Curtain falls on costume shop

Photo: Google Street View

After serving Kamloops for 16 years as a year-round costume rental shop, Pandora’s Costume Box will be celebrating its final Halloween season in a retail space.

At the end of this year, the costume shop will be closing, bringing the curtain down on almost two decades of playing dress-up. Owner/operator Marian Truscott, a professional costume designer, will be retiring from the retail sector to pursue more of the costume design work for the theatre that has long been the heart of the business.
 
The past year alone has seen Truscott design productions for Western Canada Theatre and Project X Theatre Productions Society in Kamloops, as well as Theatre North West in Prince George. She has also been kept busy mentoring students in the Thompson Rivers University Theatre department.

Closing the retail operation of Pandora’s Costume Box will allow Truscott to focus more completely on upcoming designs with numerous theatre companies. This closure will also allow her the freedom to accept design contracts previously made impossible due to the time constraints of running a retail business.
 
This closure will result in a once in a lifetime opportunity. In the next few months, Pandora’s Costume Box will be selling off 95% of its rental stock.

Marian has had a part in designing or sewing more than 50 per cent of the over 4,000 costumes in the inventory. She has been collecting, designing, and sewing costumes for the past 30 years and has always resisted selling the most precious parts of her inventory. Until now.

Though 5% of the inventory will be retained for use in upcoming theatre productions, 95% of the stock will be sold off. As well, all new retail accessories will be 25% off.
 
In order to prepare, the store will be closed starting Friday Sept 12 and reopening Thursday September 18 for our “Once in a Lifetime” sale.
 
Store hours will be Tuesday, Thursday, Friday  11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Saturday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. for the rest of September, with extended hours starting in October.
 
We would like to thank all of our customers  who have supported us over the years and made Pandora’s Costume Box such a success. If you have a favorite costume from years previous, it could now be for sale.