MAINTENANCE PERSON at Angels The Costumiers NW9
We require an experienced person to carry out general maintenance work and repairs at our modern premises in NW9 comprising 130,000 sq ft over two floors.
Ideally you will have varied experience across various building trades to a general handyman level including:
• Painting & decorating
• Plumbing
• Basic carpentry
• Basic electrical
• Building fabric & general DIY
Interviews will take place in September 08.
To apply, please write with your CV to: Ben Stanton, Angels the Costumiers, 1 Garrick Rd, London NW9 6AA including details of 2 references. Alternatively you can email jobs@angels.uk.com
Closing Date: 19 Sept 08
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Whilst you are waiting for other employment opportunities to open up at Angels Fancy Dress why not take a look behind the scenes and find out what it's like to work for the best Fancy Dress company in the world! Here are two 'day-in-the life-of' pieces written by Andy and Anna.
Andy is a costumier, his job is to transform our customers into their chosen characters by selecting costumes from our comprehensive stock and fitting and accessorising the hired outfits.
Anna works in the retail side of the business, customers buy masks, wigs and make-up to accessorise their hired outfits and many purchase costumes as well. She has to co-ordinate the team, answer the phones and… why not read on and find out!
A Day in the Life of Retail
Today is Thursday. Thursdays are ALWAYS strange! Before I enter the shop at 8:45 to set up the tills and switch on the computer I know there’s going to be someone banging on the door with a costume hire return or a mask urgently needed for a 9am shoot round the corner. Lo and behold at 8:46 precisely whilst checking the answer phone messages the first punter is on the doorstep, (it’s usually 20 at Halloween). At 9:30am on the dot our doors are open and we are ready to embrace the world of fancy dress. The 8:46am customer is a lady who needs a ‘Groucho Marx’ set, unfortunately we are out of stock, the customer is devastated (I’m NOT exaggerating believe me), until I inform her I can get one for 12:00pm. Telephone numbers are exchanged and the customer leaves happy, hurray!!
The Retail staff Antoni, Jemma and Kat spend the morning serving, stocking up and cleaning, followed by a lengthy wig brushing session whilst I check the emails. Today we have a variety of emails ranging from a spacesuit request for a car advert, to an enquiry about the length of the ‘Ninja’ sword. The most common retail enquiries we receive involve measuring items so we always keep a tape measure handy!! My fun email hour is interrupted by Carol the receptionist asking if I’m expecting a courier. Said courier has come to collect ‘sumthink goin’ ta SW1’ he’s got no contact name, no customer name, HELP! There are blank faces all round. Jemma comes to the rescue, the courier has been sent to pick up a telephone order and we haven’t received payment yet. 5 minutes later, calls have been made, faxes have been sent and the Jumbo cigars are off to their new home.
The morning’s activities vary between helping a guy choose 10 masks for his absent friends based on descriptions of face shapes and personalities (psychology degree not necessary but could help), to making a small boy’s life complete with a ‘Muscle-chest Superman’ outfit. The van arrives from Head Office with my precious ‘Groucho Marx’ set as well as other new goodies such as cowboy holsters and sexy nurse gloves; it’s time to re-jig the displays to fit in our constantly growing stock.
After lunch I cover Reception for an hour. Possibly my favourite call of this hour is the ‘Do you sell Anti-bulls#*t tablets?’ one. After laughing hysterically the caller realises the answer is ‘No’, apologizes and hangs up. Once my reception stint is over I check the emails again and do a bit of paperwork before going up to the first floor to cover the Retail costume department. My hour is filled with cowboys, pirates. ‘Comedy cows’ and a smattering of little miss Red Riding hoods. I finish with a 5’5, bald-headed, stocky chap who just ‘has to be’ a fairy, and he looks pretty damn good as a fairy, I didn’t know how forgiving some of our costumes were, ha ha!
