Meet the family behind Liverpool costume institution Lili Bizarre preparing for a crazy Halloween

For the family behind Liverpool costume institution Lili Bizarre, there’s no such thing as a quiet time for dressing up.

It could be stags and hens who decide they want an impromptu theme, footy fans coming here for European nights or kids getting ready for World Book Day at school.

But there’s one day of the year that’s crazy like no other.

Halloween for Gary Wakefield and his sister Lorna, who’ve run the family business for the past 25 years, actually begins in Feburary.

That’s when they put their first orders in for costumes which take over the two-floor city centre shop throughout October.

Every inch of the 3,000sqft downstairs on Tarleton Street, just off Church Street, is crammed with Halloween costumes and accessories to buy. And they’ve already paused their usual year-round rentals from upstairs to create more space for stock.

Gary estimates that between now and the big day they’ll sell thousands of outfits, from Wednesday Addams to Beetlejuice and the classic Scream Ghostface.

He said:

“Halloween is definitely our busiest time of the year. Christmas is obviously big but it’s steadier because everyone has parties and Nativities at different times so it’s spread out rather than focused on one day.

“For Halloween the whole shop gets changed over which takes a while and we spend months preparing for all the stock to arrive.

“As soon as New Year comes we’re looking at what we can get, we order in February and start taking deliveries from June.

“In October we’ll open on Sundays which we don’t normally do, and me and my sister don’t get a day off for about a month in the run-up to Halloween but we really enjoy all the excitement. It’s nice to be part of people’s celebrations.”

Gary and Lorna are the second generation running Lili Bizarre. Their mum Lili first started the business back in 1985, as a vintage shop called Bizarre in Quiggins.

Gary explained:

“It was only when some students were doing a bad taste party and they didn’t want to buy the clothes so they asked if they could rent them, that the idea formed,”

“That was in the mid-late 90s, then more and more bad taste parties and student nights started happening so we did a lot more rentals. Me and Lorna were helping out initially and in October 2000 we joined full-time and created Lili Bizarre.

“We had about 300 costumes at first, just to rent, and we’d sell accessories. When that got to about 800 costumes, we outgrew Quiggins and moved to Hardman Street in 2003, then to the city centre where we are now in 2014.”

As its reputation has grown, Lili Bizarre has built up a network of suppliers across the world, including Europe, the US and China, as well as sourcing from independents in the UK. It’s also a stockist for Smiffy’s, which closed its Liverpool store on Bold Street at the end of last year.

With around 2,000 costumes to rent upstairs, and a massive space downstairs filled to capacity with more for sale, Gary says he and Lorna are always on the lookout for dress-up trends.

Not surprisingly, a lot of them are celebrity or character led.

“Cowboy hats are still really popular, Harry Styles started that and we still sell loads, and Taylor Swift of course.

“There are some classics which we see every year, and then a few which we get asked for which we wish we could get but just can’t, like The Warriors film from the late 70s and a proper version of Hocus Pocus.”

Gary says he and Lorna will be looking forward to a quieter few weeks after Halloween, before the Christmas and New Year party season rush kicks in.

There’s on person who’s happy not to take a break though. “Our mum is 84 now but she still works here on Fridays and Saturdays. People love coming in and seeing her here, they’ll always go over and ask, ‘are you Lili?’ and start having a chat.”