A high school Cinderella needs forty costumes by tech week, and nobody in the building sews. That is when theater costume rental companies earn their keep. This rating is for directors, drama teachers, community theater boards and small opera companies that have to put a full look on stage without building a wardrobe from scratch.
Selection started with houses that actually ship show packages, not party shops with a rack of pirate hats. The theater costume rental companies gathered here were compared on the size and honesty of their stock, whether costume plots exist for the titles schools license, sizing range for real casts, alterations and pressing before shipment, rental length and how it lines up with dress rehearsals, deposit and damage terms, shipping reach, and whether the phone is answered by someone who has worked backstage. Quotes are per production, so the fine print on cleaning fees and late returns matters as much as the headline number.
The order belongs to the community: the editors assembled the list, the votes move the positions. Before a deposit leaves your account, read the pros, the cons and the reviews in each card, and pay attention to the notes about appointments, walk-in hours and who is even allowed to rent.
Norcostco traces its costuming back to 1884 and now works out of five locations: the Minneapolis headquarters plus Atlanta, Dallas, Denver and a New Jersey sales office. Costumes are designed, built and cleaned in house, plots are on file for more than 500 shows, and sizing runs 30 to 68 chest in suits and 24 to 60 bust in dresses. The same company supplies Ben Nye makeup, drapery, rigging and stage lighting, so one purchase order can cover most of a production.
Best fit is a school or community theater that wants a costumer to hand pick a plot, ship it, and take the grease paint and gaffer tape order in the same call. Garments are cut to allow alterations and cleaned in a water based process, which matters when a cast shifts in February. Anyone hoping to browse a full catalog online will be disappointed: rentals begin with a conversation, quotes arrive by email, and the New Jersey address is an office rather than a show floor.
825 Rhode Island Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55426
A nonprofit rental program run by Theatre Development Fund since 1974 and stocked largely by donations from Broadway, touring and regional productions. The collection occupies a 16,000 square foot space at Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens and holds roughly 100,000 pieces, from Egyptian through the late twentieth century. Nonprofits, schools, colleges and religious groups pay deeply discounted rates; commercial productions pay considerably more. In a typical year it dresses hundreds of productions in dozens of states.
It suits a group with a designer who wants to pull garments by hand and accepts that a real Broadway piece sometimes needs a repair. Staff will pull to a plot or a measurement sheet for a fee and photograph the choices before shipping. Visits happen by appointment booked at least a day ahead, slots are limited, two visitors at a time, so a last minute raid is out of the question. Dry cleaning is billed on top of the rental.
34-12 36th Street, Lower Level Suite 1, Astoria, NY 11106
Marilynn Wick started this business in 1973 with a single handmade Santa suit, and the company now claims one of the largest costume holdings in the country: more than 42,000 square feet of hanging stock in Pompano Beach, Florida. The archive includes originals from over 35 Broadway productions, among them The Producers and Titanic, alongside armor, mascots, military uniforms and masquerade pieces. Production rentals are handled through a separate site with plots and photographs, while the showroom stays open to visitors on weekdays.
A good match for a company that wants a recognizable Broadway silhouette and does not mind renting from a house that also sells retail and teaches workshops. The team selects, fits and ships anywhere in the country. Everything begins with a call or an inquiry form, so leave time for the quote, and note that the retail arm and the production arm live at different web addresses, which trips up first time renters.
2313 NW 30th Place, Pompano Beach, FL 33069
Chicago's oldest costume house, opened in 1886 as Fritz Schoultz & Company to dress society masquerades and early American opera productions. Inventory now runs past 300,000 pieces with a deep library of costume plots, and much of the rental stock has moved to the Montrose Avenue shop while the offices remain on West Cermak. Makeup, facial hair, wigs and accessories are sold rather than rented.
It works as a Midwest workhorse: high schools, colleges, national tours and corporate galas all pull from the same racks, and costumes go out altered, cleaned and pressed. Student sizing starts around a youth 4 and climbs well into adult ranges, which covers most casts without custom work. Email brings the fastest reply, business hours are weekdays 9 to 5, fittings are by appointment, and the website functions as a request point rather than a shoppable catalog.
1100 W Cermak Rd, Suite B302, Chicago, IL 60608
A Southern California costume house in Upland with more than forty years of production contracts and a stock the company puts above 200,000 costumes. Show designers assemble whole plots, tailor to measurements and ship nationwide, and producers planning a season can request budget estimates drawn from existing plots. The Benson Avenue store also rents to individuals, with retail hours on Saturdays.
