These costume photos will give you some idea of the things we have available to hire from Agent Costume at Bondi Beach for your next Fancy dress party.

Get some costume ideas then come in and pick something out.
Please call first to confirm someone will be there to help you put your ultimate look together.

If someone is in while you’re walking past, then feel free to come in and ask questions to help you find your next ultimate costume.

We are often out and about working on other costuming projects, sourcing fabrics, delivering jobs etc.

Agent Costume has a small range of excellently crafted children’s costumes for hire.
From 9 years and up enquire about our costume availability, and flexible hours of operation. With all the dashing around between school, sports, music, pop in for 20 minutes before dinner time to quickly try on and pick up something suitable for their next fancy dress birthday party.

There are many websites now selling children’s costumes, however, if you are interested in having a special costume made up to your specific requirements, and of a high standard of quality, then by all means, send me an enquiry and receive a quote. Email an image for a more accurate quote.

elisa@agentcostume.com

I also sew for the film industry.
Sewing table cloths, curtains, cushion covers for TV commercials or film sets.
A buyer can come to me with fabric, zips or buttons and thread and say “I need three cushions in two days in this design!” and I say “sure, no problem.” Sometimes i can get it done sooner.
Often it means I’m liaising with printers with graphics. It can mean buzzing all over town. depending on who can get the prints or embroidery back to me the fastest in time and in budget for me to cut and stitch it together for the shoot, or promotional event, or whatever the need may be.

Any fabric construction you and think of, I can make it. Or get it made – though usually i do make it myself.
From shade cloths, to trailer covers to curtains, table cloths and giant dice!

Try me.

Check out this set Agent Costume made for Lisa Mitchell, Designed by World Jungle DC, many thanks to Agent Foo and Agent Zulu for their hours of hand stitching and lining up the tree bark in the enchanted forest. It was a job done hard and fast, with many stories, much singing and a lot of laughs.

Also below, Deni Hines and Tamsin Carroll singing on Hey Hey it’s Saturday to promote their show “Dusty the Concert”
I made the purple sequin dress.

I also made the Black sequin jumpsuit Chris Sorbello is wearing in her new up and coming vmusic video clip “The Dangerzone”
Here’s a teaser!

Fairy Tale and Nursery Rhyme costumes come alive when we bring our favourite characters to life in Fancy Dress.

Doesn’t everybody have a favourite story that kept their minds ticking as children until sleep and colourful dreams took over for the night?

If not, you should!
Use your next lunch break to munch on your healthy yummy sandwich and browse over well known stories of love, family connections, struggles, misunderstandings, incredible gifts, overcoming adversity, betrayal, jealousy, fun loving fools, kindly deeds, tales of trickery, trust, lust, greed.
Just another day at the office really.
But with more colourful clothes!

You may find you spend your days already living in moments as several of the characters you best resonate with.

Loving fairy! Evil Queen, Scrooge, beautiful princess, Cruella Deville, noble woodcutter, a lazy pig with a house of straw, a clever cat with the most marvellous pair of boots! Just to name a few.

Remember the Donkey who pooed out golden coins?!
The magic bean stalk and a singing harp with this massive Giant who lives in the clouds for a guardian?

The list goes on and on, and on…

As a young teenager my fairytale tastes turned to Oscar Wilde, where nothing really meant anything, there were no guarantees for kindness or caring, and yet everything, the act of life itself, was simply touching and beautiful. The nightingale who sacrificed his lifeblood and song turning a white rose to red, for what? in the end, a dead bird, and shortly after..well, never mind. Find the story and read it yourself!
It was a thought provoking moment of poetry.

It’s your life this fairytale! All the wonderful and the challenging.

Here are some costume references you may like to consider:

• 1001 Arabian Nights
• The Brothers Grim
• Oscar Wilde
• Snow White
• Cinderella
• The Frog Prince
• Hansel and Gretel
• Puss in Boots
• Pocahontas
• The three Pigs
• Little Red Riding Hood
• Rumplestiltskin
• Rapunzel
• Baba Yaga
• Jungle Book

and the list goes on….and on….

Who will you be next?

Make an appointment with Agent Costume and find out.
Even if you don’t think u know, we know it’s all in you, and we aim to help u find it.
All will be revealed, accessorised and dressed to the nines!

