Inside a weird and wonderful costume geek's paradise
LONDON -- Sure, you could stick on sexy cat ears or a white sheet with eye holes and call it a day.
Or you could hire a magnificent period costume made by the finest designers in the theatre world.
Britain's National Theatre is one of the world's premiere theatre companies -- known for its period dramas, Shakespeare productions and contemporary plays. As such, they go through a lot of costumes -- which go on to live second lives in a rather magnificent warehouse space in south London.
Astoundingly, they're all available for anyone to hire for a week.
Holly Hobbs, deputy manager of the costume hire department, gave Mashable a closer look at the endless rails of wonderfully made costumes.
"The costumes are custom-made for the actors and they can go back 20 to 30 years," she said.
Every costume has sewn inside it the number of the production and the name of the actor who wore it.
"So there's the occasional B. Cumberbatch," Hobbs said.
No such Cumberbatch luck on this visit. But it's easy to lose track of time in this magical place, imagining what it would be like if you were just more creative.
For Halloween, people often already have their makeup in mind, and they want to be some sort of zombie. That means the period costumes are hot items.
Other popular trends are 18th century, voodoo and Day of the Dead. "Classic gothic looks are always popular, " Hobbs said.
Sadly the theatre isn't well kitted out for one big trend this year -- astronauts.
"We get lots of requests for astronauts," Hobbs said. Space fans, time to submit your scripts to the National Theatre!
At the warehouse, the racks are organised decade by decade, starting with Medieval -- perfect for your Game of Thrones reenactment club. They go through the 1990s ('90s prom, anyone?) and various other categories.
But our favourite "category" was the area for the costumes that just didn't belong anywhere else.
To hire these costumes, just get in touch with the National Theatre's costume department and set up an appointment. You can either browse on your own and select a costume, or for an extra fee one of their experts can help you.
The hire prices are determined by item. A full outfit will cost about £80-£100 ($98-$123), plus VAT. You can also hire individual pieces, or just headgear. The minimum spend is £15.
As the costumes are custom-made for the actor, there's not much choice when it comes to size, unfortunately. For men the costumes can go up to about a 42/44 chest and for women about a size 12-14.
"Fake blood is our nemesis!"
There are fees if you do irreversible damage to the costume, but for superficial stuff, the wizards in the costume shop can probably fix it for a reasonable fee. Just be careful with the fake blood.
"Fake blood doesn't come out, no matter what the package says!" Hobbs said.
"Fake blood is our nemesis!"
The Costume Shop generally needs about a week to organise the hire and prepare the costume for you. So if you want to smash it at the Halloween party this year, get your order in by Oct. 24.
For inspiration we leave you with some more photos of this amazing place.
BONUS: D.I.Y. Stormtrooper costume
Liza Hearon was the Deputy Editor for Mashable UK. Liza started her career in journalism writing about punk bands for a 'zine in Florida, and her wanderlust has led her to work for news organisations in Russia, Japan and now London. Prior to joining Mashable, she was the European homepage editor for the Wall Street Journal. Liza loves podcasts, karaoke and really, really spicy food.
