Rose Chong

A striking and always vibrantly window-dressed Victorian corner terrace has been home to this Fitzroy institution for over 25 years. With 10 colourful rooms of wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling costumes, wigs, hats and accessories you’re pretty much guaranteed to find what you’re looking for, and have a ball searching for it. As befits the location the stock is imaginative and unusual, and the savvy staff members, all poached from an art and design background, are passionate about helping customers build their outfit from the ground up and then tweak it to get it spot on. Being able to bookend your costume hunting with visits to a couple of the many excellent nearby cafés is a nice bonus too.

Best outfit: Priding itself on having no pre-assembled costumes, custom attire is the go at Rose Chong’s – a recent commission was a latex-heavy Mad-Max inspired post-apocalyptic marauder outfit. If the fact that alterations had to be made to allow for trips to the bathroom isn’t testament to above-and-beyond customer service, then I’m not sure what is...