Tradition, history and theatrics are just a few of the things you’ll find at the Costume Closet. With so many items in their inventory, the Costume Closet is trying to simplify a daunting task, keeping the items organized with technology to the rescue.
Started in 1991 in the basement of The Aud Theatre, and residing in their new building since January 2, 2005; and this year they are celebrating their twenty fifth anniversary. With this milestone behind them, this Virden treasure is embarking on quite the transformation.
Part of Arts Mosaic, this little store located just off of Sixth Avenue and Wellington St. is run each and every year on volunteer hours. Last year, it took 1,293 hours with five to eight volunteers at six hours a week to keep up with demand. The gals do all of the laundry, sorting, maintenance, sewing and repairs.
Last year, they received and catalogued 1,095 items and loaned out a whopping total of 5,186 pieces.
Where did they all go? Other than the musical/theatre productions here in town, in Manitoba they went to: Minnedosa, McAuley, Souris, Reston, Hamiota, Oak Lake, Miniota, Elkhorn, Brandon, Carberry, Pierson, The Pas, Kenton, Pipestone, Deloraine, Cromer, Winnipeg, Alexander and Oak River.
In Saskatchewan: Fairlight, Moosomin, Weyburn, Whitewood, Rocanville, Welwyn, Maryfield, Wawota, Bellegarde.
Hazel Lamont, a regular volunteer reports that the musical group in Mossomin ‘can’t live without us’.
Fran Bayliss, one of the regular volunteers stated, “We have met a lot of people from all over Canada. It’s really amazing where the costumes go to- Australia, England, California, up North. They bring them on vacation with them.”
“We really try to accommodate people,” said Bayliss. A statement that truly captures the heart of the Costume Closet.
They have something for everyone here in the shop; with an estimated 26,000 items, which is just the clothes, hats and shoes; not to mention the jewelry, wigs and props.
“Halloween is a busy time of year for us,” said Lamont. “We have lots of little kid outfits: jumpsuits, animal, princess, and superhero costumes.”
It’s also not just for theatre productions and Halloween however. With many social gatherings having themes based around movies and time periods, the costumes go through a revolving door all year round.
“I just love it, it’s neat. It’s totally neat to see the stuff they have. It amazes me,” said volunteer Glenda Clarke.
If one were to need a costume from the 1920s all the way up to the ‘80s and ‘90s…the gals at the shop would be able to find something for you.
They even have an entire rack of medieval attire; as well as one for Hawaiian, wedding dresses, grad dresses, and two racks of fur coats. The fur coats have received much use this year as three bridal parties use them for outdoor pictures.
“I used to belong to a theatre group,” said Lamont. “If you’re going to have community productions and events, it needs to keep going. Where else are you going to get [costumes]?”
The problem, is all of these items are organized by a handwritten binder. With this binder, they check in and out, all of the pieces.
“We need to start looking at sustainability, because our regular volunteers won’t be here forever,” said Christa Milne, administrator for Arts Mosaic.
Last year Costume Closet acquired database software that operates through Microsoft Access and utilizes a scanner and barcode tag for each item.
As they do this, items receive an iron on barcode and then a picture- this is all stored in the database. Someone might email asking for an extra-large Hawaiian shirt. They’ll be able to check what’s in stock and even email back a picture from the database.
“I found this system out of Salt Lake City, Utah,” said Milne. “The creator of this software was amazed at the size of our last order.”
Milne went on reflecting, “I’d dare somebody to find an inventory this big in North America that’s housed in one building.”
The database will also be able to track costumes used for specific productions. Crazy For You had multiple racks of items for their production. If ever someone were to do Crazy For You again, the database will save all of the costumes used for this production, and can even record what piece was worn by each individual actor.
Currently the volunteer staff is going through each item and asking the hard decisions of what should be kept in the inventory or gotten rid of.
“We’re not a museum. If people are not taking it out, there’s not much use keeping it,” said Lamont.
“We’re not paid garbage men, people tell us that if we don’t need something to just throw it out,” continued Lamont, “People even come in to show off their Grandmothers wedding dress. We’re not a storage facility. Once something is donated to the Costume Closet, it’s ours to do with as we wish, which could mean being removed from our inventory.”
The Costume Closet is a gem that trumps collections found in big cities, and is nestled here in small town Virden.
As the process of going through these items one by one and entering them into the database is an incredible task; anyone wishing to assist with this can contact Christa Milne at Arts Mosaic.
