Shanghai's best costume shops to ace your Halloween look

Photograph: Jeremy Lwanga via Unsplash

Halloween is around the corner. Whether you’re planning to dress up as a witch, a vampire or a pirate (you do you) you need to start preparing. Yes, there are Halloween supplies at your nearest supermarket, but if you really want to ace your outfit, you need shops that specialise in costumes. Here are a few of the best brick-and-mortar shops to find costumes and party supplies in Shanghai.

Ruby's Party

Photograph: courtesy Ruby's Party

This party supplier is run by the shop's namesake Ruby and her friendly and fluffy dog Cotton. It offers an extensive selection of outfits from cute and cuddly animal costumes and superheroes to gruesome rubber masks and creatures. 

Ruby's stocks all the props you could possibly need to accompany your costume, including fake blood (either the watery or the gooey kind), white clay to sculpt gaping scars, face paint, wigs, masks and more. A professional makeup artist is available, by appointment, to transform you into the Dark Knight, Pennywise or any other characters that you prefer. Call 64016323 or add ruby64016323 on WeChat for more info. 

Hot tip: If you follow its official WeChat account (RubysParty), you can get 15 percent off costumes and costume accessories. Select items featured in store and on Ruby’s WeChat are 50 percent off.

📍Ruby's Party, Unit 137 (West Wing), First Floor, Edifice Building, 201 Chengjiaqiao Zhi Lu, near Hongmei Lu. 9am-6pm. 

JaJaJa Party Shop

Photograph: Adam Muise via Unsplash

JaJaJa is a small store – only 50sqm big – but it packs a lot into the tiny space. Its strong selection of party wares and costumes are bolstered by a variety of accessories, including bodily decorations like wigs, coloured hairspray, beards, moustaches and more.

📍JaJaJa Party Shop, 158 Biyun Lu, near Baihua Lu. 10am-7pm.

Nantai Costume Company

Photograph: Russel Yan via Pixabay

Despite its unassuming exterior and jumble sale appearance, this small store supplies a number of local Peking opera troops and is the place to shop if you are in search of a truly unique costume. The store has been based on Guangdong Lu for more than 80 years and the current owners claim that in the 1930s and ’40s Mei Lanfang (梅兰芳), one of the Four Great Dan of Peking Opera’s golden era, ordered costumes here. Behind the counter, shelves are stacked with silk qipaos in a range of sizes.

📍Nantai Costume Company, 656 Guangdong Lu, near Guangxi Bei Lu. 10am-5pm.

Holiday House

Photograph: Christian Newman via Unsplash

Originally established in Shanghai more than 20 years ago, Holiday House stocks everything needed to throw a traditional Halloween or costume party, as well as a pretty thorough array of costumes for all ages. It stocks all the favourites like superheroes and scary classics.

As well as outfits, there's an extensive display of hats, masquerade-style masks, wigs and even werewolf faces or mermaid hair. There are shelves heaving with fake brains and blood, face paints, eyelashes, fake tattoos, feather wings and boas, hair colour spray and stockings. The store also provides a variety of Christmas and Easter decorations.

📍Holiday House, Gate 4, Weimar Villa No 101, 355 Ande Bei Lu, near Anyong Lu. 9.30am-5pm.

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