Props, Scenery, Costumes and Makeup: Will Anyone Share Costume Storage Ideas?

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Will Anyone Share Costume Storage Ideas?

Printed From: Community Theater Green Room
Category: Producing Theater
Forum Name: Props, Scenery, Costumes and Makeup
Forum Discription: For how-to's and where-can-I-find
URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5431
Printed Date: 5/12/25 at 5:40am
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Topic: Will Anyone Share Costume Storage Ideas?

Posted By: rabbifrank
Subject: Will Anyone Share Costume Storage Ideas?
Date Posted: 1/01/13 at 1:33pm

We are a fledgling community theater and setting up our costume, props and workshop rooms. Does anyone have good ideas for setting up the Costume Storage Room? Do you have all women's things together apart from the mens and childrens? Are costumes divided by eras? Themes? Colors? Plays?

Any ideas will be helpful as we are anxious to do this right the first time.

Replies:

Posted By: edh915
Date Posted: 1/02/13 at 11:59am

We have four separations: Men, Women, Boys, Girls.

Within those categories we have "historical" and "contemporary".

And within those categories we try to keep the colors together.

Then there's the "miscellaneous" section that we constantly work to keep under control; but there are so many things that aren't easily pigeonholed.

Note: All costumes should be cleaned and repaired after use. Never put dirty or torn costumes on the racks among the good ones. When you're hunting for costumes you have to know that everything on that rack is available for use.

Posted By: rabbifrank
Date Posted: 1/02/13 at 7:07pm

Thanks, edh915, I am sure our Costumer will appreciate your insight. Excellent, and already taken, point about damaged and dirty costuming.

I will pass this along.

Thanks!

Frank

Posted By: David McCall
Date Posted: 1/03/13 at 10:41am

I'm a tech guy so you can take this with a grain of salt. There might be difficulty drawing the line between children and adults. Perhaps male and female would be enough there.

You might consider eliminating most of the contemporary clothes because they are so easy to find. Just keep unique or special items (tuxedos for instance). Period costumes are usually worth keeping. I might add 2 more categories; animals and fantasy.

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David M

Posted By: rabbifrank
Date Posted: 1/03/13 at 1:26pm

David M

Points taken and seriously considered. Thanks!

Posted By: Topper
Date Posted: 1/21/13 at 7:48pm

Most costume shops I've seen are a wilderness of free association. This assures the wardrobe shop foreperson can never be fired because they are the only ones who can find anything.

That being said, dividing costumes by male and female is a good start. Within those groups, I've seen DOZENS of sub-categories: Formal wear & Evening Wear. Uniforms & Military. Victorian & Edwardian. Renaissance. Rustic & Western. Business. Etc. Etc. Etc.

Only if you plan to rent costumes should they be grouped by shows. And these must be catalogued or inventoried to assure that whatever is rented out is also returned in good condition.

Good luck!

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"None of us really grow up. All we ever do is learn how to behave in public." -- Keith Johnstone

Posted By: Majicwrench
Date Posted: 1/24/13 at 10:41pm

Unless you have a full-time costume person, keeping order is, IMHO, more work than it is worth. You can spend hours putting this with that. That said,

We do have a section that is almost all men's suit stuff.

We do have a section that is all dresses.

We do have a section for hats

We do have a section for "animal" type stuff.

So much costume can be either gender, and kids/adult is blurry as well.

Go for it and it will grow organically.

Keith

But stuff could be anywhere!

Posted By: rabbifrank
Date Posted: 2/17/13 at 9:10am

Thanks for all the valuable information.

We were very fortunate to receive a set of ten shelf units that are track units, they squash together and then you move them to the one you desire. Each shelf is 30" x 72" with 8 shelves on each. They have been a boon to us, especially for fabric, hat and small item storage. We also divided male and female and generic costuming on racks.