The owner of the legendary local fancy dress and wardrobe store Ursula’s Costumes at 2516 Wilshire Blvd, Ursula Boschet, has died. She would have been 91 in May.
A spokesperson for the family confirmed that Boschet died Monday afternoon of pancreatic cancer surrounded by family at her home in Chatsworth.
Ursula’s Costumes was as much a museum as it was a clothing store. Entire shelves and drawers were devoted to wigs, watches, ties, toupeés, masquerade masks and mustaches. Every conceivable nook and cranny is crammed full of fancy dress outfits and accessories including coats, cloaks, hats, helmets, gowns, gloves, jackets, jump suits, space suits, shirts, skirts, shorts and shoes from all eras and every chapter of cinema.
However, despite surviving over 50 years of just about everything the notoriously fickle entertainment industry could throw at it, the store was facing imminent closure to the extent that this time last year Boschet put a massive "Closing Down Sale" banner across both the front window and the store’s website. Somehow, by some miracle, she was able to keep the store open for another 12 months, but sadly now it will close permanently this Saturday, March 1, 2025.
If you get a chance before a unique piece of Hollywood history is lost and inevitably forgotten, do go and pay a visit before 6:30pm on Saturday.
Born in Stuttgart, Germany during the early 1930s, Boschet was the daughter of a butcher and a homemaker. From an early age, she learned dressmaking and tailoring at age 18, she married her husband, a barber. With most of Europe still struggling to rebuild from the Second World War, they emigrated to Toronto in 1957. Just five years later, they moved again, this time to Los Angeles, where she got her first job working on various theatre productions. That led to a job at Disney and 14-or-so years later, she started her own business.
Boschet retained her Stuttgart accent and when the Daily Press was fortunate enough to spend time with her, she explained that because business was so slow, she’s been forced to let staff go and as such, the "workroom" — a key component of her business — has been out of operation for some time. And the workroom is where the real magic happens.
Most of the front half of the store is taken up by more commonplace costumes and outfits, from ghouls and goblins to kings and cavemen to princes and princesses all the way to outfits from Star Wars, the Squid Game and SpongeBob SquarePants. But, if you’re lucky enough to be shown the back half of the store, a whole new, extraordinary experience awaits.
In this veritable Aladdin’s Cave, the walls are completely covered with framed photographs of television and movie stars, every one with a handwritten personal message that begins with "Hi Ursula…" Sean Connery is up there, as Boschet worked with him on one of his last movies; Bruce Willis is there; Richard Dean Anderson; the entire cast of Cagney & Lacey, as Boschet worked on that epic TV show for almost its entire run; Steve Martin and Victoria Tennant, who were married for eight years and according to Ursula, met for the very first time in her store, plus quite literally, hundreds more.
Boschet was reluctant to give out too many details, but she said that movie stars including the likes of Jamie Lee Curtis, Harrison Ford and Arnold Schwarzenegger pop into the store on a semi-regular basis to buy a fanciful outfit for an event or Halloween or even just a birthday party.
She said last year that at the very least she would need a sizable amount of money to pay off her loan that she took out during the pandemic and that’s extremely unlikely. Apparently, her son and daughter also aren’t interested in running the store. Moreover, she says that online shopping has virtually destroyed her business. "You can come in here and try on whatever you need, then people leave the shop and go and buy it on Amazon," she said.
Ursula’s Costumes is at 2516 Wilshire Blvd and opens at 10am. Boschet is survived by her daughter, Ela Steere, and son, Richard Boschet; three grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.
