Company Costume Sale

A week...two weeks ago? It's hard to keep track...the Company had a huge costume and props sale. I had been to one of these shindigs before, in DC, and scored an apron with french phrases, a men's button down to use as a night shirt and a nifty little 1960's honey/jam/jelly holder that now corals hair accessories in my bathroom, so I knew I wanted to check this one out. I don't go to these things for costumes, really, for they are usually well out of my price. Odd little knick-knacks that can re-purposed, however, are usually in abundance and made that much cooler for once being used in a production.

Chi.Roomie and I got in line about 90 minutes before the doors were opened, joining Freelancer and another friend who are more hardcore than we. Our group got in in the second round (they let people in 20 at a time) and made right for the Period room, where the flouncy dresses, cloaks, armor and petticoats could be found lining the walls. On retrospect, I prolly should have started in the modern room, since I knew I wasn't going to be coming home with a gown, but it was fun just to look through all the beautiful (and HEAVY) dresses before the racks had been picked clean.

Soon after I began exploring the racks I found a pretty little grey and rose silk dress for a fiver that looked about my size, so I grabbed it and headed over to some racks pushed along the far wall. The sale had a policy that for every item you bought, you could take something off of these racks and get it for free. The catch? Everything on the racks was distressed, bloody or muddy.

As I was looking for costume pieces anyway, I wasn't deterred and, being near the beginning of the sale, there were still a lot of good things to pick from, including a muddied dress the understudy used in the Midsummer Nights Dream that had been on at the theater I worked at in London.  That secured, I continued to glance over the offering when my caught sights of a really long train of grey-lavender satin peeking out from the bottom of the clothes. Tracking the fabric back to its origin, I found myself holding the most ridiculously awesome gown. Long, laced sleeves with pointed cuffs, empire waist, gobs and gobs of the aforementioned storm colored satin, a wilted bunch of fabric flowers at the bust and, to top it all off, a train longer than I am tall. The reason it was on the damaged racks was that glorious train, from the bottom up to mid thigh, had been torn and distressed and was now this eerie bloodied-rust color.

It was amazing. It was beautiful while also being creepy and a little insane, combining the best parts of Ophelia (post drowning), Miss. Havisham (mid-fire) and some kind of murderous wood nymph.

It also now lives in my closet.

That find would have been enough, but the day was young and I had more sniffing about to do. At the end of it all, I brought back home:

• the silk dress
• the witches dress
• muddied dress from Midsummer Night's Dream
• muddied petticoat from Taming of the Shrew
• a kelly green silk tank top
• three shirts from Hamlet
• shirt from Much Ado About Nothing
• t-shirt with a bloody gash
• a shift dress covered with feathers...I have no idea, but it was free
• shirt worn by Poster Boy in Midsummer Night's Dream

That last shirt was magic. Taming, Hamlet and Midsummer were the three shows I worked around when an usher, so I was particular keen to find things from any of those three, especially anything worn by Poster Boy. The men's modern dress shirts, however, were kept in a large series of gigantic cardboard boxes, with only a cursory attempt to sort them by colored, white or patterned distinctions. Getting to the modern room later in the day, I despaired at finding anything worthwhile.

Since I wanted the shirts anyway, though, I began a half-hearted hunt. Immediately, I was rewarded with a shirt used by my friend's favorite actor from the Hamlet run, and so snagged that for her. Two more Hamlet shirts quickly followed and then...nothing. Stalled out. Piled shirt upon shirt upon shirt in a quest for anything remotely interesting, and found nothing. Tried the colored and patterned shirts as well, but they were equally useless.

So, I went back to perusing the room. I was on my way out when it occurred to me I had four shirts in my arms, and the deal was five for three. Resigned to disappointment, I went back to the patterned bin and dove down to the bottom, where collars were still aligned, making the tags easy to read. Third one? Poster Boy. Winner = me.

Total damage? 16quid. Thanks for being awesome, Company Costume Sale!

(Pictures will follow at some point, I promise)