If you do not find your answer here, please contact us with your inquiry and we will do our best to respond within a few days.

  • Unfortunately, we have limited space and cannot take everything that is offered to us. If possible, please hold items until we have an upcoming sale or swap event. Our greatest community needs right now are the following items:

    • Well constructed period garments of all eras

    • Well constructed or in good shape vintage

    • Plus size costumes

    • Matched sets of costumes 

    We prefer that you think of us as a specialty recycling service, where you have the peace of mind that textile circularity experts are rehoming each item with care whether to vulnerable communities, our costume rentals, or a recycling facility. We’ve done the research for you so you know everything you give us is getting the best next life possible. We suggest a monetary donation of $10 per box/bag of costumes to help us continue to provide this service. 

    We offer two easy ways to recycle your costumes and materials with Conscious Costume, first is to visit us on Monday afternoons from 3:00-6:00, second is to make an appointment through our online booking system.

    WE DO NOT ACCEPT ANY PROPS OR NON COSTUME/TEXTILE ITEMS.

  • We suggest a monetary donation of $10 per box/bag of costumes to help us continue to provide this service. We understand you could donate for free to a thrift store but did you know that only 16% of the clothes that are donated to thrift stores actually make it to the sales floor? At Conscious Costume, we do our best to rehome every material we receive in a sustainable way, your support helps make this happen.

  • Lots of places! 

    We do our best to ensure that all costume materials are allocated to new uses after each production. This includes:

    • Fabric

      • Pieces over ½ yard will be resold at semi annual fabric sales

      • Smaller pieces of unknown fiber will go in our free scrap bins and be available to the community for free at fabric sales and other events

      • 100% cotton knits, 100% cotton wovens, 100% polyester knits, and 100% polyester wovens will be recycled via our partnership with National Safety Apparel

    • Notions

      • Resold at our semi annual fabric sale

      • Donated to educational programs

    • Equipment like sewing machines, steamers, scissors, etc...

      • Resold at our semi annual fabric sale

      • We are exploring having an equipment rental library but so far there has been limited interest

    • Costume pieces

      • Incorporated into CC's rental collection for rentals and resale

      • Saved for annual October costume swap co-hosted with the Chicago Green Theatre Alliance

      • Resold online or at the AIBI Fashion Lab

    • Clothing

      • Donated relevant and needed clothing to community partners

      • Contributed to clothing swaps hosted by CC and other community partners 

      • Resold online and at the AIBI fashion lab

    • Shoes

      • Donated relevant and needed shoes to community partners

      • Kept costume shoes for rental or resale

      • Recycled sneakers via GotSneakers

    • Boxes & packing materials

      • Recycled via EcoShip

      • Used to ship CC sales

    • Socks

      • Donated to community partners 

      • Recycled via GoldToe's Terracycle program

    List of Community Partners

    For each of our major swaps, we reach out to community organizations for help repurposing the clothing, textiles, and costumes that are brought. We find that we often have an overabundance of donated materials that needs to be rehomed very quickly. We prioritize working with small, local non-profits, if you’d like to recommend a group, please get in touch.

    • Lincoln Park Community Services (LPCS)

    • Lincoln Park Community Center

    • La Posada Family Shelter - Casa Central

    • Cornerstone Community Outreach

    • San Jose Obrero Mission - Family Intervention Center

    • The Night Ministry - Open Door Shelter

    • Harbor Lights Chicago Social Services

    • Chicago Refugee Coalition

    • RefugeeOne

    • Care For Real

    • Care for Friends

    • Nourishing Hope

    • Refugee Alliance

    • Refugee Community Connection

    • Heartland Alliance

    • Trash People: The Parlor

    • Sullivan High School Newcomers Academy

    • Refugee Chicago

    • Farnsworth Elementary School

    • Dream Delivered

    • Chicago Public Schools


    At our October 2024 costume swap, people brought an average of 18.5 lbs of textiles each and only took an average of 9 lbs. Still, 62% of materials left with an event attendee that day. The remaining 38% of textiles, clothing, and costumes went with either Conscious Costume or Sharehowse (a local organization that distributes donations to nonprofit organizations, charities, families, teachers, students, disabled adults, and artists). 

  • Storing your recycling until the right person comes along can add up! When we receive your recycling, we first sort through and determine where it has the greatest value. Then we either have to store it for future rental at rates that are accessible to student and low-budget artists. Clothing resales only make up 4% of our annual budget (unlike a thrift store!) and we are primarily grant and donor funded.

  • NO! Anyone can rent, members are just really awesome people who are invested in Conscious Costume as a resource so they get special privileges: permanent alterations, discounts, longer rental times, complimentary consulting, etc…

  • We rent costumes out for any performance activity: film, theatre, dance, opera, etc… At this time, we do not offer rentals for private use such as parties, but all are welcome at our October Costume Swap to find something for Halloween!

  • There are two easy ways to pull costumes, first is to visit us on Monday afternoons from 3:00-6:00, second is to make an appointment through our online booking system.

  • Unfortunately, we are unable to check our stock for individual items and can only provide general information about what we have available. If you’d like for us to pull on your behalf or check for a specific item, pulling fees are $30 per hour.

  • There are two easy ways to return your costumes, first is to visit us on Monday afternoons from 3:00-6:00, second is to make an appointment through our online booking system.

  • Sign up for our newsletter to never miss an event!

    We do a designer seconds fabric sale in early spring and early fall (March & September).

    We co-host a swap with the Chicago Green Theatre Alliance in mid October.

    Plus an assortment of other swaps or events throughout the year.

 

MONDAYS 3:00-6:00 we are open for drop in pulling, returns, donations (give us a heads up), and volunteering. This Monday, volunteers will help CC staff make improvements to our storage to increase capacity. Extra hands would help this go quickly. W
Swing by 2031 W. Fulton St. Suite K-111 Every Monday from 3:00-6:00 for our office hours. No appointment necessary, just return, recycle, pull, or volunteer for 3 minutes or 3 hours. Just use the call box for @aibichicago and we’ll buzz you in
🎆 New Year, New Benefits! Tag or share with a friend who could benefit from a CC membership 💚 Member benefits: - On average members saved $50/rental thanks to their membership - 1 hour of free consulting ($50 value) - Permanently alter/dye costume
What do YOU need from Conscious Costume? We’re rewarding one respondent with 1 hour of free, 1-on-1 conversation about your sustainable costume questions and needs. We can spend that time browsing for the perfect second hand fabric, learning ho
We will be closed for the winter holidays December 22nd through January 1st. Wishing you all warm, safe, and happy holidays and new year. 💚 Emma & Kristen
It’s been a record breaking 2024! Thank you to all who have read, listened, rented, questioned, and supported. 😊💚 #SpotifyWrapped
LAST CHANCE to RSVP! Join me today, we’ll be gathering to discuss strategies for using our art form to reflect our values of making costumes in harmony with people and planet. Conscious Community Virtual Meet-Up Monday 12/16 8:30 Eastern/5:30
MONDAYS 3:00-6:00 we are open for drop in pulling, returns, donations (give us a heads up), and volunteering. We encourage volunteers on the third Monday (December 16) of each month to join us to get costumes organized for reuse. Help us support ci
It’s obvious that global leadership is failing to address the intersecting crises of the climate, environmental and labor exploitation. Monday we’ll be gathering to discuss strategies for using our art form to reflect our values of making