Building a Costume Collection from Scratch

One of the production setbacks I faced when I started teaching at Lake Howell was that someone had accidentally discarded the theater department’s costume collection. All that was left were the things from the final production of the previous school year—two bright yellow wigs and a variety of tights. Coming from a school with multiple well-stocked costume rooms, I had never worried about acquiring costumes before. In the years since then, LHTC has been blessed with a very large costume collection. In today’s entry, I will give some ideas about acquiring costumes.

A photo of my classroom during my first week at Lake Howell High School (the entire costume collection is at right):

PUBLIC DONATIONS. Never underestimate the willingness of the public to donate amazing things for educational purposes. Many individuals have vintage clothing that they feel sentimental about but are glad to see used by budding actors on the high school stage: wedding dresses, military uniforms, prom dresses, etc.  All you need to do is find them, convince them to donate, and make them feel glad that they did. At the beginning of each school year, I place a donation-request flier in every staff member’s mailbox at our school, send one home with every one of my students, get it printed in the school newsletter and on the webpage, and hand it out at Parents’ Night. I place ads on free online networks like Facebook and Craigslist, and on bulletin boards at local grocery stores, and boldly ask yard sale managers if they might be willing to donate their leftovers to our school. Have your students write thank you cards to everyone, and include a note on school letterhead for tax deduction purposes. A sample flier:

RUMMAGE SALES AND RE-GIFTING. Part of my success in collecting donations is my complete willingness to take literally any type of clothing whether it would be useful to our theater department or not.  Many people who are donating clothing simply want to clean out an attic, garage or closet, and don’t necessarily want you to pick and choose what you are going to take. I have a team of students who enjoy sorting through the donations; we keep the good stuff, have a rummage sale to sell the rest for $1 an item, and send the leftovers to a local charity like Goodwill or the Salvation Army. 

BUSINESS PARTNERS. Another way to bring in donations is to contact local businesses that use uniforms and see if they might be willing to send some your way. Hotel valet uniforms can be used to make a wide variety of costumes, from Prince Charming’s somewhat generic military jacket to tunics for the Flying Monkeys in The Wizard of Oz. I was also pleasantly surprised to find several hotels had an overstock of themed costumes from past promotions  which they were glad to bestow upon a high school theater company—one hotel gave us dozens of pinstriped engineer coveralls, and another gave us a truckload of Hawaiian shirts and Tiki decorations. Theme parks, movie theaters, prom and tuxedo shops, security companies, restaurants, utility companies, and other businesses are all possible donors. I had a group of students brainstorm a list of local businesses to target, and had them take letters to the manager or owner of each business. We tracked our success so that we could hit up the same businesses again in a year or two.

YOUR SCHOOL DISTRICT. Your own school district is another resource for finding costumes. My county school system has a surplus warehouse, where old band uniforms and dance-wear go when schools buy new gear. The band jackets can easily be transformed into a variety of military and ceremonial uniforms, and much of the dance-wear that I’ve found has only been used for one season of Color Guard or Dance Team and then discarded. At the end of each school year I put another flier in all staff mailboxes requesting donations of unwanted clothing, books and furniture as they clear out their classrooms at the end of the year—more fodder for our annual rummage sale.

PARTNER WITH OTHER LOCAL SCHOOLS AND THEATERS. Another key element, in my opinion, is to build a mutually beneficial relationship with other local high school theater programs and community theaters. What is the point of four high schools each owning an identical set of Pink Ladies and T-Birds jackets? Sharing saves everyone money and storage space. Open up a dialogue with theater teachers at other schools—compare your upcoming production needs and see where you can help each other out. The same can work with community theaters as well.

INVEST IN A SEWING MACHINE. I can’t sew—not even a button onto my shirt—so I am always glad to find out that I have students and family volunteers who can. In order to take full advantage of their offers of help, I had the most experienced seamstress in the bunch pick out a sewing machine for me to buy for the classroom. On sale and with the school’s tax exemption, I got a great machine for $200. More and more of my students are learning to sew—it has been an excellent investment.

Because of my school’s generous allotment of storage space for our costumes, I have been lucky enough to go from half a rack of leftovers to a comprehensive collection that lends for free to all local schools, churches, community groups, and theaters that ask. Despite our large collection, we are still always inviting donations, running rummage sales, and actively building a better collection. If you have addition ideas for building a theatrical costume collection, please share them below. And I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of the hundreds of people who have so generously donated clothing items to Lake Howell Theater Company. Your kindness has provided a world of opportunity for my students and our community.

Some photos of one of our costume rooms today: