Meet Judy Smith of Rose Costumes in Denton

Today we’d like to introduce you to Judy Smith.

Judy, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Rose Costumes began as Secondhand Rose in 1976. The name came from the song “Secondhand Rose” sung by Barbara Streisand in the movie Funny Girl. I started the business Patsy Moran selling vintage furniture, clothes, hats and jewelry. I also used my sewing skills to provide a mending service for jeans and adding the once popular, wildly colorful patches to them. The original location of the store was on trendy Fry Street, at the edge of the University of North Texas.

During the late 70’s, my husband Jim opened Jim’s Diner next door to Secondhand Rose and the two businesses soon grew into a popular Denton hangout. In the early 80’s, Patsy moved to Austin to open her own store and I continued on with Secondhand Rose. However, due to great customer demand to rent the vintage clothing, I decided to change my business model. Since sewing had always been my first love, making and renting costumes seemed like the perfect fit.

To accommodate the growing inventory of costumes, we moved the store from Fry Street to Elm Street in 1987. The larger space allowed my talent for decorating to shine through all of the dramatically themed rooms. With a new passion and focus on costumes, I decided to change the name of the business to Rose Costumes. Local theatres and high schools quickly became fans and loyal customers of the high-quality costumes we provide. By 2004, the store was bursting at the seams with costumes and another move had to be made. Stonehill Center (formerly an outlet mall) in north Denton, provided double the space and a huge parking lot to accommodate school buses full of theater students and easy access off Interstate 35.

In 2010, Annemarie Aldrich joined Rose Costumes as the Store Manager. Together, she and I believe strongly in the vision of pairing extraordinary customer service with unbridled creativity to create a magical experience for our guests.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Running a business — any business — is never smooth. It’s more about the “ups” and “downs.” One struggle I had for many years involved learning to save money when business was good so I had something to tide me over when business was slow. I’ve finally conquered that. Another struggle happened about fifteen years ago when I decided to open a second location in Lewisville. It was called Gypsy Rose Costumes. What I discovered about myself was that emotionally I couldn’t juggle two locations. After an agonizing two months, I closed that store and have never been tempted to do anything like that again!

So, let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Rose Costumes story. Tell us more about the business.
We are a high-quality costume company, renting to a number of theatre companies and programs throughout Texas. We specialize in theatrical costuming, and carry a number of costumes designed for various theatrical productions from stage plays to musicals. We are certainly known for our attention to detail and the high quality we put into each costume we make. I have personally designed and built about 75% of the thousands of costumes in our stock, and I consider each and every piece one of my many “children.”

Perhaps the greatest thing that sets us apart as a costume company is our customer service and the overall “Rose Costumes Experience”. We work with a number of theatre departments and schools, and it’s wonderful to have the students admire our store when they come in for their fitting appointments. My staff go above and beyond to make sure that the cast have costumes that don’t just look good, but take their breath away! They are happy to assemble outfits from our wide selection to help capture the unique vision each director has in mind for their production. They even give special effects makeup demonstrations and tours of the store to the cast. We strive to not only make their production spectacular, but to also make their time at our store memorable.

I am proud of my business in so many ways. I’ve always loved the “look” of my store — and this is true of all three locations I’ve had. The decorating is as important to me as the actual business. My employees joke that I’ll spend any amount of money on decorating, and do so starting the day I come up with a new idea. Another thing I’m proud of is my reputation for great customer service.

Being willing to change focus of my business is another thing I’m proud of. In the past few years we’ve shifted away from the Halloween market to supplying for theatrical productions. It was a drastic change, but one that I know was the best choice. It’s hard to get out of a comfortable groove, but a business that isn’t willing to do that when events demand it is doomed to have a rough time.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I personally believe that luck, whether good or bad, has very little to do with it. Through every event in my life and the life of my business, I relied on hard work and the ability to persevere through any new development. My support base has helped me through bad times and celebrated the good times. Above all, we’ve learned to take something positive from every situation, and find the strength to face whatever comes our way. If there had to be any sort of luck, I would say that I’m very fortunate to be making a living by doing the one thing I love most. Anyone who can do that with their life is very lucky indeed.

Pricing:

• Rental costumes range in price from $65 – $125

Contact Info:

• Address: 5800 I-35 N. Suite #508
  Denton, TX 76207
• Website: www.rosecostumes.com
• Phone: 940 566 1917
• Email: rosecostumes@verizon.net
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rosecostumes/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosecostumes/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/RoseCostumes
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/rose-costumes-denton
• Other: www.rosecostumes.shutterfly.com

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