Issue date: 9/13/07 Section: Features

Media Credit: Jessica Bright Evangeline's is located in the heart of Old Sacramento. [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: Jessica Bright Scary masks are just a few of the wild things offered. [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: Jessica Bright Change your hairstyle with any of their fashion wigs. [Click to enlarge]

Halloween is one of the biggest college party holidays of the year. There are always a ton of activities going on and the best part about the festivities is getting to dress up in an awesome costume and try to outdo your friends.

So where do you get a costume capable of wowing everyone? Target? Wal-Mart? Probably not. This is where Evangeline's Costume Mansion comes in. The three-story shop in Old Sacramento has a boatload of all the Halloween gear you'll ever need.

The first level of the store is mostly like a gag store, filled with joke T-shirts and other little novelty items. That part of the store is open all year long.

The second and third stories are the costume store. These upper levels open on Aug. 1 every year and stay open for three months. During the rest of the year however, they will allow you to look around, but you'll have to have an escort follow you as you shop.

As you head to the second story, you'll see a lot of cool costumes. They have a room with Wild West and gangster outfits, so guys can be Scarface or a cowboy and the ladies can be a sultry saloon vixen or a flirtatious flapper. There's a room full of army and navy costumes if military is what you're looking for. In addition, there is a cop room, so you can get kinky with the handcuffs. Not to mention, you can check out the gothic section with serial killer costumes, vampire attire and other classic costumes like Frankenstein and the like. Finally there are neat goodies like fake bloody limbs, masks and, my favorite, beer bong skulls with a spinal chord tube.

One of the coolest parts about the second floor is the "Renaissance Room" which has medieval and pirate costumes as well as belly dancing outfits.

Jen Kossman, a manager at Evangeline's who has worked on and off for about 11 years, describes how crazy you can get with a pirate costume.

"We have a real metal pirate sword and we have real pirate boots, so you could really go all out and get a wig instead of just the hat with the hair, and you can get really fancy."

No doubt the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies have inspired this craze in pirate costumes.

The third floor has all of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s costumes, as well as a large section of wigs. There's also a variety of superhero costumes for the nerd-at-heart; Superman, Batman and Robin, Wonder Woman, Spiderman, et cetera. The store carries Flintstones, angel and devil costumes, various Disney characters and a few "Lord of the Rings" costumes and props.

The store seems to be popular with students.

"I bought my Scarface costume there about two years ago and it still looks awesome," said criminal justice major Jhuri Lamica.

I can safely say that I had trouble leaving the store and not buying a single item because there are just so many cool things in the store. If you are in need a costume this year, head to Old Sacramento and check out Evangeline's Costume Mansion. They will have something that'll work for you. If they don't, you are a very boring person.


Luke Soin can be reached at lsoin@statehornet.com.

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