Eastern Costume was founded by Jim Livie in 1991. Presently Jim has retired and passed the torch to the next generation of costumers. Nickolas Edler, the new General Manager of Eastern Costume, wanted to pay tribute to Jim by taking the company’s well-known brand back to its roots by reintroducing elements from the original design. 

Evolving a Brand Identity

Through an exploration of fonts and styles, 5D Spectrum created a hybrid design that took the best of both logos used over the years to create a new modern look with a vintage style.

“This history of this company is everything. Jim built this by himself from nothing. A willingness to get your hands dirty seems harder and harder to come by these days. Without the foundation that he laid for us, we’d have nothing to work with. This company is a diamond in the rough and I’ll do everything in my power to preserve it.”

Nick Edler, General Manager Eastern Costume

Website Branding

Alongside with the new logo, the Drupal website was completely redesigned and rebuilt on the WordPress platform using modern tagging techniques to allow the same taxonomy to be utilized more efficiently – allowing users to view their best search results in fewer steps. The new brand identity features the updated logo alongside the new modern color pallet that can be seen on the new website, social channels and even at the physical location. The new UI/UX gives customers a modern experience for both desktop and mobile devices.

“Our industry is very simple. We need a beautiful, clean, simple website. This site is exactly that. It only has what you need, and everything is right where you think it would be. This is about all the direction that I gave for the new site and you [5D Spectrum] totally knocked it out of the park.”

Nick Edler, General Manager Eastern Costume

The new design puts emphasis on military uniform rentals with easy-to-use search and filter options and details for each piece to aid in research and selection. 

The new Civilian wardrobe section breaks the costumes out into decades spanning the 30s all the way to the present day. Each decade features a select sampling of available costumes- and only scratches the surface because the Civilian Wardrobe Department is vast and uniquely curated. The extensive men’s, women’s, and children’s stock contains both original and authentically reproduced period garments. They have evening wear, suits, daywear, shoes, accessories, and everything in between to accomplish that head-to-toe look customers are looking for. Their in-house civilian costumers are friendly and highly trained in all aspects of costuming and passionate about their craft. They offer a professional service in a great atmosphere that ensures the perfect result. 

Our History with Eastern Costume

Eastern Costume has been a valued customer of 5D Spectrum for 15 years. In 2008 5D Spectrum was contracted by Eastern Costume to build an SEO-driven site using a streamlined taxonomy to build a solid URL structure and provide top-ranking Google SERPs for its military and civilian uniforms and costumes. The site was built on the Drupal platform which gave us the control and customization we needed to create a highly optimized site. 

Why we Chose WordPress over Drupal

Over the years as Drupal evolved several key modules became unavailable to updated versions of the framework, forcing us to look at alternatives. After careful evaluation, we chose WordPress, the industry’s most flexible and robust content management system available. WordPress allowed us to build a custom database-driven UI/UX with the added SEO value of the framework. 

Social Media Channel Branding

With the launch of the new website in early 2023, we were excited to also rebrand the social media channels that Eastern Costume uses to reach its audience. With its fresh new look, we can’t wait to see how this brand grows in the coming years!

About Eastern Costume

Eastern Costume is a full-service costume house and wardrobe supply company specializing in military, police, and civilian wardrobe ranging from the 1920s to the present day. Their inventory is continually updated and expanded. They offer newly renovated star fitting rooms, production offices, and an in-house tailor shop. Their staff of experienced costumers will assist with all production needs from research to styling.