Athens offers a variety of places to get costumes for Halloween.
From couples pairing your favorite pop culture duos to the more obvious sheet-ghost getup or scantily dressed outfits frequented at the Halloween Block Party, students and Athenians alike are frantically assembling their last minute costumes.
For Uptown Costume Shop, 12 S. Court St., Halloween is by far the shop’s busiest time of the year, but Jan West, a long-time employee, said the store receives many costume requests throughout the entire year.
“There’s a surprising amount of plays, students doing movies, church groups that do plays, photo shoots and all the socials for the sororities and fraternities and themed parties,” she said. “We have stuff for all of that. It keeps us busy all year. There’s stuff all year round in Athens.”
The Shop has a variety of pre-packaged costumes, individual pieces and rentable ensembles.
“Most of the things for rent are the more elaborate,” West said. “If you want to be the pope or a gorilla or a dog, you only want to do it once.”
To rent, there’s a rental fee and a deposit price, which the renter will get back as long at the costume is still in the same condition upon return. Rentable costumes allow for more intricate outfits at a fraction of the price.
Some of these rentable costumes are Willy Wonka, Austin Powers, medieval knights and a variety of different animals. Rentable costumes start around $10.
For the pre-packaged costumes, many stay the same throughout the years — such as sailors and stewardesses for women and Mario for men.
“We don’t really get into the trendy ones like Joan Rivers, because people can get that stuff online,” West said. “We have a large selection of costume-y clothes and vintage clothes for people who don’t want to be a packaged costume … A lot of people think it’s fun and more interesting and less expensive. You also don’t have to freeze.”
West said that she’s had a variety of different interesting requests for costumes or parts of costumes.
“Some guy wanted to be the ‘cats pajamas’ and wanted me to figure out how he could do that,” West said.
Her favorite costume was someone who put together a Marlboro Man costume — complete with a bandolier belt made from Marlboro cartons.
For Carly Preston, a freshman studying political science and journalism, the search was for two costumes. One night she’s going as Marina from the group Marina and the Diamonds while she’ll be donning a costume as the Adventure Time character Lumpy Space Princess.
While not a specific costume shop, Athens Underground, 90 N. Court St., specializes in antique and vintage clothing. The shop becomes very busy during Halloween season when people are looking for specific items for their costumes.
Barbara Stout, owner of Athens Underground, said she doesn’t get specific items around Halloween, but instead puts out more popular items — including ’80s neon tracksuits, flannel shirts, anything with the American flag on it and anything sparkly.
“We tend to sell a lot of corsets, but when it gets cold they come in and buy fake furs to put over them,” Stout said. “People who come to us are more looking for costumes that they’re putting together. At least some of the pieces they would wear again in real life.”
Each year, Athens Underground does a costume contest, where anyone can post a picture to the businesses Facebook page before Nov. 2 and get the chance to win an $100 gift certificate to the shop. The only rule is that the costume must have been put together by themselves, and entries are judged on originality, execution and presentation. Some of these costumes have included Medusa, a cupcake and American Gothic.
For both shops, popular costumes remain the same — flappers and gangsters, pink ladies and generic ’80s and ’90s characters.
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