Marilynn A. Wick - President

Costume World, Inc. could not exist without entrepreneur powerhouse Marilynn A. Wick, but Wick didn’t come by her success easily. Hailing from Sugar Grove, Pennsylvania, this small town girl appeared to be following the traditional path for a young woman of her day when she married at the tender age of 19 and become a mother to two daughters in quick succession.

Tradition flew by the wayside, however, when Wick found herself divorced and facing a daunting future with two youngsters to support. The story could have ended here. Like most young single mothers, Wick scrambled to make a living by whatever means necessary, from waiting tables to teaching PE.

It wasn’t long before this tycoon-in-the making came to the realization that toiling all week to line someone else’ pockets was not the route for her. Ready for a change, she boldly pulled up stakes and moved her small family out of Pennsylvania, eventually settling in sunny Boca Raton, Florida.

Seeing the construction onslaught of the seventies, Wick started her own industrial  cleaning company, specializing in the popular high-rise buildings that were popping up all over South Florida. The risky venture turned out to be just the beginning for Wick. Buoyed by the success of her cleaning enterprise, she came up with a novel idea in 1975 that would enable her to utilize her creative talents as well as involve her two pre-teen daughters, Kimberly and Kelly. Recalling her own fond memories of 4H, she wanted her girls to experience being creative and marketing a service. “I gave them three options,” she recalls when remembering how they got started, “and they chose the Santa Suits.”

From one Santa Suit and an ad offering it for holiday rental, the entire Costume World empire was born. Wick and her daughters were soon inundated with requests and quickly produced four more Santa suits. Business savvy Wick, wasn’t content to just let the new pursuit be a holiday activity, however. Realizing the law of supply and demand was heavily in her favor, she investigated the possibility of expanding her Santa rentals into a more inclusive costume business.

To keep pace with the ever-increasing demand for quality costumes, Wick hit upon what would eventually become one of her most sound business decisions. She began to purchase entire inventories of other costume enterprises that were selling, folding or otherwise liquidating their costume stock. This move transitioned Costume World, as her newest adventure was aptly named, from a small Halloween and Christmas business to a force to be reckoned with in the theatrical costume arena.

These days, Wick’s empire includes a nationwide theatrical costume design and rental business, retail locations in Deerfield Beach, Florida, Dallas, Texas and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, an Internet business and two warehouses in Florida that house the largest collection of theatrical costumes in the country.

Marilynn Wick has appeared on The Today Show three times and  featured in various publications including PEOPLE MAGAZINE in 2001 when her Santa suits shared the pages with the legendary George Harrison. Wick’s designs were nominated for the Chicago’s Jefferson Award for costume design for SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN, and in 1985 she was named  South Florida Business Woman of the Year. 1998 saw Costume World lauded with The Hawaii State Theatre Council’s Po’okela Award for costume design for The Will Rogers Follies production at the Diamond Head Theatre.

Despite all the success and naming daughter Kimberly as the company’s Vice-President, Wick is as hands-on with her company as ever. Overseeing everything from the production schedule to the décor of the retail sites, it’s not uncommon for Wick herself to answer the phone at Corporate Headquarters in Deerfield Beach, Florida. On what the future holds for Costume World, “We will be the largest online rent a costume in the country within the next ten years.” Wick also has plans to open up to ten more facilities in the near future, to keep up with the ever increasing demand for her costumes.