Agent Costume.
Made to Party.

Ube Love – The Birth of Ube Love, by Elisa Marigold. Ube – pronounced “oohbay” – is an intensely purple, yam like, root vegetable found commonly in the Philippines. It is so popular it has been recognised by Philippine based American food franchises and placed on their menus! Imagin ube -flavoured doughnuts with richly coloured purple fillings, deeply purple ube cakes, and ube ice creams!

(Though who knows how much of the actual ube was present in the fast food recipes?)

Many years ago, I had the pleasure of discovering this unique ube product in several marketplaces of the Philippines. Seeking out various ways different villages would prepare their favourite ube recipes became a mild obsession.

At the time, I was working with a few friends on a Kung-Fu movie (which shall at this point remain nameless.) I played a scientist named Ume Boshi, who was kidnapped by the evil “Big Boss” and blackmailed into sharing her knowledge about harnessing the energy of the erupting volcano! Luckily Ume – bearing a name eerily similar to that of the actors growing obsession – was spotted the day before her disappearance by an Australian surfer on holiday. As a man in love ‘this surfer dude’ stopped at nothing to track Ume down, facing kung-fu villains at every turn and surfing the molten flow of a volcanic eruption to save the day! YaY!

“Would you mind,” I politely asked the producer, ” instead of putting my name in the credits, could you present me as “Ube Love?”

He refused. But the Ube Love story had begun, and I decided to put the name to the garments I’d been making whilst studying Visual Arts at RMIT in Melbourne.

At first I struggled with the thought that everything had to be purple! One night, after asking various people “how would you pronounce this? ” and showing them the words Ube Love, the following response was made:

“You be Love”

By then I was truly hooked, and continued on to design it’s logo – which currently is hand screen printed and stitched onto finished garments. Another symbol – a shell more or less- used to also appear on garments, along with wistful phrases, and lines of poetry plucked from the air, like rich ripe fruit. (Well that’s how it feels to have a good idea, and to later hold the results in your hands.)

For a while I made raver type clothes and jackets and leg warmers, and sold them in a St Kilda store in Melbourne called “Jezabelle’s”

-Check out the “old school ube” photo gallery at flikR, and read the story:
http://www.agentcostume.com/2009/01/ube-love-in-the-beginning/ -

Then, one fateful day, I walked into a costume Hire Store in Melbourne’s CBD, and the costuming industry miraculously began to make itself apparent.

It was time to get some training in costume construction, and learn to create theatrically inspired clothing!

After studying costume at “Swinburne” in Melbourne, and -by the mysterious machinations of this ever expanding, unwinding universe- finding work in the same costume store that provided the initial defining inspiration (that’s a whole other story), I travelled around Australia for a year, resettled in Sydney, and took up working with costume in various forms, including basic party costume hire, window dressing for Womens wear in Myers, costume making for Opera Australia, Sydney Theatre Company, Melbourne Theatre Company, major theatrical productions, movies and the odd commercial and music video film clip, including prop making and sets, forsaking the ube obsession. Only recently, with the kind generosity of various dear friends, the Ube bug has bitten again. Suddenly, I’m making ube products again.

Soon to be uploaded and purchasable from these pages.

enjoy!

I’ve taken a step back in time, and rediscovered a small album of past work.

Back in the late 1990s, I was studying Visual Arts at RMIT. It was torturous. All I ever wanted to do was paint, and the tutors kept encouraging me to practice sculpture, or photography once I dumped sculpture in favour of painting… It was difficult because I didn’t have the courage to speak about where it was going, or the developed skill to demonstrate it.

Sewing began as a hobby because I couldn’t afford to buy the clothes I liked. Sometimes other students would commission me to make them bags or leg warmers or hats. It encouraged me to make more things on the side, and put them into a store called Jezabelles, which was open at the time in St Kilda on Carlisle St, right next to the library, and then, into another little store on Church St Richmond.
It must have been a cold winter because everything seemed to be made out of faux fur!

I also put a heap of stuff in another shop on Brunswick St Fitzroy. They put all their own tags on my stuff, failed to pay me for stock sold, and disappeared out of trace, with all the stock I’d personally hand made, and left with them on consignment – Not Cool.

