RENTAL POLICIES

Rental Agreement

After you confirm your rental with us, we’ll email your rental agreement and the invoice detailing the final charges. We strongly recommend that customers carefully review the entire agreement, particularly the costume care section, and share these details with the costume and wardrobe teams.

Securing Your Rental Dates

To secure your rental dates, you must return the signed rental agreement along with the refundable security deposit payment within one week of receiving the rental agreement.

What to Expect After You’ve Booked

We ship the costume package two weeks before your opening night, so you have time for fittings, alterations, photos, events, etc. Once we receive the final payment, we will begin prepping the rental. Before costumes leave the building, we must receive full payment, a signed agreement, and the certificate of insurance.

Returning the Costumes

The costume package is due back to us approximately 2.5 weeks after you close the show, so you have time to clean, re-inventory, and ship the costumes. We allow you to alter the costumes to fit your actors as long as they are restored to their original size and look before they are returned. We do not pull costumes to size, but if you have sizing concerns, we’re happy to provide you with the costume sizes in the package because you signed on the dotted line.

PRICING

Every rental package includes fees. Ours range from $1,000 to $15,000, based on a typical two-week production and the package size. We do not rent partial costume packages. While we will consider your budget, we can’t guarantee it will be met, but we aim for a mutually beneficial final fee.

Refundable Security Deposit

A refundable security deposit is required for rentals. We will refund the deposit within 60 business days of receiving the package if it is returned in full and without issues. Any problems will result in the deposit covering fees for unreturned items, missing rental items, unaddressed alterations, damages, late fees, or shipping costs from MSMT Costumes. The remaining deposit will be refunded within 60 business days after the costumes are returned to us.

Cleaning and Shipping

Customers must clean the costumes and cover dry cleaning expenses. Our inventory includes a cleaning guide specifying whether items should be hand-washed, machine-washed, dry-cleaned, or not cleaned at all. Additionally, customers are accountable for the shipping costs of costumes to and from their organization, including any handling fees.

Rush Fees

Any order received fewer than 5 weeks before opening night will incur a rush fee of 30% of the base package price.

Payment

We accept checks, Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover, but we do not accept Purchase Orders. The security deposit is required at the time of signing the rental agreement. Full payment for the rental fee must be made at least 7 days before the costumes are scheduled to ship.

INSURANCE

The Customer will provide an agent’s certificate of insurance, insuring only those items rented from MSMT and naming Maine State Music Theatre as the certificate holder.

The insurance must cover the items while in transit to and from MSMT and for the entire period between shipment from and return to MSMT.

We do not ship the costumes or allow them to be taken from our building until the Certificate of Insurance has been presented to MSMT.

The Customer is liable for the full expense of repair or replacement of permanently damaged, destroyed, or lost items according to the replacement values listed on the Inventory Schedule A. In the event that any or all items on the inventory sheet are permanently damaged, destroyed, or lost in transit or while in the Customer’s care, MSMT will claim the full replacement value from the Customer’s insurance. The Customer will be responsible for payment of any amount not covered by insurance.

COSTUME CARE & ALTERATIONS

Upon receipt, unpack and inventory all costumes using MSMT’s Schedule A Inventory Sheet. We will email the inventory to the contact person and include a hard copy in a package in Box 1.

We recommend providing a copy of the inventory and costume care guide from the rental agreement to your costume team to ensure that all items and guidelines regarding costume care are followed.

When unpacking the costumes, note how the boxes were packed to make repacking easier before shipping them back.

All claims of shipping damage or packing discrepancies must be made in writing within 96 hours of receiving the costumes. If anything is missing from the inventory, we will send a replacement immediately. Please let us know right away if we missed any repairs before shipping the costumes. We don’t want to mistakenly charge you for discrepancies that were not your fault.

Alterations

We encourage you to alter the costumes to fit your actors in the best way possible.

Safety pins, hand-sewn tacks, and machine stitching are acceptable forms of alterations. All altered costumes must be restored to their original state before return, and all restored alterations must be sewn.

Please do not permanently alter the costumes by cutting, dyeing, or distressing the fabric. You may not apply glue, tape, or any other adhesives to any component of any costume for any reason at any time. If costumes are not returned in the condition they left MSMT Costumes or better, the customer may be charged damage or replacement value fees.

Original MSMT labels must not be removed from the costume pieces. Please remove your own labels prior to returning costumes.

Care During the Run

Do not allow the actors to eat, drink anything other than water, or smoke in MSMT costumes. Food or drink stains or evidence of smoking on the costume will be considered permanent damage.

The costumes are to be used in a reasonable and customary manner. Please store and hang costumes properly using the appropriate hanger.

Under no circumstances are knee slides allowed in any costume, as they permanently damage costumes.

Please use dress shields when appropriate (e.g., women’s dresses, men’s jackets). Undershirts, tights, and other undergarments should be worn to protect the costume garments.

MSMT prefers that performers use deodorant instead of antiperspirant, as antiperspirant contains aluminum chloride, which stains and eats away at the fabrics of the costumes. Any corrosion will be deemed permanent damage, and the customer will be charged the full replacement value of the costume.

Please do not allow the use of perfumes, body sprays, colognes, fragrant detergents, or fragrance sprays (like Febreeze, etc.) on the costumes. The use of such items will result in damage fees.

Preparing to Return the Costumes

Customers are responsible for ensuring that all costumes are cleaned (washed or dry cleaned) before returning them to us. Each inventory provides a key as to how pieces should be laundered. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.

Restore all alterations to the costumes’ original look and size. Remove safety pins and any of your labels or name tags. Repair any damage caused during your run.

We ask that the costumes be boxed according to the provided inventory and covered with dry-cleaning bags.

If accessories are provided in bags, please return them in their appropriately labeled bags. Ensure that all costumes are completely dry before boxing them. Tape the shipping boxes securely, and send all boxes to MSMT Costumes, 14 Maine Street, Suite 216, Brunswick, ME 04011.