By Ed Avis
When it comes to military uniforms in quality movies or TV shows, there’s no such thing as “kind of” right. Uniforms are either right or wrong. That understanding has driven the success of new NCA member Eastern Costume.
“We are known as the place that does it correctly,” explains Nick Edler, general manager/procurement for Eastern Costume, which is located in North Hollywood, California. The company provides costumes that are used in movies, TV shows, music videos and other productions. “With military uniforms, there is always a right answer, and the networks and movie houses trust that we will get it right.”
Eastern Costume traces its success in uniforms to its founder, James Livie. Livie is a Marine Corps veteran who was giving flying lessons in the late 1980s when his inlaws introduced him to costuming. He liked the business aspects of costuming and identified a niche in uniforms. He launched the business in Florida – hence the name Eastern Costume – but soon moved it to Los Angeles to be near the movie industry.
Today the company is about evenly divided between uniforms – including military, police, FedEx, etc. – and civilian clothing. The company carries uniforms from World War I to the present day and civilian clothing from the 1930s to the early 2000s. The civilian clothing is also used in movies and TV shows, which is why their collection does not include current-day clothing – wardrobers can just buy modern clothing at a clothing store.
“We do mostly period stuff on the civilian side,” Edler says. “It ranges from casual to business to sportswear to more formal wear. And within those categories it’s based on style, such as hippy stuff.”
The civilian costuming business is growing in importance for the company, but they’re still known for the military side.
“Jim spent a lot of years watching TV and the movies and saying, ‘I was in the military – that’s not what they wore…that’s not what you would wear in the dessert, you wouldn’t wear the patches that way,” Edler says. “Our main goal is to portray the military accurately.”
The company does not limit itself to American uniforms. For example, in 2019 the production company working on a movie about the conflict in Afghanistan ordered a large number of Afghan honor guard dress uniforms. The real thing was not available, so Eastern Costume bought Swiss army honor guard uniforms and tailored them to match the Afghan uniforms.
“We get creative when we have to,” Edler says. “We’ll got that extra mile to make a uniform work.”
Edler says the company finds its uniforms from a large number of sources. It helps that Livie is a veteran, he adds, and that he has developed relationships with many vendors who can supply up-to-date military uniforms. The military frequently changes uniforms, so it’s essential for a company like Eastern to stay on top of current wear.
They also have a variety of sources for their civilian clothing collection. “We get approached to buy a lot of things,” Edler says. “Sometimes if a vintage store goes out of business we’ll buy the inventory, and we get a lot of walk-ins. Recently a family came in whose mother had passed away and they wanted to see her wardrobe go to a good use. We also buy a lot of costumes from shows so that they don’t have to house the assets.”
And that leads to another part of Eastern’s business: In addition to providing the costumes, they offer production space where TV and movie companies can conveniently set up shop and develop their wardrobe without the usual back-and-forth between a costume supplier and production house. Eastern provides the “cages” where productions can store their wardrobe and stage the costumes for the filming, and fitting rooms where the actors can try on the costumes.
“They can do everything short of the actual filming right here,” Edler says, adding that earlier this year they doubled the amount of space available for production. Do famous actors sometimes come in for fittings? “Yeah, but we’re not one to kiss and tell,” Edler laughs.
Eastern Costume employs 15 people, including many veterans. They have one full-time tailor and a handful of other costumers who can help as needed. Everyone wears multiple hats, says Edler, who joined the company 8 years ago after a dozen years playing drums in a band in Nashville. Business at Eastern Costume has grown considerably in the years Edler has been there, he says.
“I think 20 or 30 years ago a lot of costume houses were doing the majority of costuming for one large feature and a few TV shows, but now the designers are spreading the work out among different costume houses,” Edler says. “And with all the streaming services you have a lot more content. There’s just a lot more quantity than there used to be. I would say the output has quadrupled since I’ve been here.”
Edler says he’s looking forward to becoming part of the NCA family. “I’m a big believer in community and being a part of it, and I want to help build it. It’s an arts-based community we are working in and we all should be proud of what we’re doing.”
