Our Founder, Robin Fitzgerald

How costumes fit into the supply chain. A note from our Founder and Head of House, Robin Fitzgerald.

At New York Costume Company, we're redefining the Costume Rental Industry - with a mission rooted in union empowerment, sustainability, and creative collaboration. We're Costumer-owned and committed to building inclusive, meaningful careers. Join us in bringing characters to life - better, greener, and together.

"After spending 20 years as a union set Costumer in LA and NYC, I began supervising feature films and episodic tv shows.  I was blown away by the sheer volume of waste during wrap and the amount of shipping paid to rental houses out of state.

The New York area does not currently offer a costume rental with infrastructure on a large scale for our local designers and costume teams. This is why NYCC was born."

"My career started in Los Angeles where as a non-union Costumer I relied heavily on the local costume houses. I assisted a costume designer and our team of two was able to work out of Universal and Disney costume houses. The offices, laundry room and basics like already worn in belts and shoes made our job possible.

When I moved to New York in 2010, I became aware of smaller costume houses but was surprised there were not larger facilities as found in Los Angeles. There are smaller houses but nothing with infrastructure similar to NBC Universal’s Costume House.

As I moved into Costume Supervising, I was floored at the amount of basic items that are constantly purchased and then discarded at the end of every show I have supervised. The last feature and episodic I supervised donated around 40 racks of clothing to anyone who would take it. This system is not sustainable and thus so much waste is generated. Costume Designers curate incredible collections of clothing but with no where to absorb the stock they are decimated.

The racks of donation are the basic items that one would normally pull from a costume house in LA and then return at the end of the show. This takes a lot of pressure off the designers as they can get a good base of items for their characters that are already worn in. Most designers employ an ager dyer who spends a lot of time "ageing down" newly purchased items. The cost for overnight shipping (LA to NYC) in an e-crate (the standard box size all costume houses use for shipping rentals) is around $1000-$2000 per e-crate; I knew there's gotta be a better, more efficient and sustainable way."

And Thus, NYCC was Born ♥️ Say Hello to New York Costume Company, crafted to directly address the needs of the New York Entertainment Industry. We’d love to see you or hear from you, visit our HQ @ Great Point Studios in Yonkers, New York, or give us a shout at: hello@newyorkcostume.co

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