The Langham Costume Loft and the Costume Guild History
A Brief History of the Costume Loft:
The Costume Loft started as a collection of items from Langham shows that accumulated in a small, unheated, attic-type space above the theatre’s Lounge. Jill Groves organized it first in October 1987, and began informally renting pieces from the Box Office a year or so after that. In 1994, she held the first of what would become an annual costume and clothing sale. Several renovations of the Loft followed, with a major upgrade in the mid-2000s. Ned Lemley, the second manager, took over when Jill retired in about 2009. By then, rentals and the annual costume sale were well established in the community, and Ned carried them on until he retired in the spring of 2015. Lisa Leighton was the third manager, who is credited for the reorganization of the Loft administration and the introduction of the Costume Inventory Project and the Langham Costume Guild. In February 2017, Lisa passed The Loft on to the fourth manager, Colleen Maguire. Colleen expanded the Costume Guild’s outreach efforts to the Greater Victoria area via a Facebook Group and managed The Loft as well as being the theatre’s General Manager during her time here.
When the pandemic happened The Loft was shut down like many rental stores around the world. During this time Colleen retired and The Loft was left without a manager. After the lockdown mandate was lifted, volunteers Linda MacNaughton and Wendy Henderson, stepped up to undertake a massive clean up and reorganization of The Loft’s massive collection. They opened The Loft’s doors on a case by case basis and searched for a new manager. Deanna McMilligan became the fifth manager in 2021. She made it her mission to collect as many vintage items as possible and flesh out the loft’s “costume” collection for Halloween specific patrons. Additionally, her connections to film/television industry brought in bulk costume rentals; while her photography experience showcased The Loft’s collection to a wider audience. Her legacy was updating The Loft’s billing and accounting system into the digital age, streamlining the process for public rentals. Deanna retired to work on her first film project in 2024 and handed the reins off to the current manager Misty Buxton.
While the Loft Manager is essential to the running of the Costume Loft, it is its volunteers that ensure its smooth running and awe inspiring atmosphere. Without their donation of time, skills, and energy the loft would have failed to recover after the 2020 lockdown. The loft is eternally grateful to all the volunteers that worked to help create the collection it houses today.
The Costume Guild and Costume Workshop history:
During Lisa Leighton’s tenure as The Loft Manager she founded Langham Costume Guild, a group of volunteers, whose mission was to provide a resource for costume designers, sewers, dressers and others involved in the production of Langham Court plays. The Langham Costume Guild workshop houses most of the theatre’s extensive collection of costume-related books, magazines and DVDs, along with sewing, tailoring and fitting equipment, notions and fabrics.
Our large collection of vintage and modern sewing patterns (1930s to present) is also stored here.
While these resources are in place for Langham Court costumers, some patterns, books and magazines may be borrowed by outside companies, on request. (Regretfully, the collection is not rented out to private individuals. Patterns are loaned on the understanding that they be traced, not cut, and they may not be altered in any way. Books and magazines may also not be altered.
There is no charge for borrowing these resources. Loss or damage does incur a cost. For some of our patterns, tracings have already been made and will be available with the original pattern. If not, we have information to help with tracing. After your show, if your company does not need to keep tracings you have made, we are happy to accept those with the returning patterns. Currently, there is no online access to the pattern or printed materials collections, although we hope to catalogue these in the future and make them available electronically.
Our The Costume Guild also gratefully accepts donations of sewing patterns, books, magazines, fabric, trims, notions, and equipment. Donations can be dropped off with The Costume Loft during their regular business hours.
