Pics: Qassim Rahmatullah / The Peninsula
Doha: From Scooby-Doo, Cinderella, Avengers or Star Wars, costumes for all these characters are available on rent at Yogarani Chandrasekaran’s house on Airport Road. This place is a dream destination for any kindergartner who wishes to play the role of their favourite characters or profession.
Owner of Qatar Costumes, a Facebook page, Yogarani is popular among parents who wish to rent dresses for their children’s fancy dress competitions at school.
Yogarani started off with about 300 costumes from a friend who had similar business and was going back to her home country. “I always wanted to own a business and was always on the lookout for opportunities. When my kids were small, I used to go to a friend’s place who used to rent out clothes for fancy dress. When she was moving back, she approached me to ask if I would be interested. That was the opportunity I was looking for,” says Yogarani, who never had to look back after that decision.
The business now has over 1,000 different costumes for various cartoon and action figure characters and professions, all that are rented out for QR50. “People come to me through word of mouth or through my Facebook page,” said Yogarani.
Characters from children’s classics like Peter Pan, Willy Wonka, Red Riding Hood; Community Helpers – doctors, fireman - and superhero costumes are the most popular among her customers. Yogarani adds new costumes to her collections as and when she travels to various destinations and once in a while orders them online as well.
"I recently got a few costumes from Disney Stores in the US. Apart from that, my friends often get costumes for me whenever they travel,” she added.
Apart from the expense of dry cleaning these costumes as and when a customer returns, Yogarani said that she shares a part of her profit with various charities in Qatar and back home, saying that “it’s my way of giving back to the society.”
Originally from Sri Lanka, Yogarani works with the Business Development Operations of one of top auditors in the country. Mother of three - Azel, Jude and Jerusha - Yogarani moved to Doha in 2003 to join her husband who has been in Doha for the last 25 years. She plans on building her home business further and to enhance her managerial skills, she is pursuing an MBA from Australian Institute of Business.
One of her customers, Priti Nair, a Doha resident, often picks costumes for her kid’s school competitions and recommends Qatar Costumes to her friends. She says, “I often go to her as soon as the school announces an event. Whenever our school announces, most parents go to her because we get to choose from a wide variety of costumes and more importantly those dresses fits our child.”
Yogarani says that there have been often requests from parents at 10pm in the night for their children’s event the next morning.
“There are shops selling costumes, but they are quite a few and only the most popular characters - be it professions or superheroes - are available. Also, more often than not size is also an issue. But Qatar Costumes has a variety of costumes available in different sizes,” said a parent of two, Gayatri Dixit, who has used the services of Qatar Costumes many times. Priti added that another advantage is that for every fancy dress event, her child gets to dress up as a different character with matching accessories.
“My child, Prithvi, enjoys dressing up and role-playing so whenever there is a fancy dress competition, he enthusiastically participates for all of them. Buying a new dress every time is not a feasible option for me since these costumes are quite highly-priced and after one event, they are just lying around at home without any use,” she added.
Apart from the definite advantages that parents have quoted above, renting out costumes is now part of a growing trend where conscious consumption is evolving. This is just the beginning!
