If you hang out here in The Shop for long you will probably hear one of us mention “Getting costumes into the system”. We’ve been talking a lot about that lately and realize we should explain what it means.
For example; if we get an amazing 1930 party dress into the shop from a donation, a costume sale or a really good thrifting day, there is a process to get it rental ready. First we have it cleaned, then barcoded and sorted into our hierarchy. The hierarchy is broken into a Broad Category, Gender, Circa and Small Category. Think 1930s Women’s, 1930s, Dress. We use the industry standard inventory and barcoding system to input all of the costume details and take high quality photos. This is also the system we use to check out an order and generate our clients check-out sheets, check-in sheets and invoices.
With barcoding, it’s good practice to make sure that our bar codes are in the same place on similar garments so that they are easy to find. We are planning to drop a YouTube showing where we place our barcodes to make checking in as easy as possible.
Why all this categorizing? When a designer and their team come in to pull, we are able to process the order quickly. We keep good track of our stock and having every costume in the ‘system’ makes it easy to pull on-line from the website from anywhere in the US and beyond.
Getting items into the system is a big part of Darcy’s, Dee and Paula’s day, but it is gratifying when we are able to see the attention to detail showup on SWcostumerentals.com and watch as racks of clothes fly out the doors and onto your movie screens!
Donations are always welcome, and rest assured that your garments will be well loved, taken care of and given a life on the big screen.
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Don't forget, "We're costumers, we get you!" Now back to work we go.
Love, The SWCR Team.