Vintage studded jersey dress, YSL boots, Iosselliani ring, Givenchy makeup bag worn as clutch.Part of me doesn't want to share this information, since this is currently such a quiet, secret sale I almost want to keep it for myself. Odds Costume Rental (231 W.29th Street, 3rd Floor, open to 4pm), an industry rental resource for over twenty years, is closing its doors next month, and are currently putting their entire enormous archives on sale. For the past few weeks, the sale has been open only to designers, costumers, and stylists, but according to the ladies who run the sale, it will be opening to the public starting this Friday. Yesterday, Christina, Brandon and myself stopped by to do some shopping (thanks to a tip from Hector at Frank Tell), and I went back again this afternoon to take some pictures.
The sheer volume of goods is daunting to say the least---racks upon racks of clothing organized by decade and style, in addition to rows and rows of boxes full of shoes, hats and accessories. While they have your typical selection of vintage shop finds (40's house dresses, 70's polyester dresses, 80's spandex, etc), they additionally have plenty of amazing costume pieces that would be difficult to find anywhere else. Racks full of Victorian dresses with petticoats that weigh in at over forty pounds, 1890's mutton sleeved jackets with matching ballooning bloomers, Marie Antoinette styled dresses, bustle pads, and full-on Renaissance fair outfits are some of the more unusual and incredible highlights that had my jaw dropping. And of course, they had outfits for any Halloween costume that you could dream of, from Santa's little helper to a burger chef. You could easily spend hours wandering through the overflowing aisles, and thankfully since the sale was still semi-private, there were only a few other people shopping, almost all of whom were costumers pushing fully loaded shopping carts.
The only thing that was disappointing were the prices, which were just slightly below your average Manhattan vintage shop. While you will find a few bargains, and you can haggle on the prices, they will only give discounts if you are either buying in bulk (like forty pairs of trousers), or if the item is truly damaged. Much to my irritation, a hole, or anything that requires a little bit of hand stitching, does not count as damaged, since, as a costumer or a designer, you can obviously mend this yourself (or at least, so goes their logic while arguing with me, I personally believe that damaged is damaged). And even though there were a lot of things I loved, I only picked up this black studded dress with metal latch openings in the front that reminded me of Thierry Mugler via Hot Topic. It needs mending in several spots, but I picked it up for $20.
Anyway, it's definitely worth stopping by. It is worth noting that many of the items are worn and need some small repairs, and also, I noticed that many of the best women's costumes were on the small side---usually my size (I'm a zero or a 2), or smaller. They will be closing the first week of July, and the ladies expect things to be cleared out as soon as they open the doors to the public on Friday. Go ready to scavenge and haggle, here's just a tiny sampling of what they have in stock...
The places is crammed with rack upon rack of costumes.
From the section devoted to Victorian underwear and crinolines.
The maribou boa section.
The beginning of a long rail full of Renaissance and medieval styled dresses.
A Stevie Nicks style lace maxi dress from the "hippy" section was so ethereally dreamy I almost bought it, but it was still $85 and full of stains so I passed.
One of the accessory drawers was full of these amazing straw bags.
70's sequined dresses
Most of the accessories were organized in these banker boxes with descriptions on the outside.
A Marie Antoinette style costume that weighs around forty pounds, and is almost impossible to get on.-Tiffany
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