Costumes On Haight

Employees are super knowledgable and fun. Totally stress free costume shopping, perfect for Bay to Breakers

I have been going to Costumes on Haight for years for my costuming, makeup and party needs. Their staff is extremely helpful and friendly; if asked, they will give you their opinions on your look too, which I truly appreciate. I love their selection of costumes and wigs and that I can rent a costume instead of having to buy them (although you can do that too if you want). Off the top of my head, I have rented/​bought from them:
A Star Trek uniform (red shirt, course)
Pirate costume
Fake blood
Party strobe light
Foundation setting powder
A Beehive wig
The strobe light quit working after a week and they replaced it with no questions asked. I love this store and their weird unsettling window displays, but moreover I love the staff! Go visit them for your costuming needs!

We needed a petty coat (white slip that poofs up a dress or costume) for a wedding. They had multiple options. Place is a little unorganized but if you have the time it is fun to browse through. Great place for buying and renting halloween, pride, and whatever costumes and accessories you need. Parking sucks, its 2h limit on haight, so you know how that goes. But definitely my fave costume store in SF for year round!

The sky turned dark. Cold, damp, spooky mist swept through the streets. The monsters, vampires, ghosts, zombies (sexy and otherwise), animé characters and sriracha bottles came out of hiding and ventured into the moonlit city. Being the champion procrastinator that I am, I did not have a costume yet for Halloween. So I walked down to Costumes on Haight at 7pm on Halloween night expecting the store to be empty and imagined the owner to look at me with a disapproving face. Turns out that I was not alone. There was a line outside the store. YES! A line to get into the store. I’m not kidding! In front of me were about 10 people waiting to get in, but the store was already packed to capacity and so we had to wait until there was space inside (First it was Brunch, then it was Ice Cream and now it is costume stores! Gosh… San Francisco loves waiting!)
The store is fairly small, but is very dense. For Halloween, they were well-​stocked with a variety of masks, headgear, superhero, gothic, medieval and pop culture costumes, makeup, fake blood et al. Since the aisles are crowded and narrow, it’s not a place where you can easily browse through to get inspiration. This is the kind of store where you need to come prepared, more or less. The folks at the counter are super helpful though and can help you locate whatever it is that you are looking for. For non-​Halloween times, I bet the store is less crowded and more easier to browse through.

Great selection, friendly staff and reasonable rental prices!

A pretty generous selection of costumes and accessories. Though if this wasn’t SF, where people apparently feel the need to dress up for events almost every weekend, it would be a wonder that this place is able to survive all year round.

Gordo was beyond helpful and really made our shopping experience a blast. We are lifelong customers now, thanks to him.

I love my costume parties so this is a definite go to. HOWEVER, they don’t have smaller sizes to rent so be prepared to wear heels and use a lot of safety pins (minus 1 star). The staff is incredible and helps you pick out your outfits and are *extremely* patient, even when they’re closing on a Friday night (yes, I know — I procrastinate).

When we read the stories about gentrification and rising rents sometimes they include a story about a long time local business that was displaced. And some of us feel sorry about that. But should we?
It is inevitable that Costumes on Haight will be one of those businesses one day. Its location is too nice. Its revenues too low. When this happens, there will no doubt be a cry of despair across social media and in the comments section of the Chronicle. This should not be the case.
I have been renting costumes at this place since the late 90s. Because, it’s one of the few places that you can go to. If you’ve been to the store, you know that it’s a dismal place and the service is terrible.
I recently rented a pirate shirt for a Raiders game. I returned it in on Wednesday. They charged me $ 20 in late fees… or, they would be happy to sell me the shirt for $ 50. I passed on buying the shirt because it was a piece of garbage and i would not want to store it in my house. I explained to the guy that $ 20 in late fees roughly approximated the total cost of the shirt reminiscent of Blockbuster Video. I explained that I was a loyal customer who had been visiting Costumes on Haight since the late 90s. I pointed out that no other customer would have likely rented the costume on a Monday or Tuesday and he agreed. They had two others in stock.
He did not care though and happily charged me $ 20.
I have rented many many costumes from this guy. I have recommended Costumes on Haight to everyone I know. I have done this for almost 20 years.
So…when the rising rents catch up with this store in about a year or so, I will probably turn up for the going out of business sale. Long time businesses in SF cannot treat their long time customers this way and still expect our sympathies and life lines.
It’s not just this store… the reason why no one gives a toss about the businesses and people who are being displaced now is that so many have acted so uncharitably and with great hostility for so many years. They should change the spelling of this neighborhood to The Hate.

