New Year's fashions arrive at Fantasy Costumes

15 Dec '11

3 min read

Fantasy Costumes Superstore, famous for its worldwide appeal in Halloween fashions, fulfills holiday wonder with a new glorious array of Christmas and New Year's Eve Masquerade Party choices.

“People will go to 10 different stores and not find what they want until they come here, “says George Garcia owner and proprietor of Fantasy Costumes located on Chicago's North side at 4065 N. Milwaukee Ave.

He describes how millions of dollars worth of inventory including 900 styles of kids' costumes offer an inviting enticement to celebrate the festive season.

While Halloween generates a major flood of business surpassing every other holiday of the year, Fantasy Costumes are open all year round, providing costumes and outfits, theatrical make-up and support for Christmas, New Year's, Valentine's Day, Saint Patrick's Day, to name a few.

“We do a thousand Santa Claus (costumes), reindeers, elves, snowmen, for Christmas. We do turkeys for Thanksgiving. We do high school plays, passion plays, churches – all different types of churches, during Easter we have over 300 Easter bunnies that go out every year. We offer all types of Biblical costumes. We have 30,000 units in stock: outfits for Christmas and Passion Plays, for Purim, Chanukah, and Kwanzaa.

With New Year's just around the corner, it isn't too late to plan a Masquerade to create the party atmosphere beyond even Mardi Gras expectations.

Sometimes hard to find props or last minute finishing touches can be a discouraging pursuit for a wearied patron, however Garcia stands by the ingenuity of his resource staff to locate any product inquired about by a customer.

Fantasy Costumes' sales are impacted by what is popular in pop culture as well as historical events.

“I didn't start out to be a costume shop,” says George Garcia, who pioneered the 47-year business. “We began on north Damen as a Natural Custom Wig Shop in 1967. We were Custom Wigs, Ltd.

“We'd always done wigs for theatre, drag shows and productions. Then we elaborated on wigs for cancer patients. We were doing a hundred people a day with cancer for years and years. It was getting depressing. So we started doing wigs for Halloween just for fun. And everybody who bought wigs or rented wigs at that time, and this was over 35 years ago, wanted first or second prize.

“So they'd always ask, 'can you do a little make-up, a little mask, a little this.' I really didn't want to do it, so I hesitated for a few years. Then I started buying a little make-up, a this and that. Everything started to escalate from there.”

Fantasy has swelled into more than just a glorified theatre/make-up/costume store. They have professional hair stylists and make-up artists and service attendants who speak 9 to 10 languages. They even used to do wigs and paraphernalia for Oprah.

Separated by category and design, Fantasy has enlarged areas that actually span the length ofone city block. Dressing rooms in the back provide ample room for customers to try on and consider the effect.

Fantasy Costumes

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