Halloween draws costumers to Maude's costume collection
Wednesday, October 30, 2013 | 7:26 p.m. CDT
BY JAMIE NEWMAN, STEPHANIE BRAY
COLUMBIA — Weaving among the racks of vintage clothing on the main floor of
Maude Vintage, shoppers are led to an open door. Except for the month of October,
passage through that door requires an escort.
The doorway leads to a flight of stairs framed by clothing selected to spark costume ideas
for Halloween shoppers. Turn the corner, and you're in the middle of a basement full of
costumes.
There are 1920s flapper attire, gangster coats and hats, Elizabethan dress and gear
popularized by movie characters — Robin Hood, Peter Pan, clones from "Star Wars."
The costume rental aspect of Maude Vintage was a part of Crazy I's Thrift Shop before
owner Sabrina Garcia-Rubio came along.
When she moved to Columbia at 20, Garcia-Rubio had the opportunity to manage Crazy
I's Thrift Shop for six months. Owner Illene Vanabbema took notice to Garcia-Rubio's
business skills, despite her lack of formal training. Vanabbema had been running the
store for eight years and decided it was time to sell the business. She gave Garcia-Rubio
first dibs on the store.
"I felt like I had started a project with her store," she said. "I started making everything
really organized and clean; a real buying system. It was a project that I didn't want to
stop."
Garcia-Rubio purchased the thrift store in 2000.
In November, Maude's basement-housed costume collection will turn 21.. Most of the
costumes come from theater clean-out sales, but now that the store is well established,
Garcia-Rubio gets phone calls from theater groups, schools and small colleges who want
to donate costumes to the collection. Every other year she weeds out the costumes that
are stained or damaged.
Leading up to Halloween, Garcia-Rubio said foot traffic picks up and the store feels like
a "party," with groups of people bantering and talking.
"It's kind of cool to hear people getting to know each other, commenting on each other's
costume or being like, 'I really like that,'" Garcia-Rubio said. "It's elbow to elbow, and
everyone is looking to dress up because they intend to go out and do something fun."
Garcia-Rubio tries to imagine the costume room from the point of view of a customer
who has never been inside of a costume room like Maude's. She imagines that it can
potentially be a little overwhelming to find a certain look or get ideas.
She trains her staff to be full service and build a relationship with customers for the
costume rental aspect of the store.
"We want to get to know the person and what they are looking for; we do a complete
head-to-toe look with them, she said. "We're pretty full service and I think that's why we
get so many return customers who come back to us year after year."
Maude Vintage has lots of accessories in addition to just the costume including hats, wigs,
jewelry, face paint and more. | Fareeha Amir
The back of Maude Vintage's registration counter had a variety of masks that could be rented for
costumes on Wednesday. When they are working, the employees dress up in costumes during
October. | Fareeha Amir
Trischa Splitter, left, is helped by Maude Vintage store owner Sabrina Garcia-Rubio to make a
'50s housewife costume on Wednesday. Splitter rented the entire costume from the store for a
Halloween event. | Fareeha Amir