Michelle's Costumes to end 32-year run

Michelle's costumes: Pair to retire after 32 years

ROLF BOONE; Staff writer | • Published July 28, 2010

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OLYMPIA - Michelle's Costumes, a longtime South Sound shop known for outfitting children for school projects and adults for Halloween parties, will close at the end of the year. Owners Bob and Michelle McKillip plan to retire.

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Fantasy nears its curtain call at Michelle's Costumes

“It’s been a good business for us,” said Bob McKillip as he walked through the store Tuesday. “It bought us a new house and a new car.”

But after 32 years of business, Bob, 75, and Michelle, 64, have decided to head off into the sunset, wanting more time to play music, play golf and visit their children in Alaska. Michelle called the costume shop a viable business, but she doesn’t want to be working when she turns 90.

“I don’t want to be walking around with a walker helping people,” she said.

As part of winding down the business, everything in the store will be on sale after Sept. 1, ranging from 99 cents for accessories to $300 for a costume. Until then, costumes still are available for rent, she said.

Michelle’s Costumes operates out of a 2,000-square-foot location in the Hawks Prairie area, at 6835 Condor Loop N.E. For years, the business offered bridal wear and costumes, but the store phased out its bridal business in 1998. The store is filled with an estimated 3,500 costumes, including outfits for the French Revolution, superheroes, politicians, fairy-tale characters, and celebrities such as Elvis Presley and Johnny Depp in his “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie role. It also has its Halloween staples, such as costumes or accessories to be vampires, devils and witches.

Halloween always was busy for the store, a time when it would run out of parking and a line of customers would be at the door, Bob McKillip said. The store also will have to dispose of 400 Styrofoam heads for wigs and hats.

“It’s going to be sad because it has been there for a long time,” part-time employee Leah Flinn said about the business, “but sometimes you have to move on.”

Customer Bill Zidel of Lacey shopped at the store Tuesday to buy two fedoras similar to those worn by actors John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd in their “Blues Brothers” roles.

As soon as he tried on the hat, Zidel, originally from New Jersey, was transformed into an actor.

First he impersonated a gangster, then actors Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet and Humphrey Bogart. This was followed by an impersonation of President Richard Nixon and one of President John F. Kennedy. He ended his spur-of-the moment routine with an impersonation of comedian Jimmy Durante, and then he bought his hats and was out the door.

“You can’t come here and not have fun,” Zidel said about the store. “If you want something, you gotta come here.”

Other popular looks over the years were “Fat Elvis,” an Elvis Presley suit worn over a sumo wrestler’s belly, and often men would come to the store wanting to cross-dress as a belly dancer or as a fairy godmother.

Both Bob and Michelle acknowledged they will miss the store and its customers when it’s gone.

“They’ve been coming to us for the last 30 years,” Bob said. “They’ve been good to us, and we’ve been good to them.”

Rolf Boone: 360-754-5403 rboone@theolympian.com www.theolympian.com/bizblog

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