HipWaZee, a small vintage store in Five Points, is home to a diverse collection of clothing and costumes for last minute Halloween shoppers and those looking for a certain item to complete their outfit.
The space is filled wall-to-wall with clothing items organized by era and style. From 1920s flapper dresses to 1970s disco looks, HipWaZee has many styles to choose from. They also have wigs and accessories to complete a specific costume idea.
The sales associates are dressed in full costumes as Halloween is approaching. Cade McConnell, sales associate and stylist, is working his third Halloween season at HipWaZee.
“A lot of our costuming philosophy is vintage clothes, like we kind of specialize in piecing together custom costumes,” McConnell said.
McConnell said the clothes at HipWaZee are higher quality compared to the polyester material often found at typical Halloween stores.
The vintage clothing is sourced from many different places, including donations and estate sales.
HipWaZee has been criticized for pricing items too high compared to thrift stores, but McConnell argued it’s not likely that stores like Goodwill will have a specific item in time. Also, compared to large retailers, he said HipWaZee’s prices are more affordable.
“Our clothes are cheap, despite what a lot of people think,” McConnell said.
McConnell said this Halloween season there doesn’t seem to be a certain costume that everyone is looking for.
“There’s been a lot of variety this year more than other years,” McConnell said.
He said they’re selling a lot of superhero costumes like Black Panther and Deadpool.
People oftentimes come into the store with strange and specific costume requests. McConnell said recently a husband and wife wanted to dress as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito’s characters in “Twins.” He also said there’s always several people looking for “Bad Taste” costumes.
“We have it set up so you can just come in with any idea and we can probably make a costume,” McConnell said.
HipWaZee offers two-day rentals for some of the higher quality costumes. Sessy Minerd, sales associate and owner’s daughter, said the rentals make up half of their business and it’s a unique aspect that no other costume business does.
Even though vintage shopping seems to be popular, she acknowledged that the rise in online shopping has affected the business. Minerd said many people come into the store last minute because their costume didn’t ship in time. She said these customers' first mistake was ordering it off of Amazon instead of shopping locally.
Being able to see the costume in person and have a sales associate help you is an aspect of local shopping that cannot be found online, she argued.
“It’s nice to have a place where you can come in and actually see the costumes and try it on,” McConnell said. "Support local businesses."