I finish my first floor stint by donning a rather attractive Rambo style Muscleman suit, well, product
knowledge is an extremely important part of the job! I sashay down the stairs in true Rambo style and serve customers as normal. There are double-takes, giggling fits and several guys are hugely impressed by my 6 pack, I even sell a couple in the process. Sadly, my Rambo days are numbered when a customer for make-up arrives. My left arm is my pallet and after 15 minutes I am covered in wax scars and blood, and my skin has turned an attractive ‘corpse’ colour. Just 30 minutes later I have a blue streak in my hair and blue hands, another night of funny looks from fellow commuters on my journey home!
My make-up session is disturbed by the familiar dulcet tones of Elvis. Not THE Elvis but our very own Dave Elvis, one of our regulars who likes to ‘entertain’ us and the customers on his trips to 
pick up Elvis wigs and suits. After showing off his new CD he goes on his merry way leaving a shop full of open-mouthed customers. During the afternoon half of the Tottenham FC squad turn up for their Xmas do, its time for our autograph book to rear its ugly head. Looking for said book I see Antoni, our resident Arsenal fan, running down the back stairs with what looks like a book in his hand. After a minor wrestle I win (obviously) and pacify him by pointing out half of them play for England as well as Spurs. Costumes are hired and autographs are signed, everybody’s happy.
The rest of my day is full of emails, declined cards, stock transfers, floor checks, faxes, maintenance calls and Hawaiian accessories. The doors are closed at 5:30pm today and the last customer leaves at 5:45pm. It’s the end of another busy day and time to go home. The alarm is set and as we are walking out of the door a lady runs up to us begging to look at our masks, she knows ‘exactly which one I want’. Unfortunately the tills are closed and there’s nothing we can do, so she’s going to come back tomorrow morning. Tomorrow is Friday. Fridays are ALWAYS strange………….
Anna M
A Day in the life of a Costumier
I like to get into work for around 8.45am, but this is only according to the train arriving in at Charring Cross on time. Therefore, generally I speed walk in through the front door, after working up an unnecessary sweat, for around 8.50/8.55am.
The first thing that I always do is check for messages, either left via phone or fax. I have no faxes but I do have three messages to return before the end of the morning.
Today is Thursday and Thursdays and Fridays are generally the busiest days of the week for me. I guess that stylists and the like are preparing for the weekend shooting, etc as we are closed at the weekend. (YAY). Today is no exception. I check my Fittings diary which is kept at the reception area and see that I have appointments at 10.15am, 12.30-ish (or so it is written) and 2.45pm, so far. I tend to get more during the day from customers needing urgent costumes. I also have to book and send out twenty two Vietnamese style costumes, a Spacesuit that needs to be sent to Austria and finish off four showgirls that are needed for the weekend.
Before I know it it’s 9am and the store is open. There is no surprise when the first call of the day is for me. Carol, our receptionist, sends a tannoy over the building to inform me that I have a call holding. I pick up the nearest phone with my usual line, ‘Hi, can I help you?’ The caller is a rather stressed out stylist looking for two showgirl outfits needed by midday today. I wonder to myself why Showgirls have been so popular lately. It seems to be the most requested style of costume in corporate hire over the past year. I tell her that it shouldn’t be a problem, but I would need to check the sizes first. She tells me that they are both around a size 10 (which I like), but she also tells me that one of the models have a 34DD bust size (which I don’t like so much). However, I tell her that I will call her back within the hour to let her know whether or not it can be done. She tells me at least four times in a bit of a panic that she is desperate for these costumes as another place has let her down and that she will do anything to squeeze the girls into the outfits.
I then decide that the first thing to do is before doing any costumes, I return the calls from the
morning messages. I normally like to get the phone messages out of the way first thing, so then I can concentrate on my day and putting costumes together. One of the callers needs a bear costume for the following Monday morning for a commercial, which is easy, another wants 2 Willy Wonka costumes but with a sexy slant for two girls for a club that they are trying to promote, that should be fun and the other wants fifteen 18th Century style outfits for members of staff for an event by the Thursday of next week. This should be fine I tell her, depending on sizes. She then tells me that she will not be able to get all the sizes until Monday morning and asks if that is cutting it too fine – (typical). I tell that I can do the costumes no problem, however, the later she leaves it the more risk there is of the costumes not being available. I assure her though, that we have plenty of Georgian style costumes and I’m sure that we can accommodate. A happy customer – I hope.
