Express Costumes

I started my costume hire business almost 13 years ago now. The idea initially came to me when my husband and I needed to find fancy dress costumes for a friends birthday party. I was so disillusioned by what I found in the shops, I wanted genuine costumes, worn by real people with stories to tell. And so my quest began, I realized there was a definite gap in the market for hire costumes of quality. After many months of trawling the country without success, I eventually found a wonderful lady in the West Country who had been collecting and making costumes for theatre for many years. I was overwhelmed by the amount and quality of her collection and just had to have it!

I then had to find premises to house all these beautiful costumes and by sheer luck my local train station, on the main Portsmouth to Southampton line, had the first floor empty and up for rent. After many months of paperwork, cleaning and decorating, we moved in in November 2001 and began the mammoth task of hanging the costumes on rails in each of the five rooms. Straight away it was obvious the place was perfect for separating the styles into themes and we decorated the rooms to suit the eras. We have a ‘Funky Room’, a ‘Ladies Historical Room’, a ‘Men’s Historical Room’, a ‘Fun Room’ and a ‘Military Room’, all jam packed with costumes.

Costume for the races?

I have had to have newer, more contemporary costumes made but I always use top quality manufacturers, there’s quite a thriving fancy dress trade community in Britain and we have some fabulous seamstresses who have made me costumes for the likes of Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth, Adam Ant, The Riddler and Joker from Batman, as well as Medieval, Tudor, Victorian and Venetian styles. My first love though, is for the genuine vintage pieces – I have many original tailcoats and top hats from the 1920’s, military uniforms from WW2, 1950’s dresses and suits, 1960’s shift dresses and original shoes, handbags, fur stoles, jewellery and gloves from various decades. I often look at such items as trilbys and cravats and wish they could speak to me and tell me stories of times gone by…..

The uniforms in particular have a definite nostalgia to them – some still have their original ID labels on them and the date they were issued. One of the most striking aspect is the sizes – men and women were so much smaller in those days compared to now, a true example of how our way of life has changed over the decades. People often bring us in old uniforms that have been passed down through the generations or found in attics and I always pray that they will be of fairly decent size to fit our modern day gent!

I also have boxes upon boxes of bloomers, aprons, bonnets, hats, ties, braces, underskirts, ruffs, collars and cravats. It is one of our strengths to be able to fit a customer out in an outfit which suits that person individually – we mix and match bits and pieces until we get the desired look.

Military Hats For Hire

One of our busiest times is in September when Goodwood Revival takes place. As we are only 30 miles or so away from Goodwood, we get many people come to us for vintage styles and we see lots of the same faces year in and year out. The Revival revolves around the period from 1948-1966 which was an amazing time for fashion and we dress ladies up in teadresses, fur stoles, seamed tights, pill-box hats for the 40’s look, polka dot full skirts and petticoats, sunglasses and pearls and men in their suits or teddy boy jackets and creepers for the 1950’s and early 60’s then of course, the Mary Quant/Biba, beehive and mod look of the mid-60’s.

Alice in Wonderland Costumes

We also supply to drama groups and production companies who are perhaps making a film and need period costumes. We love doing that type of work because they are usually looking for daywear, more of the ‘normal’ clothes people wore during the day rather than the glitzy, glam rock styles of the 1970’s /80’s pop star era. It is satisfying for us to be able to use our genuine vintage outfits which, after all, are a true reflection of what people actually wore in those days!

120 Year Old Louis Heel Shoes

I also have quite a few pieces which are just too fragile to hire out including ‘Louis’ heel shoes which I would estimate are at least 120 years old, antique lace blouses and underwear. Again, if only they could talk …

Article by:

Maureen Pallot

Express Yourself Costume Hire Ltd      

www.expressyourselfcostumehire.co.uk