After Wednesday night, when children dress in costume and go door to door in search of candy, a Halloween tradition in Jacksonsville will come to an end — the Costume Corner will close its doors after 25 years of outfitting children and adults for their night of hiding behind masks.
“I hate that we are closing,” said Angie Mitchell, co-owner of the shop, “but I’ll still do some online orders and make costumes.”
Angie, who owns the shop with her husband, Joe Mitchell, said she’s seen all sorts of costume requests over the years, including popular PBS show characters.
“I bet we’ve gotten about 1,000 calls for an adult Big Bird costume this year,” Angie said with a laugh as she tightened up a cooling vest on Randy Phillips, who will wear a snowman suit while standing on a street corner waving at passing cars.
“One of the other popular suits is the morphsuit,” Angie said.
The morphsuits are body leotards that cover the entire body, including the face, and they come in children and adult sizes.
However, she said, the most popular kids’ costumes are still superheroes and zombies.
According to History.com, the Halloween tradition may be rooted in European and Celtic cultures. Hundreds of years ago, wintertime was uncertain, with food supplies running low and a constant worry that spirits roamed the streets after dark.
It was believed that on Halloween, ghosts came back, and to avoid being seen by them, people would dress in costume, hopefully to trick the ghosts into believing the people were also ghosts. Then people would set bowls of food outside their houses in hopes of satisfying the spirits and keeping them from entering their homes.
Traditionally, costumes were ghostly and spooky, but as time passed, that trend changed, and now, despite the popularity of scary outfits, children often choose costumes from popular culture, such as characters from a television show, book or movie.
Stephanie Hendricks of Batesville said her 2-year-old daughter, Lillian, chose to be Foofa, a character from the children’s TV show Yo Gabba Gabba!
“I showed her several pictures of costumes that I thought she would like, and she picked Foofa,” Hendricks said. “I found the costume on eBay. Last year, she was Wonder Woman.”
Even though Lillian likes to dress up, her favorite part of Halloween is when people put candy in her basket, her mom said.
Although Halloween is the busiest time of year for the Costume Corner, Mitchell said she also creates costumes for weddings, theatrical shows and customers who just want unique costumes.
She said she also designed a Mad Hatter costume, and Los Angeles-based Tabis Characters purchased her design and now manufactures it.
So after 25 years of costuming, the Mitchells will close the shop, but their costumes will live on, and when trick-or-treaters come a-calling Halloween night, whether they are superheroes or zombies, don’t mistake them for spirits that have come to walk the streets.
Staff writer Jeanni Brosius can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or jbrosius@arkansasonline.com