Now that my phone calls are finished - for the moment – I dash up to the third floor in order to find out whether or not we can do the showgirls that the stylist asked me for earlier this morning. I find the first one no problem, the second lady with the large bust takes a little longer to source. Thankfully the costumes don’t have to match, as then we may have had a problem as our showgirl costumes are generally quite small. But I don’t like to fail and find one that would work with lacing at the back of the leotard. I accessorise both of the costumes to make them glitzy and fabulous and phone the stylist back immediately who whoops for joy (literally) and we discuss the necessary arrangements for payment and pickup, etc.
My next task is to begin to book out the Vietnamese costumes. Thankfully these are all put together already, so all I have to do is book them out onto our computer system. I book out one costume at a time in order for us to know what is going out and for the returns department to know what to expect back in. I only get half way through when Carol lets me know that my 10.15am appointment turns up (amazingly on time). I save the work on the computer and go to greet the client.
The appointment is easy and fun as it is a stylist that I have worked with a few times. He is looking for accessories for an urban / futuristic style shoot for a fashion magazine. He’s quite happy to go rummaging through the rails and boxes of accessories himself as he knows his way around, which is a good thing as I keep on getting tannoyed to pick up calls from potential customers who are looking to hire all sorts of costumes. When he’s pulled out a selection, we both go through it and pick out the good from the bad. It’s really nice when a stylist wants your advice as it allows you to feel creative and that you’ve had some input.
During the course of the day I finish off booking out the Vietnamese costumes, in between taking the many, many phone call enquiries that I pick up, some urgent some not, pack them up and order a van to collect them in order for them to get their destination. Naturally, I inform the customer that they are on their way. The customer is very pleased. Another happy customer. Lovely.
My 12.30pm-ish customer has not turned up yet and it is five past one. I’m hungry, so I make myself a quick snack that I am ready to eat when Carol lets me know that my 12.30-ish has just turned up. Isn’t it always the way? This customer is not so easy as she cannot find exactly what she is looking for. First of all she has heard from somewhere that we hire out large paparazzi style cameras. When I tell her that we don’t hire props, she becomes very disheartened. I show her costumes that could tie in with her theme of a ‘Press Style’ conference and also tell her that I can order some mac style coats in from our main branch in Hendon. When she asks why she can’t go there herself, I explain that it is our TV, Film and Theatre branch only, but we can order it in within 48 hours. This seems to lighten her mood slightly and she asks if I can go ahead with the order.
Lunch time – WOOHOOO. I’m starved. Normally I have an hour for lunch but today I’ll cut it short as I still have the spacesuit to do, showgirls and various other costumes that people have asked for during the day, some for picking up today.
My 2.15pm arrives on time. Two on time in one day – wonderful. This is for a look around to see the kind of thing that we can do for an event in May. They need between 30 – 50 costumes with a pirate theme. I pull out a few examples to show the clients what we can do in the way of pirates, wenches, etc. They make all the correct noises – ‘Wow, fantastic, the costumes are great…’etc. They get even more excited when I mention that we did the costumes for the Prates of the Caribbean movies starring Jonny Depp. We then fine tune the details and I tell them to start letting me know sizes as soon as possible so I can begin sourcing the costumes.
Now to finish off the day. Spacesuit, showgirls and all the other enquiries. As usual, I run around like a costumier on heat organising paperwork, answering phone calls, putting costumes together, bagging things up and answering more phone calls. Absolutely crazy.
I’m always surprised when I look at my watch to see that 5.30pm is fast approaching and that we will soon be closed for another day. Thankfully, I have finished all the jobs that are urgent, the rest I can leave for tomorrow. I hear Carol tannoy over the building that we are now closed. This is the best time for me every day to check that I have no outstanding work that I have left behind.
Another day done and happy customers all round. A frantic, busy day but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Andy A
