Dottie Mae’s Costumes will have a change in ownership

One stop at this Waldo shop and you can turn into whomever — or whatever — you want to be.

For one night at least.

At Dottie Mae’s Costumes & Collectable Clothing, a middle-aged mom holds up a crystal-encrusted gown and sees herself floating on the dance floor. On the other side of the store — past the beards, rooster noses and fake legs — are two 20-something men holding a fake woman’s chest up to their own, pondering life on the other side of the chromosome pool.

Co-owner Dottie Mae Groves recently helped a customer select a two-tone beige leisure suit with oversized lapels. She asked if he remembered wearing disco suits in the 1970s.

“That period didn’t happen in my life. I was too old to partake,” said Don Hall of Hallmark, who does admit to donning costumes on occasion, like the dog outfits he and wife Adele wore at another event.

What would a costume party be without such shops as Dottie Mae’s Costumes?

“We are helping a lot of people be the life of the party,” said Groves, who owns the business with her husband, Harold.

The store at 8308 Wornall Road is a maze of merchandise — clothing from the 1930s to the 1980s for create-your-own costumes and ready-made ones from Elvis to Santa Claus. Last fall, though, Dottie Mae looked around her desk — strewn with paperwork and party gear — and realized her heart wasn’t with the business anymore but with her grandchildren in Texas.

“We’ve been to Texas 10 times since Christmas,” she said.

So after 14 years of operation, the couple will sell the business and settle down in the Lone Star State, where they were married 52 years ago. They have 18 months left on their lease and are in negotiations with a couple of possible owners, hoping to close on a deal by mid-June.

Dottie Mae’s originally opened four blocks north as an antique store. But one Halloween when the store was closed, customers started pounding on the door, eager for some costume pieces.

“We thought, ‘We’ve got something here.’ And we never closed on Halloween again,” Groves said. They phased out the antiques and stocked up on costumes. The deeply religious Groves won’t sell devils’ or witches’ attire or fake weapons.

After relocating to its current space, the store became somewhat of a Waldo landmark, what with its wildly dressed mannequins and vintage car collection.

The store once held a mannequin wedding, complete with bridal couple and bridesmaids. Another time the Suzy Q mannequin looked so life-like standing out on Wornall Road that a city bus screeched to a stop and threw open its doors.

Suzy Q survived a 2001 fire, but the owners lost most of their $100,000 in stock and furnishings and had to start over. The shop has done so well since that the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce has named it among its top 100 Small Businesses of the Year for several years.