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With Halloween on the horizon, Chicago Costume is usually a hive of activity, brimming with superhero outfits, Japanese animation characters, vibrant wigs, and bottles of fake blood.
Downstairs, vintage clothes from the 1970s beg for one more boogie night. However, beneath the festive facade lies a significant challenge for the family-owned business.
Owner Courtland Hickey said he ordered 40 percent fewer costumes this year because of President Donald Trump's tariffs on products from China.
To fill the gap, Hickey and his mother, Chicago Costume founder Mary Hickey Panayotou, looked to their decade's worth of unsold costumes and accessories to see what could be repackaged or repurposed. The tariffs made new imports more expensive, and storewide price increases might spook customers, he said.
“If people have less money in their poc
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