By Carol Coultas,Business Writer
The largest costume shop in Maine is for sale, in need of a new owner who’s a perfect fit.

LEWISTON – The ladies who run Drapeau’s Costume Shop treat their customers like royalty.

So on this particular day, they decided to dress the part.

“We love medieval, the period, it’s full of romance,” said Diane Meservier as she clasped her hands, sending the brocade-capped sleeves of her red velvet dress fluttering.

“Yes, these are favorites,” answered Venise Berube, owner of the shop, as she smoothed her royal blue gown.

The gowns are just two of the 3,500 costumes in the store’s inventory, many of them made by Meservier, who’s been with the shop for almost 30 years. The costumes and thousands of accessories – from powdered wigs to jeweled tiaras, Darth Vader masks to thigh-high pirate boots – are all for sale, along with the business itself.

She’s asking $140,000 for the whole kit and caboodle.

“Now that I’m retiring, I’m ready to pass the torch on,” said Berube. She and husband, Bob, a local state rep and real estate agent, bought a home in Florida they’d like to retire to. But not before Berube has found a suitable new owner for the business that has been a downtown institution for 56 years.

“It’s got to be the right person,” said Berube, who was vetted by the previous owner, Doris Martin, when Berube bought the business 20 years ago.

At the time, Berube was working as a clerk at a downtown company, but itching to try her hand at her own business. When she heard about Drapeau’s being for sale, she checked it out. Despite its somewhat seedy surroundings at its former location at the corner of Maple and Lisbon streets, she saw the business potential and made an offer.

It was accepted, and Berube hit it off with Meservier, who had worked with Martin and knew the company’s original owner, Mrs. Drapeau. The pair moved the business to its location on Lisbon Street.

Together, they’re an indomitable duo. They finish each other’s sentences and laugh at old stories, like the time strippers performing at the former Hotel Holly came in looking for gowns that were easy to slip off.

“They tried them on with nothing underneath!” said Meservier, laughing.

Not that Drapeau’s caters to that sort of clientele. Despite an inventory of 25 bunny suits, if a customer is looking for the Hugh Hefner type, they can buy a cottontail and ears at Drapeau’s, but that’s it.

“People who want that sort of thing, we just send them up the road to the Midnight Boutique,” Meservier said.

While it’s clear the duo still enjoy the work, the youthful 60-year-olds acknowledge a desire to slow down some. It used to take them a day to dress the shop’s seasonal and festive windows; now it takes five.

“And then I have to take an ibuprofen at the end of the day,” joked Berube.

They hope the new owner will keep the business where it is. If so, Meservier said she’d consider staying on to help them get settled.

That would be an invaluable asset given the amount of inventory in the 4,000-square-foot store – the biggest costume shop in Maine. The main room has rack after rack of themed costumes, divided by gender. If you’ve got a hankering to dress up as Cleopatra or a harem girl, the Caesar and sheik costumes are nearby (rentals run about $33 per costume). An adjoining room holds all the period pieces, including many authentic vintage pieces from the early 20th century right up to powder-blue tuxedoes from the 1970s.

There’s a back room with a laundry and shelves of patterns to help guide Meservier when she’s creating a specific costume, although she’s been doing this so long she usually doesn’t need a pattern. And there are reference books that show, for instance, which cigarette holder is appropriate for a flapper versus a World War II general.

Berube maintains a reservation book that tracks repeat customers over the years. She knows off the top of her head which companies will reserve a Santa suit for an annual Christmas party, the seasons for each theater group and which kids’ camps will call for skit costumes. She likes to do things the old-fashioned way, with books and lists rather than computers and Web sites.

She knows that will likely change once Drapeau’s changes hands, but she hopes the new owners will have the same zest and fun for dressing up that she and Meservier share.

“Life is more fun in costume,” she quipped.