Re: [h-cost] Buying a costume business Costume design book I read

2006-07-02 Thread Lavolta Press
Someone asked me the title of the book I read on film costuming. It's 
_Costume Design 101_, by Richard LaMotte, a guy with about 30 years of 
experience in the Hollywood costume business.  There is, as I said 
before, a great deal of information in this book about how the film 
costuming profession works, and very little about how to design or build 
costumes.  Then again, there are many other books on the latter.


This book might help you/Sylvia to see the rental business from the 
other end--how film companies use costumes and what they want out of a 
rental business.


We've sold a lot of books to costume rental businesses. As far as I can 
tell, aside from any filming that may be done locally--and in many 
localities this is probably not very much or very often--they rent to 
theater companies, professional, semi-professional, and school; and also 
to individuals for theme weddings, murder mystery parties, Halloween, 
and any other event anyone might want a costume for.  Some of them even 
stock costumes for people who want them for their sex lives--French maid 
costumes and so on.


Whoever is rented to, I gather there is a lot of loss and damage.  I've 
been told that for every rental you need a standard contract that makes 
the renter pay in full for all loss and damage, including total 
replacement if necessary; and you need to be the one who legally 
evaluates what has gone wrong and how much to charge for it.


Frankly I would not advise getting into any business at all until you 
know a great deal about how that kind of business works.


Fran
Lavolta Press
http://www.lavoltapress.com


Sylvia Rognstad wrote:
I just heard about an opportunity to buy a costume business and recalled 
that someone of one of these lists was discussing such a prospect that 
came up in Denver, CO.  

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Re: [h-cost] Buying a costume business Costume design book I read

2006-07-02 Thread Sylvia Rognstad
Thanks for the info.  I really need to know how this woman's business 
works and aside from just discussing it with her, don't know where else 
to go.I don't need any info on design or construction.  I guess I 
just need to know if it looks like this can be a profitable business 
and I dont know where to find that out.Do you think the book you 
mentioned would help?I know this business doesnt rent to film 
companies.  It sounds like she does some small theatre productions, 
lots of Halloween, Renaissance, weddings--the full gamut.  The one 
thing that is making it intriguing is that it is in a beautifully 
scenic location, but that could be a drawback too because of the small 
town nature of the place.   Apparently she has done very well in the 
business over the years.  Is there any way to find out what her profits 
have been?  Can I see her tax records?  You can see I'm very green 
about business matters.

On Jul 2, 2006, at 2:32 PM, Lavolta Press wrote:

Someone asked me the title of the book I read on film costuming. It's 
_Costume Design 101_, by Richard LaMotte, a guy with about 30 years of 
experience in the Hollywood costume business.  There is, as I said 
before, a great deal of information in this book about how the film 
costuming profession works, and very little about how to design or 
build costumes.  Then again, there are many other books on the latter.


This book might help you/Sylvia to see the rental business from the 
other end--how film companies use costumes and what they want out of a 
rental business.


We've sold a lot of books to costume rental businesses. As far as I 
can tell, aside from any filming that may be done locally--and in many 
localities this is probably not very much or very often--they rent to 
theater companies, professional, semi-professional, and school; and 
also to individuals for theme weddings, murder mystery parties, 
Halloween, and any other event anyone might want a costume for.  Some 
of them even stock costumes for people who want them for their sex 
lives--French maid costumes and so on.


Whoever is rented to, I gather there is a lot of loss and damage.  
I've been told that for every rental you need a standard contract that 
makes the renter pay in full for all loss and damage, including total 
replacement if necessary; and you need to be the one who legally 
evaluates what has gone wrong and how much to charge for it.


Frankly I would not advise getting into any business at all until you 
know a great deal about how that kind of business works.


Fran
Lavolta Press
http://www.lavoltapress.com


Sylvia Rognstad wrote:
I just heard about an opportunity to buy a costume business and 
recalled that someone of one of these lists was discussing such a 
prospect that came up in Denver, CO.

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