Costumer

The closer it gets to October 31, the more crowded and frenetic this place will get. But unlike some fly by night costume shops, The Costumer is open all year round. That means it’s filled with a great curated selection, and stocked by people who care. It’s not just some opportunistic enterprise designed to empty your wallet in the pre-​Christmas hysteria that is Halloween
I’ve been here before in the pre-​Halloween chaos, and the store does a remarkable job in handling the influx. They’ve had some experience, and there is overflow parking in the back.
This most recent visit I came in to get the critical piece for my steampunk-​judge costume that I needed, not for Halloween, but for The Enchanted City in Troy. That was a bonafide old school judge wig.
It turns out that The Costumer has an entire range of Judges wigs, and while I wasn’t able to try them on, the woman who was helping me took them out of the packages and displayed them each on mannequin heads. I had never bought a wig before, so I found the selection and consideration a bit overwhelming. But the clerk was very patient with me, helped to explain all the ins and outs, and what one was paying for in the more expensive models.
I walked out with a mid-​priced wig, which was a huge hit at the festival, and really called a lot of positive attention to my judging duties in The Enchanted City.
My experience at The Costumer was fantastic. It’s great to see a costume shop with deep roots in the community, especially one that puts such care into customer service (at least in the calm before the Halloween storm).