Joseph Ponton Costumes has been renting costumes in Montreal since 1865, when Ponton, a barber with a taste for theatre, bought out a French troupe that had gone broke and needed passage home. That back-room collection grew into one of the oldest costume houses in Quebec, now holding more than 15,000 pieces: period dress, trades and professions, superheroes, cartoon characters, and the accessories to finish them, from wigs and masks to hats and makeup. Customers reserve, fit, and rent full outfits for a few days, guided by on-staff costumières, with an in-house workshop handling repairs and alterations. The business dresses film and television shoots, theatre productions, weddings, and school events, and hits its busiest stretch around Halloween. After decades in Old Montreal, it now operates from Sainte-Catherine Est in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, the founder's original barber chair still standing by the door.