HOUSTON – If you're in the market for a costume, Halloween or otherwise, then you won’t want to miss this unique opportunity.
This Saturday, from noon to 4 p.m., Houston Grand Opera is having its second-ever costume sale.
The first was approximately 15 years ago and only consisted of about 100 pieces.
This one, however, is taking place at the HGO’s actual warehouse, 1977 Tellepsen St., 77023, and consists of roughly 7,000 pieces priced from $1 to $150.
“This is definitely kind of a once-in-a-lifetime thing. This will not happen again for a long time,” said HGO costume coordinator Clair Hummel.
These are props and costumes that have not only been worn on the HGO stage but have traveled the globe as a part of its rental program to other theater companies.
Plus they’re not your average costume shop quality.
A majority of what’s for sale was made in HGO’s own costume shop, which aims for the most authentic look it can get on stage.
“These are years and years of productions that have been produced here at HGO and these are just items that are no longer in rotation in the season and so we're ready to share them with the community, kind of share our art with the people,” said Hummel.
In fact, entire productions’ worth of costumes are up for sale.
Want to put on your very own "Babes in Toyland," "Madama Butterfly," "Carmen" or "Nixon in China"?
You can get every piece you need.
“It's really good timing for us. It's the beginning of our season, so we like to call attention to what's happening downtown at the Wortham but also it's in time for Halloween so again we want to help everybody out there have a really good Halloween this year,” said Hummel.
So what exactly can you find at the sale? We challenged Hummel to list as much as she could off the top of her head.
“It starts off with contemporary, so everyday dress, what we have on right now, men's, women's, shirts, pants, skirts, then we get into more period things, so with men we have doublets, we have breeches, we have frock coats, we have tunics, kimonos, capes, cloaks, uniforms, military. With women we have period dresses, vintage, 60s, 70s, going back to the 1800s, we also have hoop skirts, petticoats, all the underpinnings as well… we have shoes, both men and women, lots of boots. Cowboy boots, leather boots, rubber boats, women's heels, we have tap shoes if anyone is picking up a new hobby this year. We also have a lot of hats and masks as well… our prop section went through and cleaned out some things… pretty much anything you could think of we have out here,” Hummel said.
For more information you can visit the event’s facebook page here.