Theatrical Costumes

Theatrical Costumes
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Skilled in cleaning and finishing

Over the years, our business – caring for designer, high fashion, specialty and couture garments and accessories – has exposed us too many unusual and wonderful garments and accessories with trim and embellishments.

This exposure has allowed us to become highly skilled in cleaning and finishing these garments and accessories, many of which would be routinely rejected as “uncleanable” or “extremely risky” by the overwhelming majority of dry cleaners.

At RAVE FabriCARE, we can expertly, safely and effectively clean almost any garment or accessory with trim and embellishments. Whether it’s beads, sequins, rhinestones or pailettes; plastic, vinyl or rubber; paint, glitter or silkscreen; feathers, appliques or embroidery; suede, leather or fur.

Costumes from musical productions

Our expertise in expertly, safely and effectively cleaning almost any garment or accessory with trim and embellishments is the reason why many theatrical touring companies that stage their shows in the metro Phoenix area have entrusted their ornate, heavily embellished, one-of-a-kind costumes to RAVE FabriCARE.

It’s not uncommon for some of these one-of-a-kind costumes to cost upwards of $5,000 each.

In recent years, RAVE FabriCARE has cleaned costumes for musicals such as Kinky Boots, La Cage Aux Folles, Les Miserables, Lion King, Phantom of the Opera, Porgy and Bess, Wicked, The Book Of Mormon, Finding Neverland and An American In Paris.

Costumes from opera and ballet productions

Our expertise in expertly, safely and effectively cleaning almost any garment or accessory with trim and embellishments is the reason why Arizona Opera and Ballet Arizona have, in the past, entrusted RAVE FabriCARE with their ornate costumes.

After the final performance of each production, RAVE FabriCARE cleaned and pressed the production’s entire wardrobe, whether the wardrobe was owned outright by the opera or ballet company or loaned to it by another opera or ballet production company.

It’s not uncommon for the Arizona Opera or Ballet Arizona to have a costume investment of $250,000 or more in a single show.

In the past, RAVE FabriCARE cleaned costumes for many Ballet Arizona productions, including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Nutcracker, Romeo and Juliet and Swan Lake and many Arizona Opera productions, including Carmen, Rigoletto and The Magic Flute.

Over a period of about 6 years, RAVE FabriCARE spent over $70,000 in direct labor costs providing costume care services to Arizona Opera and Ballet Arizona. And that excludes other indirect labor costs such as worker's compensation insurance, unemployment insurance and employer matching of payroll taxes which would add approximately 20% to that amount.

All our services to these 2 organizations was pro bono.

They paid zero.

After numerous failed attempts over those years to encourage these 2 organizations to fulfill their promised marketing-related commitments to RAVE FabriCARE, we terminated all services to them.

As a result of this experience, we will only undertake the cleaning and pressing of costumes for a theatrical company if:

(1) all work is priced at full retail, and

(2) satisfactory arrangements for full payment is made prior to commencing any work.

Costumes from collectors of theatrical memorabilia

At RAVE FabriCARE, we serve individual collectors who collect costumes and other textile-based artifacts related to specific theatrical productions.

For example, one of our clients collects Phantom of the Opera costumes and other memorabilia (with provenance) from the first Broadway run and from the 2004 movie.

We recently cleaned, finished and preserved the “Think Of Me” dress worn by Emmy Rossum and Carlotta’s “Il Muto” dress worn by Minnie Driver from the 2004 movie.

Internationally Recognized Dry Cleaner
RAVE FabriCARE is a nationally recognized leader in true quality care for fine garments, household textiles and accessories. And the only dry cleaner in Arizona recognized as one of the nation’s premier dry cleaners by non-compensated, independent, authoritative third parties.