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Editor’s Note: 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 company’s views on the upcoming Halloween season and how Dreamgirl chooses its costumes.
Ed Avis: Dreamgirl does more than just costumes, so how important is Halloween to you?
Barry Revzen: Halloween is our most important time of the year. It’s especially important for our independent customers. We’ve been in this business since 12 or 13 years ago, and Halloween represents quite a bit of our overall volume.
Avis: What’s your best-selling costume this year?
Gihan Gabor: Our best-selling men’s costume is our King of Egypt costume, and in women’s our Little Red costume continues to do very well. I think the King of Egypt sells well because it gives our male costumer options. For example, if he has spent time working out, he will go with the sleeveless version to show off his arms.
We’re also starting to see an increase in our accessory business, which serves our DIY costumer who wants to take her basic costume and give it her own flair. We’re also seeing an increase in our plus-size business. We do it better than anyone else in the industry. We fit on a plus model and modifications just for her, so a costumer buying that costume walks out and feels good about herself.
Avis: How do you decide what costumes to add to your line?
Revzen: At the beginning of the year we look at what’s trending. Often a new movie will come out and we’ll want to design something around that theme. We also look at clothing design and see what’s hot in garments – is there a dress that just flying out of stores or a skirt that’s doing well? Our costumes are not worn just once – they’re designed to keep many years. So we often base our costume on a garment rather than a trend.
Once we have the themes and colors we put pen to paper. We have two costume designers and two lingerie designers, and a third one coming on soon. The designs always look amazing on paper, but they often have to be tweaked. We have great factories in China that work with us as partners. They help us tweak the designs – they’ll put a cloth to it, or a ribbon or bow, and then give suggestions as to how to bring down the price.
I lived in China for twelve-and-a-half years so I know my way around a factory and how they think and work. They’ll make suggestions and our designers will make suggestions, and eventually we get a design that will come in at a reasonable selling price in America.
Avis: You must have great connections with the manufacturers in China – tell us about that.
Revzen: Right. Even after I moved to California from China in 2013, I commuted back and forth for two-and-a-half years. I don’t own a business there anymore, but I still go back regularly and spend three or four months just to visit suppliers. I also have a team of seven people in China who make sure every shipment is inspected and double inspected. We’re probably the only costume company in the U.S. that performs quality control in China. If we find a problem there, we fix it there.
Avis: Barry, I understand you recently became the owner of Dreamgirl. Tell us about that.
Revzen: I’ve been running the business for nearly three years now, but I bought it from my ex-business partner just a week and a half ago (in mid-August). My heart and soul are in the business, my blood, sweat and tears. We are financially very stable, better than ever. My bank told me we are now their number one client in their portfolio. And I want people to know that we are in good shape because it gives them confidence to buy from us.
Avis: Returning to this upcoming Halloween, how do you feel it will be?
Revzen: There are all sorts of things we can do to make this a great Halloween! We need to let get the word out that Halloween is not dead. Let’s have some fun, even if it’s virtual. We need to tell customers online how they can do Halloween safety – like drive-by events and smaller family events in the garage or backyard. We need to get people out there and get them motivated – go have some fun! If Halloween can’t be everybody together, just do it another way.
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