening. In this webinar, we heard from three costume shop owners who have reopened -- Janine Caufield of Caufield's in Louisville, KY; Caren Bricker of Vintage Ooolee Read more
May 28, 2020
12:52 PM
Shifting Strategy at Performance Studios: Inventory for Sale
The COVID crisis dealt a blow to sales at Performance Studios in Antioch, Tennessee, just like at every other costume shop. But because much of the company's business has been based on events, and all of them have been cancelled, the situation is dir Read more
May 27, 2020
4:17 PM
March Ahead with New Mask Marketing
While many states are lifting stay-at-home orders and allowing businesses to re-open, nothing is likely going to be “business as usual” for some time. And whatever the next several months bring, masks are going to be a big part of the picture for you Read more
May 14, 2020
5:24 PM
Costuming News
NCA Vendor Promotions for 2021 Announced
The NCA has a lot of ways for costume vendors to reach its members, who represent the heart of the retail costume industry. Here are three upcoming promotions: Read more
Jan 21, 2021
3:55 PM
Obituary: Carrie Louis Sudor
Carrie Louise Sudor of Monessen, PA passed away on Jan. 4, 2021 at 95 years old. She was the wife of Bill Sudor who was well known to the NCA, working to Rep Franco American Novelty Co. Bill was also an NCA Honorary Life member. The family has reques Read more
Jan 20, 2021
9:43 AM
Videos Posted of NCA Zoom Fashion Shows!
The first-ever NCA Zoom Fashion Show inspired buyers over three days this week! The events, which ran from Monday through Wednesday for about an hour each day, attracted between 30 and 60 attendees each day. A total of 13 exhibitors – all of whom are Read more
Jan 14, 2021
3:00 PM
Special Offer: Free Shipping and Hand Sanitizer
NCA Vendor Member Graftobian has a special offer for NCA retail members: Free ground shipping on wholesale orders over $300 & Get 10 Free Bottles of Hand Sanitizer Spray Read more
Jun 25, 2020
2:29 PM
Costumes by Margie Closing
The owner of NCA member Cher's Costumes by Margie, a costume shop that has served Indianapolis for 50 years, has decided to close the business. Owner Cheryl Harmon posted this message on Facebook on June 10: Read more
Jun 25, 2020
4:34 PM
Dallas Costume Shop Benefits from Couple's Gift
A retired SMU professor and his wife, a retired florist, let their stimulus checks sit in their bank accounts for a month before a Dallas Morning News article helped them decide how to spend their combined $2,400. Read more
Jun 25, 2020
4:38 PM
Broadway shops launch Costume Industry Coalition
A group of more than 40 small business owners, whose costuming businesses create pieces for theater, television, film and more, have created the Costume Industry Coalition to lobby legislators for rent abatement and to try to gain input into the reop Read more
Jul 9, 2020
4:14 PM
Home-bound family dines in costume—for 60 days!
“Quarantheme dinners.” That’s what Heather Zipser and her family call the daily dinners they’ve been eating, in costume, since mid-April. It was one month into the coronavirus pandemic when the 39-year-old mom from Indian Harbour Beach, Florida, coax Read more
Jul 9, 2020
4:15 PM
Check Out the New NCA Digital Catalog
Making connections between NCA Buyer members and Vendor members is an important role of the association. That's the idea behind the 2020 NCA Digital Catalog, a 72-page online catalog packed with interesting products from 20 NCA Vendor members. Read more
Jul 9, 2020
4:52 PM
New NCA Member Database Underway
Managing all the data involved in an association can be daunting. Fortunately, there are several online systems that help association administrators effectively manage that data, and the NCA has been using a system called MemberClicks for the past se Read more
Jul 23, 2020
4:33 PM
Missing Comic-Con? Check Out These Costumes
Of all the events canceled because of the coronavirus, few are as lively and vibrant as Comic-Con. Every year, tens of thousands of people – many in elaborate costumes – convene in San Diego for a pop culture extravaganza. Hollywood studios peddle th Read more
Jul 23, 2020
4:43 PM
Halloween Expert Predicts "Micro Parties"
Halloween expert Palmer Agencies has been planning for a ‘different’ Halloween, with micro house parties and smaller gatherings, as sales and marketing manager Sergio Battaner explains. Read more
Jul 28, 2020
9:35 AM
Hershey Sweetens Outlook for Halloween
Halloween won’t be the same as usual. But Hershey is confident the Halloween season will still be sweet—and in early July, the company debuted new Halloween candy that confirms that confidence. Read more
Aug 6, 2020
11:10 AM
Scaled Back but Still Happening: Halloween will go on in Salem
There’s no better place for Halloween lovers to celebrate than Salem, Massachusetts. The town near Boston—famous (or infamous) for the 1692 witch trials—is usually overrun with locals and tourists alike during Halloween season. Read more
Aug 6, 2020
11:12 AM
Missing Masks: Costume Store Owner Demands Answers from Sheriff
Annemarie Aldrich is hunting for answers. At the coronavirus pandemic’s outset, her store, Denton's Rose Costumes, began sewing masks for inmates and staff at the Denton County Jail. Dubbing the effort “Project Mask Makers,” Aldrich said volunteers d Read more
Aug 6, 2020
12:53 PM
