By Eileen Rodriguez

Inside Custom Costumes, a unique garment fabrication and rental shop at 927 Petaluma Blvd. N., racks upon racks of clothing from different decades and of many styles and colors are arranged everywhere; fabric cutouts rest against a sewing machine; and a corner gleams with gold, silver, and copper jewelry and accessories that every festivalgoer dreams of owning.

Stepping out from behind her sewing table, Heidi Wright, the shop’s owner for more than 35 years, settles onto the bench right outside her shop and relaxes back into the heat: "I need some sun."

Wright’s journey into decades of costume design began out of necessity. Growing up in Novato, she was involved in 4-H, a charitable organization not strictly about agriculture that helps kids find their spark and build real-world skills. She learned how to sew by pattern. “We didn’t have a lot of money, so we made all our own clothing,” she said. “Otherwise, I had to wear my brother’s hand-me-downs.”

When she was in high school, Wright assisted a woman who owned a costume shop in Novato, and learned the business from her. It wasn’t until years after her boss closed the store that Wright took a leap of faith and decided to open her own costume shop in Novato at the age of 19. “I had always done sewing for people,” she said. “I was doing band costumes and wedding dresses. I decided to start from scratch with nothing and go into business myself.”

After graduating from high school, Wright studied at the Fashion Institute of San Francisco. Years later in 2009, she earned a Master Certification in Intuition Medicine from Mill Valley’s Academy of Intuition Medicine, making her a uniquely qualified costume-maker. 

Halloween costumes

With Halloween rapidly approaching, one can only imagine the challenges and chaos that await a costume shop like Wright’s: people running in with ideas on short notice. Costumes nearly being rented out. Last-minute alterations being made.

But this time of year also allows Wright’s creative mind to shine. “That creative circus brain. I can never get it to shut up,” she laughed. She loves designing fairy costumes, along with unusual things. 

The process of designing and sewing one can take as little as an hour, she says, or as much as 20 hours. She estimates she and her seasonal assistants craft somewhere around 40 Halloween costumes each year.

Because of Wright’s upbringing, she likes to ensure her costumes are affordable. She offers some for rent, too. “I’m a control freak,” she said. “I want to make sure you look good and that you feel good. And if it takes all day and it’s 52 accessories, it’s the same price. Same price.”

Her most recent sewing project was a costume she made for Lagunitas Brewing Company. The task was to create a cartoon version of Trooper Eddie, a character depicted on the cover of a 1983 record by the English heavy-metal band Iron Maiden. “The more challenging, the better,” Wright said. “For my mind, I want to do things that are crazy.”

Intuitive healing

When you’re working as intimately with people as Wright likes to when designing garments, whether for a wedding, Halloween, or the theater and fashion industries, it helps to be able to read them well.

“I’ve always been intuitive,” she said. “I’ve always had weird dreams. All that kind of stuff.” 

She continued, “What would happen if we put someone in a costume like a Renaissance king? You get chills up and down your spine because, for them, you see that they’ve had some sort of familiarity, whether you want to believe in past lives or not. It really helps by kind of having this sense about people.”

To complement her work as a seamstress, Wright also serves as an intuitive energy healer. On the Custom Costumes website, she advertises two decades of experience in facilitating private sessions intended to “release emotional blockages, restore energy balance, and gain clarity.”

Birthday parties

In the building next door is another testament to Wright’s many talents: the Kaleidoscope Cabaret. In 2014, when she moved her shop from Novato to Petaluma, she also opened up her own theater. The idea stemmed from a horrible experience her daughter had at age 4 at a Chuck E. Cheese birthday party, and from her experience doing skits and plays with her family at 4-H and working as an adult at drama camps for children.

“I wanted to have a thing where kids can be honored on their birthday, so I created the birthday fairy,” Wright said. “I’m still the birthday fairy. I wanted the kids to be the show, where I bring costumes, the kids dress up, and I put them in a little play.” 

Just recently, Wright spoke with a woman who still remembered the birthday party Wright threw for her decades ago, well before opening the Cabaret. “She goes, ‘You were the birthday fairy for me 30 years ago! It was the best birthday ever. You allowed us our freedom, and you gave us a safe space,’” Wright said. “I was like, ‘Really? Wow. That’s really cool. Thank you.’”

Short films

Perhaps naturally for someone who makes costumes, throws parties, and intuits others’ inner selves, Wright also likes to make short films. Her latest, “Hold Fast My Heart,” a pirate love story, premiered last Saturday at the Kaleidoscope Cabaret. She plans to have another showing of the film soon. Wright says she treasures her films in part because they will be with her family forever, and because they allow her to make her close friends’ dreams come true.

“Michael (Lanham) was a customer, but he’s become such a dear friend now,” Wright said. “He’s in my movie, and he’s always wanted to be a merman, so I made him a merman. He’s in the movie on the beach in a merman costume, and it just fulfilled his dream.” 

After more than three decades, Wright’s costume shop remains a welcoming and whimsical resource for Petaluma and the entire North Bay. Today she encourages younger entrepreneurs to pursue what they love, just as she did.

“Start out small and build your clientele. Spoil your people. Listen to them. Do what they want,” she advised. “They’re the customer, and the customer is always right. Get your ego out of it. Enjoy making them happy instead of you happy. Be genuine. But also, don’t do anything that you don’t want to do.”

Eileen Rodriguez is a contributor to Petaluma Voice. She can be reached at news@petalumavoice.org.