Useful for a director who wants one person accountable for the look of the show, and for the parent who inherited the costume job by accident. Designers may book an appointment, walk the warehouse and pull their own choices; contracted shows get photo call costumes at no extra charge. Two caveats worth knowing: police, firefighter and Nazi uniforms are not rented at all, and during show season the shop is genuinely swamped, so calling ahead beats dropping in.
1400 N Benson Ave, Upland, CA 91786
A Philadelphia costumer working since 1876, assembled over the years from Miller Costumier, Irvin Stern's Carousel Costumes and Uniforms by Pierre. The Old City building holds a rental stock the company counts past a million pieces, and tailors still cut and build on the premises. Schools and theatres get a standard twelve day rental, which puts costumes in the building in time for parades, tech week and dress rehearsals rather than the night before.
The process is paperwork first: digital forms cover looks, fabrics, sizes and delivery dates, so a production can be dressed without anyone travelling for fittings. Design meetings are available in person or online by appointment. Mascot manufacturing is a large share of the business, and the shop works with professional clients rather than walk-in Halloween traffic, so an individual after one costume should look elsewhere.
211 N 3rd St, Philadelphia, PA 19106
A family run Ohio house renting stage costumes since 1959, with the warehouse on Hayes Avenue in Fremont and a second store on King Avenue in Columbus. Stock sits around 50,000 garments aimed squarely at high schools, colleges, community theatres, opera and stock companies. Rentals ship to all fifty states, and the renter picks an arrival date that fits the rehearsal calendar instead of accepting whatever the carrier does.
The detail that earns repeat customers is the packing: each costume arrives bagged, tagged by character and fully accessorized, which spares a volunteer wardrobe crew a midnight sorting session. Ben Nye and Mehron makeup, wigs and shoes are sold alongside. The catalog is smaller than the giants in Chicago or Florida, plots come as PDF files rather than a slick browser, and in October the retail Halloween crowd fills the place.
3038 Hayes Ave, Fremont, OH 43420
A Syracuse company built for one job: renting complete show packages to schools, community groups and professional theatres. Costumes and props are made and maintained in house on Factory Avenue, and crates ship anywhere in the continental United States with the carrier arranged for you. The show list leans hard on titles schools license, junior versions included, and a few of those are limited to casts in grade six and above.
Terms are plain and strict. A signed contract, a completed customer profile and a non-refundable deposit of one thousand dollars lock a slot; the deposit cannot ride on a purchase order, although districts may settle the balance that way. The quoted price covers one week, counted from the Friday before opening through the final performance, with longer periods by arrangement. Inquire two to six months out, because popular titles vanish early.
108 Factory Ave, Syracuse, NY 13208
Disguises opened in Lakewood, Colorado in 1999 and grew into a 16,000 square foot store with a rental department the owners put above 100,000 costumes. The theatrical side, run under its own site, dresses school and community productions at reduced rates, whole shows or a handful of pieces, and ships nationwide. Retail racks, special effects makeup, wigs, masks and vintage clothing share the same building, so a director can walk in and see fabric in daylight.
A sensible first call for Rocky Mountain schools that want to inspect garments in person, and for small casts needing only a few looks. Middle school sizing has grown along with the junior licensing boom. Two things to plan around: inquiries submitted through the form get an answer in two or three business days, and from late September the Halloween crowd owns the store and the staff.
10500 W Colfax Ave, Lakewood, CO 80215
The newest name on this list, founded in 2021 by a group of Twin Cities designers and builders after the Guthrie closed its rental operation to the public. The Northeast Minneapolis warehouse covers roughly 14,000 square feet with more than 2,200 linear feet of hanging costumes, over 30,000 items counted, including donated Guthrie stock and the purchased inventory of Brian Berberich's Theatrical Costume Company. Periods run from ancient Greece through the twentieth century, plus a substantial distressed rack.
Renters pull from the racks with staff help, one costume or a full show, and shipping is available beyond the metro. Theater, dance and film companies use it alongside ordinary party guests. What it does not offer yet is a show by show plot library with a costumer assigned to your production, so a director without a designer does more of the thinking. The entrance sits at the back of the building by the railroad tracks.
3300 5th St NE, Suite E, Minneapolis, MN 55418