Charlie and Maria Santilena
By Ed Avis
There are some great examples of siblings who run companies together. Manned flight innovators Orville and Wilbur Wright. Cereal makers Will and John Kellogg. Fashion designers Rebecca and Uri Minkoff.
And in costuming? Yes, we have our own sibling entrepreneurs: Charlie and Maria Santilena, the owners of new NCA Vendor Member Seeing Red. Maria founded the company in 2014 and her younger brother Charlie joined her about a year later.
“It’s great working with my sister. I’ve worked with her my whole life,” Charlie says. “When I was a teenager we worked at Claim Jumper Restaurant together, and in 2005, when I graduated from college, I joined her at Pony Express (the company that made the original hat with an attached pony tail).”
In 2006, Maria joined the team at Leg Avenue. Fun World bought Pony Express in 2007, and shortly thereafter Charlie left the company for Charades. Maria stayed at Leg Avenue until 2011, when she joined fashion apparel company Lip Service. Maria introduced Lip Service to the Halloween market with a line of costumes.
“But after a couple of years Lip Service decided not to continue with that line, so Maria’s mentor told her, ‘If you want to continue with the line yourself, take it!’” Charlie says. “So that’s what got her started.”
When Maria launched Seeing Red, she chose the name because it plays on the idea of your personal fight-or-flight response.
“When the opportunity to start our own company arose, the choice was do or do not; change career paths or challenge an over-saturated industry,” Maria says. “We chose to fight for our placement in an industry we had grown to love -- adopting the concept of being a mid-tier costume manufacturer with trendy, humorous, sometimes darker costumes, and apparel. Differentiating us from others.”
About eight months after launching, her mentor at Lip Service – the one who had recommended she start her own company – passed away. Coincidentally, Charlie’s mentor at Charades had passed away shortly before. The shared sadness of having both lost their costume-industry mentors drew the siblings closer, and Charlie soon joined Seeing Red.
“We’re very good working together,” Charlie says. “We have separate tasks and often operate in tandem. She manages the design, development, production, importing, shipping and the financial side, and I manage design, graphics, marketing, sales and shipping.”
Voodoo Doll
In the years since, Seeing Red has produced many memorable costumes. Maria came up with the Voodoo Doll costume in 2014 and it remains a company best seller. Their male mermaid costume, called Mermaid Mafia, was another home run. It’s been their top selling men’s costume for the past three years. For 2023, one of their leading costumes so far is a gothic gown that works for a witch or Wednesday Addams.
The company employs two designers, but Charlie, who has experience in animation, also continues to design products. They introduced 80 new designs in 2022 and expect more this year.
“We normally design about 200 costumes and then scale back to what we think are the best of the best,” Charlie explains.
In addition to costumes, another popular Seeing Red line are Wagon Covers, which convert a kids’ wagon into a pirate ship, fire truck or circus cage. And they carry several baby/parent combo costumes, such as “Robber & Money Bag” and “Expert Diver & Squirmy Octopus.”
Seeing Red is part of the NCA Buyer’s Group and offers a 10 percent discount to members. Click here to visit their website and click here to download a list of their top sellers.