A little store on Bernard Avenue has had a hold on Halloween in Kelowna for the past 32 years and is still going strong.
It started out with a local seamstress, who was making costumes for clowns and theatre productions.
Decades later, her granddaughter Kerri Brandel manages Calowna Costumes, the store that is now the family’s legacy.
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Although they still have clowning gear, they now are so much more, offering the best of the best for people wanting to shop local for Halloween.
“This is our bread and butter. We love it,” Brandel said of the month. “We get so amped and excited about it.
“Our store is full of stock that we’ve brought in just for Halloween.”
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They are open year round, but their business (unsurprisingly) ramps up at Halloween. Not only do they sell new costumes, wigs, makeup and accessories, they also have an entire section of rental costumes, made and collected throughout the 30 years by Brandel’s grandmother, her mother and now her.
Halloween is basically Christmas for Brandel and her family.
“It’s the blood, the ideas, the creativity, dealing with the people, helping them get their costumes together,” Brandel said. “We get to dress you up. We get to figure out what you want and help you put it together.”
Some customers are just as excited about the holiday.
“We get people coming in in August and they’re like, ‘Yes! It’s Halloween season!’” Brandel said. “Definitely, there is a spark.”
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If you’re worried that shopping local might mean paying more, Brandel assures they have options to fit every price range.
“If you want something like a quick, simple accessory, we have that and we go all the way to the higher end,” she explained. “We have higher end and cheaper end in our rental section and in our sale stuff as well.
“We know people have budgets and stuff like that. We just need to help you out and make you look great.”
Brandel said it means a lot, that with Halloween pop-up shops coming to the city, people still come to them.
“Being a little local costume shop, we appreciate all our customers that come in. They say, ‘we’re going to shop local,’ and they come here,” she said. “It just makes your heart happy because we know that people are coming in here and they’re supporting us year round.
“Shop local means a lot, not just to this business at Halloween, but to any other local business in town.”
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This year, the most popular costumes, according to Brandel, have been the Joker and Harley Quinn.
“From young to old, people have just been in love with Harley this year,” Brandel said. “It’s been fantastic. She’s a great character.”
On Sunday, they brought in a local makeup artist who took on the task of giving a live tutorial on the makeup and costumes for Harley Quinn and the Joker.
People have also been jumping on the trend scary clowns, and old school favourites like super heroes, villains, salem witches and the bride of Frankenstein. Brandel said more people have also gotten into make-up, including prosthetics.
“It’s kind of nice to see the variety people are doing. They’re not just sticking to the classic, sexy Halloween costumes,” Brandel said. “We had a lady this morning who wanted to be a pirate alien.
“We put something together for her and it was kind of awesome.”
What are you being for Halloween? Let us know in the comments below.
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