At JoJo’s, you can always find a disguise. It’s probably Colombo’s most reliable source for costumes. She was best known when she had a little outlet at the Taj hotel, but now she functions from a discreet location off Green Path. Her studio is a flurry of quality, colourful costumes, wigs and masks, also featured in our post on Halloween Costumes In Colombo.
Location
JoJo’s is a small studio, up a flight of stairs on your left, after walking into what seems like somebody’s house, on TG Jayawardena Mawatha. You’ll pass the sewing rooms and JoJo’s costume team on the way to the main room that overflows with shelves of costumes, hats and mannequin heads. If you want to dress up for a party but you haven’t decided as what, it’s a great place to browse through for ideas: you get everything from Shakespearean costumes, Muppet heads, pirate hats, and jackets that would make Michael Jackson proud.
The Costumes & Renting
Renting the masks and accessories will cost you about Rs. 750 – 1500, and if you want to go all out and rent a complete costume it’ll be for about Rs. 1000 – 2500. You can alternatively buy a costume, and the price for that depends on how much work you want in it, starting at Rs. 1500. You can either drop by and make your pick or if you want something very specific to be made from scratch, then a week or two’s notice should do.
This is all actually great value for money, considering the quality of products (see Miss Piggy and part of a Shrek head in picture above).Some of the stuff here may even be from real stage productions – she was famously responsible for the excellent costumes at The Workshop Players’ rendition of The Phantom Of The Opera.
Service
Sri Lanka does not have a lot of options when it comes to dress-up, and we are famous for lazily dabbing on some make-up and wearing a fancy hat and calling it ‘a costume’ when the occasion calls for it. So JoJo’s service here is pretty special, and seems to be best popular with mums who want to dress up their kids for events and with theatre actors. During our visit we were told all we had to do was browse through and pick what we wanted, or sit down with JoJo or someone from her team to customize a personal costume, and make your payment – they don’t take credit cards though.
Conclusion
We don’t know anyone who puts in this much work and passion into costume making, so hats off for that. If you’re looking for a serious, quality costume or mask, JoJo’s studio is reliable.