This place is great! You gotta try the pulled pork sandwich, it’s delicious! And definitely pay to swap for curly fries, totally worth it!
I’ll be back here for lunch next week for sure!

I loved this place!!! Came here looking for some 70’s wig for a party I was going to. Everyone here was very helpful. I tried on a bunch of different party dresses. Walked out with a few goodies including a wig my son conned me in to buying for him. Awesome… will come again if I ever need a costume.

My friends and I came to get costume dresses and accessories for the Edwardian Ball! Gordo and Ruben were the best at explaining first what the ball is and what types of outfits we could wear! They were so helpful in showing us everything we asked for and I had an old mask from years ago that had needed to be restrung. Gordon went above and beyond to fix the sting and repair other parts! Highly recommended!

I can’t believe I’ve never been in this store before! Oh my the eyelash selection! and what about all that grease!
I called ahead of time and found out they had exactly what I needed this morning, came down, was helped immediately and enjoyed lovely banter and jokes. The only thing that could have made this experience more pleasurable was if it was a date and I got a kiss at the end! I can’t wait until I need to glam up my life again (which will likely be next week)

This is a great place for anything costume related, but every time I’ve gone in, a staff member has been rude and dismissive. There are other, friendly staff members, but it was enough to make me find a different costume store (aka Amazon).

Kate is GREAT! and so is Costumes on Haight!
They always pull out a treasure that makes me laugh, something I have to wear to a party and they do it with full commitment to your party pleasure. Huge and creative selection, a lot of sizes and super helpful!
thank you!

There’s no reason not to wear a costume every day in the Bay Area. From Bay to Breakers, to Burning Man, to the Fairyland Gala I attended last night — SF loves its cosplay. I received multiple compliments on the Sultan outfit I rented from here — a bit more than I wanted to spend — but I understand with dry cleaning costs and what often happens to costumes in a night out. The service was great, store has good hours, and I got parking across the street. Quality is a bit more halloween than high-​end theater, but that’s just fine.

First off I want to say that we had an AMAZING experience walking into Costumes on
Haight.
As soon as we walked in Gordo greeted us and helped us until we were completely satisfied with our purchase.
If you are looking for anything to do with a costume… Costumes on Haight is THE place…

Fast service and they have what you need.

I had no idea there is a place like this out there! Great costumes, huge selection!
We were able to get our costumes there on Halloween’s day — they still had tons in stock! Not everything is out on the racks as it turned out — there is much more in the back; After going though everything that was out there and not finding exactly what I was looking for, we’ve been shown a humangous catalog where I picked my costume :) Got a wig to go with it too :) It was a lot of fun to wear all this :)
It’s not your cheap $ 30/​one time costumes from «Spirit Halloween», these are great quality, awesome fabrics, an just really really good looking costumes.
Some employees were slightly irritated with all this crazy Halloween crowd trying to get a costume the last minute before the party, but I guess I can’t blame them.
Will be back next year.

Very helpful, nice staff.

This place is amazing and the people that work here are super helpful as well. I’ve rented two costumes from here and each time they have rocked. Highly recommend if you’re looking to rent or buy an awesome costume.

Let me fulfill your fantasy baby… Want me to dress up as a Nurse? They got that costume here. A fairy? Yep, they got that costume here too. Sexy witch? Smitten Kitten? Spongebob Square Pants? A Naughty Knight? Porno Princess? Raunchy Rasta? Hip Hop Ho? Yep, they got all that.
What’s that you say? You want me to dress up like Speed Racer and wear nothing under my one piece leather riding suit? You dirty little boy you. Yep, they got that costume too.
Wait right here while I go change into my costume. brb.

Costumes on Haight is a fabulous place to go for any kind of costume. Not only will they most likely have whatever you are looking for the staff is super friendly in helping you find it. And they are open year-​round.
My only gripe is that they won’t let you take any pictures of yourself in a costume and I can’t imagine why. Surely they don’t think I’m going to steal the «design» of the Santa costume do they? Or that people all over the city are suddenly going to be creating knock-​offs of the 2011 eyeglasses? I mean even the woman who handmade my wedding gown let me photograph it when I tried it on. I suppose they don’t want people just trying them on for fun, but to have such a staunch policy when I was trying to coordinate outfits with someone and wanted to send them a text photo of myself to make sure we were on the same page seems a little ridonkulous to me.