From Regency gowns to cowboy chaps, Oregon Shakespeare Festival does brisk business in costume rentals

For more than 20 years, Oregon Shakespeare Festival Costume Rentals has been making costumes and accessories created for its productions available to rent by local theater companies, academic institutions, film and photo shoots, and TV shows like “Saturday Night Live.”

OSF Costume Rentals Supervisor Celina Gigliello-Pretto and OSF Director of Productions Malia Argüello joined OPB’s “Think Out Loud” to talk about OSF’s vast collection, starting with how the festival started renting costumes to other organizations.

“I think it was just a combination of having something and needing something, honestly,” Argüello said. “We create so many costumes for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and our artisans are absolutely incredible.

“We realized there really was a life beyond just OSF. And wanting to share the artistry of our staff and, of course, create some revenue for the theater, because theaters are always looking for revenue.”

Argüello said OSF has a uniquely expansive costume stock with more than 30,000 costumes and accessories.

“Being able to store that much, take care of that much, we’re very lucky to have a staff who knows the inventory and can help other organizations out to find what they need, because they have such an encyclopedic knowledge of what’s there,” she said.

Organizations can browse the online catalog, add to cart and check out. After completing a rental agreement, the costumes are boxed and shipped across the continental U.S.

OSF has institutional discounts to assist organizations with costume rentals, but they don’t currently rent to individuals. Gigliello-Pretto said final sales to individuals are something that’s under discussion for the future.

In October, OSF shipped an inky blue robe with gold threading on the collar and sleeves overnight to New York, where it was worn by Bad Bunny on Saturday Night Live. The Puerto Rican rapper was a guest host on the show. He wore the robe in a skit where he played a Spanish nobleman from the Middle Ages.

“I do love seeing the clips they come up, and I’ll go, ‘Oh my God, they actually used it,’” Gigliello-Pretto said. “I love our relationship with SNL. We’re very grateful for it.”

The costumes are stored in a 72,000-square-foot warehouse located in Talent, separate from the OSF campus in Ashland.

“I love the reaction that people have when they walk in. They just have never seen that many clothes in one space before,” Gigliello-Pretto said.

The vast digital inventory includes thousands of costumes and accessories, from elaborate Elizabethan gowns and silky Regency dresses to velour smoking jackets and butterfly-collared shirts, organized by era in the room.

Gigliello-Pretto said she notices trends in the requests for costumes. For example, Victorian-era costumes are in greater demand around Christmas, when theaters stage productions of “A Christmas Carol” and “Christmas at Pemberley.”

Netflix’s hit Regency-era show Bridgerton has also had an impact, according to Gigliello-Pretto.

“A lot of people, since Bridgerton came out, a lot of high schools were really interested in doing Pride and Prejudice and things like that. So we’ve also beefed up our Regency era a little bit since then,” she said.

The costumes are built to be alterable and sturdy enough to withstand many productions.

“Every closure and trim, zipper, button … all of that is designed and put into that garment specifically for that show, for that world,” Gigliello-Pretto said. “The product is just not the same as something you could buy at Forever 21 or H&M or The Gap.”

“The fabrics are going to be thicker, the zippers are going to be sturdier. Everything is made to last,” Argüello said.