Whether you have an upcoming Halloween or Purim celebration, fancy dress party or your child just landed a role in the school’s exciting new theatre production, and you have been given responsibility for organising costumes.
But, you need to decide whether to hire a costume or buy one. Here are the pros and cons of each.
Pros of Buying a Costume
We all love going shopping for clothes, right! It’s no different when it comes to buying a fancy dress costume.
There are many reasons why people often choose to buy a costume for the event rather than rent one. Let’s run through options below!
1. Save Time in Your Busy Schedule
Over one-third of Australians say that they’re so busy with work that they can’t even take a holiday this year. How can they be expected to find and hire a costume every time they have an event? Then find the time to return it!
If you don’t like the hassle of costume hire shopping for an upcoming party or cosplay event, you may find it easier to simply buy a ready-made costume. We get it, it’s convenient and you won’t end up as the boring one!
When you buy a costume, you can quickly throw on your costume at short-notice before you head out of the door.
2. You Get to Keep it
If you like to own your clothes, then buying your costume is definitely an advantage for you.
Even if you never wear it again, it’s a memory that you’ll be able to hold onto forever. For some people, this is extremely important!
Plus, if it’s anything like at our house, all the costumes end up in the dress-ups tub, that the kids love to explore from time to time and create some pretty funny family memories.
Remember, you don’t have to return it with that impaling hangover!
3. It’s Brand New
Everybody is different and some people simply don’t like to put on something they know someone else has already worn, well buying a costume diminishes this concern. You’ll look forward to knowing that you are the first person to put a foot inside Thor’s boot
Cons of Buying a Costume
However, it’s not all great buying a costume. There are several disadvantages of splashing your cash on a new costume every time you’ve got an event.
1. Sometimes seen as pouring money down the drain
When you have put together your whole costume, it can be quite expensive by the time you get to the checkout.
You may think you’re going to wear the consume numerous times. However, you need to be realistic!
Are you really going to wear your angel costume again? When are you actually going to need to dress as a cowboy next?
Most costumes end up being thrown away after one or two times. This can amount to a lot of money being chucked away.
2. Clutters Your Wardrobe
Have you really got space for yet another costume in your wardrobe?
The Chewbacca costume you wore to the Star Wars themed party is not going to fit into your wardrobe without problems.
If you want to keep your clothes tidy, then costumes can clutter up your home quickly.
3. A Different Event, Requires a New Different Costume
Do you go to an annual Star Wars themed party? Do you regularly attend a comic book characters gathering?
Every time you have a costume party event or another theatre production, you’re going to require a new costume. Not everyone is going to appreciate you are wearing the same costume each time.
It’s pointless keeping your old costume around for the unlikely event.
4. Trends Move On
You may think that you’ve got your Halloween costume covered by buying a fancy dress outfit.
However, you’d be surprised by how quickly trends change.
You may think your devil’s costume looks great this year. However, did you not get the news that it’s a vampire Halloween this time.
Pros of Hiring a Costume
Now we’ve considered the best and worse of buying a costume, it’s time to check out the pros and cons of renting a costume.
1. Get the Right Costume
If you want to impress your friends or the audience at your next event, you should get the right costume.
It’s not realistic to buy a new costume every single time. But, you can hire one for the most specific events.
It’s not just the clothes either. You can get everything for your 1920s style party from the stunning jewellery to fancy hats, and all accessories for whatever theme you need.
2. Cheaper
You can spend hundreds of dollars on buying a costume. This can be a waste of money over time.
Hiring a costume is significantly cheaper than buying. If you’re on a budget, you can get a great costume much cheaper by renting.
3. So Much Fun to Hire a Costume!
If you hire a costume, you can have so much more fun. Just the act of hire shopping can be a fun afternoon with friends. Who knows, you may even walk out with a costume you never thought you would wear.
Your colleagues will never have any idea what you’re going to wear to this year company ball.
You can make sure everyone is excited to see what you’re going to be wearing for the costume party. This makes it all worthwhile!
4. Quality
There’s no comparison between the quality of the Captain America costume you bought for that Marvel Cosplay fancy dress event, and the costume for hire. Costumes for hire need to withstand being worn and washed week after week.
You won’t be faced with that dreadfully embaressing moment when you bend down to do up your Superman boots and suddenly feel that cold breeze!
Cons of Hiring a Costume
Now you know the pros of renting a costume, you’ll probably wondering about the downsides.
1. Responsibility
You may feel funny about hiring a costume, because the onus is on you. If Jon Snow was in a serious battle with dragons that night, and comes back worse for wear, you may have to cover the costs of cleaning and having it repaired.
However, as long as you take care of the costume, you’ll be fine.
Buy vs Hire a Costume?
If you have to decide whether to hire a costume or buy one, it’s not always easy to make a choice.
However, it certainly makes sense to hire a costume most of the time. This way you can get a better costume and save money at the same time.
If you want to learn more about the costumes we have available at our store, check out our online costume hire store here, or if you looking to buy a costume, check out our costume range available for purchase here.