Fake fur was cheap back then, and believe it, people noticed these furry legwarmers. No body else was making them at the time and I prided myself on being daring and original. – I had made a tiger costume for my up coming 21st birthday, and the leg parts were so warm, I wore them nearly everyday to the lead up. The fact that they didn’t really suit my hand made orange track suit pants teamed with purple/blue massive woolly Tibetan jumper didn’t really matter (despite stunned glances), it was so comfortable! Anyway, the weekends were for dressing up and playing the part of “cool, fashionable and with it” what ever that means!

The idea of doing a fashion course was out of the question. I needed training to learn short cuts, real pattern making and tailoring skills. Who -in their naive youth- wants to spend time learning about factory production lines, and dulling designs to appeal to a mass market?

One day, while accompanying a friend to shop for a skiing trip, I came across a costume shop in the city, quite by accident, and my direction took a more defined turn. After researching costume discovered that there were courses one could do, and that costuming was in a fact a viable and recognized way of making a living!

I got into Swinburne TAFE, started learning the costume trade there, and began working in the very store that inspired this direction. “J.C.Westend Costume hire!” My all time favourite costume hire store to work in ever! They truly know their stuff, from so many angles. Constructively, historically, while also keeping abreast of changing trends and with a healthy dose of fun. Every day with them was a pure pleasure. It was a wonderful learning experience, and I still visit every time I drop into Melbourne. Even though the venue has changed, the costumes and some of the people (for good reason) are the same, the institution remains, and – though more commonly known as “Costume Capers” these days- holds so many great memories.

The following album is a small selection of things made before any formal tuition.
It’s surprising to realise how inventive a person can be with little to no training.
Each piece was professionally finished, and fully lined. That was most likely due to the guidance of my mother – her mother did after all have the first sewing machine in the Village, but that’s another story.

The funny thing is, once I started the costuming course, the Ube Love pursuits fell to the side. It’s only been revived in the last year, the muse has returned!

The only disappointment is that there weren’t more photos taken.
Often, for some reason, we don’t tend to value out own talents at the time. Looking back, I wonder how I managed to be so freely creative. A healthy creative family background helps, and nurturing relationships with other people.
House mates and friends used to drop over and have a great old time in the lounge room, chatting, and laughing, and playing cards, and all I wanted to do was sew! Those were the days. It was a party house, and in many ways, the constant flow of people possibly provided  some element of motivating energy.

enjoy!

Accessories add the final touch to any costume.
Once you have your base, you can fine tune with a few simple decorative touches.
Accessories can change the final look of your outfit.

One simple black dress can be worn several times to various themed parties, and all you need change are the accessories…

Ancient Rome: Long curled wig, with jewels in hair, a large silk scarf tied over the shoulder with jewelled buckle, golden braid criss crossed over the body of the dress. Metal bangles, maybe a snake curled around your forearm, rings.

1920′s: short wig, feather boa, or fur stole. headband with jewelled broach, long gloves, long beads tied around the neck, fish net tights, or tights with the long black seam down the centre back, pointy character shoes, with delicate buckle at the ankle.

1970′s: long beads, scarf tied around the head, big sunglasses, chunky bangles, peace sign painted on the cheek, knee high boots.

TomToms beat in the rhythm of the oncoming night, fireflies light the warm jungle interior.
Explorers on safari, nervously tug at their collars while voices of natives, carry through the thick under brush.

Lions and tigers prowl, monkeys jibber, colourful birds screech, chasing the last of the suns rays to speckled pin pricked light though the velvet curtain of night.

Unleash your inner animal.
Channel the Jungle spirits.
Witch doctors, Chiefs, tribes people.
Tarzan and Jane, plane crash survivors, undiscovered flowers and animals.
Jungle fairies, spirits of medicinal plants, rifle men on Safari.
Mix up the continents!

and the list goes on….

Follow the drum beat, and move your body to it’s mystical rhythms.

Breath the deep coffee like, earthy aroma of the rich, fertile jungle layers.

Shrunken heads, lucky talismans, dreadlocks, afros, safari suits and helmets.
Animal teeth necklaces, ears and tails, bearsuits.

Revel where the wild things are!

get them here.
ask us how.