About Oya

Oya Costumes is the leading online costumes business based in Montreal, Canada. We are a family run business established since 2004 and we ship our products to 4 continents.  

Faten Hodroge is the owner of Oya Costumes and a secret lover of costume. “I have a weakness when it comes to costume dress up, especially the fancy ones with wigs and lavish accessories”. After an international career in finance in three continents, she decided to take a break from the corporate world when her second child was born. “One day I realized that my oldest who was barely two at the time, had been on over 20 flights. I could not stand being away from her so I would often arrange for her to join me at some of point during my business trip. But it did not feel right and I knew I had to stop”.
After a few years as a full time Mom, Faten decided in 2004 to start an internet costume business from Montreal. “I loved watching my kids dress up with their friends and role playing with costumes. You could feel the excitement in their eyes and just marvel at their incredible imagination. Even when they take-on an existing role, like a Disney princess or a pirate, the story line quickly progresses in different directions as each of them twists and stirs the original story plot”.

Necessity is the mother of invention. Faten was disappointed with the quality and choice of costumes at stores outside the Halloween season. On the internet, many merchants cared little about the quality or selection of their line. Perhaps it was much easier to put on the whole suppliers catalogue. “Oyacostumes is a place where you would go and find high quality costumes at a great price, with the convenience of shopping from the comfort of home. We select our costumes with care and we inspect every single costume prior to adding it to our store. We carefully monitor any complaints or returns and any costume that gets 2 strikes, we don’t carry it anymore.”
 
In our fourth year of operation, and responding to demand from US customers, Oya costumes established warehouse operation in the US in 2007. We also made major investments in the technology platform to improve client shopping experience. The inventory is now on line so if an item is back ordered or sold out, clients will directly know as they are adding items to their cart. Also shoppers can now trace the status of their order directly on our website. 
 
And what is in the name of Oya costumes? Oya is an African Goddess, the goddess of storm and winds. She is the only one that dares to confront the spirits of death and accompanies their spirit to the after live not because she is the goddess of death but because she is fearless with great inner strength. She is also goddess of the marketplace and brings fortune to her patrons, provided they are fair and just. And Oya loves to dance. Since Halloween originated with the Celts more than 2000 years ago when they believed that the worlds of the living and dead became blurred, Oya seems truly befitting of a Halloween Goddess.