About Us
Chows Emporium has designed and sold LARP, cosplay and Ren Faire costume since 1994. It started as a stall selling second-hand theatre costumes at medieval events, and grew into a costume label once customers kept asking for kit they couldn't find anywhere else. Every piece is designed by us and built to be worn hard, not just photographed.
How it started
The shop began with a single market table and a friend who needed a hand. A group of us went to the same medieval events in the UK, and a friend had a batch of costumes from theatre and opera productions but no idea how to sell them. Chow did. She ran the stall while the others played, sold the lot, and started bringing a few of her own pieces along too.
The name grew out of that. "Chow" was an affectionate nickname, and when the stall needed a trading name, a friend called it Chows Emporium, since Chow sold a bit of everything back then, from antiques to odds and ends picked up along the way.
When enough people asked where they could buy better than the mass-produced kit around, Chow started designing her own. The first piece was a Viking shirt with patterned sleeves, sewn in small batches. One shirt, one pair of trousers, one cloak. The online shop followed around 2004, and the range built up from there.
How our kit is made
Every Chows Emporium piece is designed by Chow and her family, then made by one trusted maker we have worked with for over a decade. We keep the runs small. Chow chooses every fabric, supplies the pattern, and signs off the sampling before anything goes into production, and a good deal of the finishing is done by hand.
That control is the whole point. The cotton-linen mix in the trousers is there because it survives a weekend in a field, not because it looks good in a product shot. A hood gets the weight and drape it needs rather than the cheapest version that fits a price.
Why our costumes last
Most fantasy costume is made to look right in one photo. Ours is made to be worn, fought in, and kept for years.
It comes down to the cut. Our shirt sleeves run longer than most, so they don't pull free when you bend your arm over vambraces. The armholes are wider, so the seams hold when you move and fight instead of tearing on the first swing. The trousers use a cotton-linen mix with a double seam and double stitching at the crotch, proper pockets, and waist toggles, so they take real use and still sit well worn on their own. The studs come in different shapes and finishes so they catch the light as you move, and there is enough material in the cut to move and swish with you rather than hanging flat.
People are still wearing pieces they bought from us fifteen and twenty years ago. That is the test that matters to us. Chow has spent three decades in the LARP community herself, seeing where kit fails and fixing it in the next design, and a lot of what goes into a Chows Emporium piece started as a problem someone hit in the field.
One outfit, many characters
Our outfit sets are versatile by design. A set is put together to suit a range of character styles rather than tying you to one, so one outfit stretches across several looks. A robe that works for a mage works just as well for a noble. That flexibility is a big part of why the sets sell the way they do, and why people come back to build on what they already own.
Come and find us
We trade at events right through the season, in costume, happy to talk through what suits your character. Look around the shop, and if you are not sure what works, ask. That part is our favourite.