An old wedding dress from Napa’s Community Projects thrift store takes on a whole new life at Halloween. Zombie Bride? Corpse Bride? Bride of Frankenstein? Anything’s possible with a little imagination.

“The costumes here take ingenuity,” volunteer Mary Hamler said. They’re not prepackaged outfits like those found at a typical retail store. “You have to put the costume together.”

These days volunteers at the downtown thrift store aren’t surprised to find shoppers thinking a little out of the box. 

Community Projects volunteer Lois Pearson said one mom bought her son a tuxedo. “He was going to rip it apart,” for a vampire or zombie costume, she said.

The thrift store saves the costumes it receives throughout the year for Halloween, shop co-chair Darlene Joens said.

A rack in the back of the shop held more than 35 costumes, priced from 75 cents to $3. There were Southern Belle and 1980s prom dresses, an army jacket, a tattered angel costume, a headless Tweety bird costume, cheerleader outfits and more.

Find a piece that sparks your interest to get your idea going, Hamler recommended. “Everyone needs a starting point,” she said.

Locals that are going to the Napa Active 20-30 Club Roaring Twenties Halloween Extravaganza party could make good use of Community Projects formal dresses, she said. Gowns from all eras run $7 to $12. “We always have some fancy dresses you can do something with,” Joens said.

Leslie Bauer is assembling a costume for a middle school boy who wants to dress up as the Verizon salesman wearing a red polo shirt, khaki pants and black glasses. Bauer loves thrift stores. “You can always find the best things,” she said. “I knew this place would have exactly what I needed for Halloween.”

Other downtown retailers count on October for strong sales.

“Halloween is probably my biggest season,” Thea Witsil at Napa’s Wild Cat said. “People love to dress up and go all out and they find the really unusual stuff here,” she said. “I do classic costumes but I also have funky new retro and classic vintage stuff.”

Halloween shopping at Wild Cat usually starts mid-September, Witsil said.

“They come in and get ideas. It’s definitely a shop for inspiration,” Witsil said. “Generally people are laying down anywhere from between $50 to $100 for a costume, but I have a room in the back that’s half price so you don’t have to spend a lot of money to get in the swing of things.”

What’s popular this year? “Gals like short and sexy. I have great little crinolines and petticoats to fill out a cute mini.”

The pin-up look, including nylons with seams, garters and swing dresses “is really hot right now,” Witsil said. Other big sellers include finishing touches like hats, gloves and accessories.

“For guys it’s always pirates,” Witsil said, which is why she sells men’s pirate boots. Wild Cat also has 1920s-era sequined fringe dresses for the 20-30 Club Halloween party. “A lot of people come here to shop for that.”

Vampires are another a hit. “If you are putting together a cool vampire costume you can find some original satin shirts, vests, and capes” at Wild Cat, Witsil said.

The store will likely stay open later during the last week of October. “Every year there are always people who wait until the very last minute.”

At Lolo’s Consignment in St. Helena, October is usually a good month, owner Kristine Waldenburg said. “People bring in costumes and interesting pieces and we put forth a selection of things that can be turned into costumes,” she said. “We let people use their imagination” to complete a look.

As of mid-October, Lolo’s hadn’t seen a crush of people shopping for Halloween. “Halloween is on a Saturday ... so I think we’ll see a lot of people going into panic mode” during the last week of October, Waldenburg said.

Waldenburg is ready when shoppers get in the mood. She has a collection of pieces to create a Halloween look, priced from $5 to $75. “For $5 you can get a really swell feather-decorated patent leather witch hat. For $75 you can get a silk kimono,” Waldenburg said.

“And we have cowboy boots. Anything that people bring in that has animal skin, we throw that in the costume section.”

According to the National Retail Federation’s 2009 Halloween consumer survey, 47 million adults and 58 million children across the country plan to dress up for Halloween this year.

Witches take the top spot for adult costumes, and vampire costumes jumped to the number two spot from third last year. Pirates and clowns are third and fourth, respectively.

Popular children’s costumes include princesses, witches, Spider-Men, pirates and pumpkins.

“Pop culture always influences Halloween costumes, and it will be interesting to see how creative Americans can get this year,” Tracy Mullin, National Retail Federation president and CEO said.