“The wig has gone mainstream and celebrates performance, creativity,” says Rebecca Sikora known professionally as Bebe Mcphereson, a former employee of the house, who bought the business and has turned it into a thriving store on a world-famous street ….
They say you can’t have a great Halloween costume without a great wig, and the best place for that this time of year — if you can squeeze in — is Outfitters Wig on Hollywood Boulevard.
Today, Outfitters Wig may be the oldest wig shop in Hollywood catering to customers not only at Halloween but also to clients who are the bread and butter of its business: Women and men who have lost their hair, at least temporarily, because of illness — and others who need wigs for their lifestyles and their looks. And, of course, there are always the clients in the Hollywood entertainment business.
“The wig has gone mainstream and celebrates performance, creativity,” says Rebecca Sikora known professionally as Bebe Mcphereson, a former employee of the house, who bought the business a couple of years back and has turned it into a thriving store on a world-famous street still struggling in a post-pandemic, challenging environment.
Historically, though, Hollywood Boulevard has always been joined at the hip with the Tinseltown entertainment industry, much like actors and makeup. And today Outfitters Wig along with its neighbor a few doors east, Hollywood Toys, are like anchors on one side of the street with Musso & Frank Grill holding down the other.
At this time of the year, business is as crazy as it is great. Hollywood Toys is costume central for many in Los Angeles — and while the store has wigs of its own, experienced customers know there is no comparison between those five-and-dime store hair pieces and the higher quality wigs that Outfitters Wig offers.
In fact, that is how Bebe Mcphereson found Outfitters Wig almost two decades ago.
It was 2004, and Bebe had just relocated from Arizona to Los Angeles
“I arrived with a bike and a pair of shoes,” she recalls, having just completed a singing and comedy tour through Europe and was looking to get going again.
“I went into Outfitters Wig to purchase a wig for my new avant-garde musical performance acts ‘The Department of Descriptive Services’ and for my standup comedy routines. I found wigs and discovered that I belong at Outfitters Wig, forever hair-brained, in an enchanted Hollywood Wig store in Hollywood as the successor to (original owner) Ms Angies”
Bebe has changed little, and Outfitters Wig looks much like it did in the 1980s, and even a Marie-Antoinette wig remains in the front window.
“We have kept all the images of celebrities who moved here, from Joan Collins through Boy George, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Rip Taylor, Dita von Teese and Richard Simmons,” says Bebe. “The models’ heads, real collector’s items, are still there, some stamped ‘René of Paris,’ all made up by Miss Angie. We added a touch of glitter to the decor, but nothing more.”
The one thing she has added is only recent: a drag improv that hosts its clientele from the ever-growing drag and female impersonation industry. Her goal is a drag show with pop music, performances, and even a beauty contest.
“I want to give back to the Hollywood area, glamour and glitter,” says Bebe who also promises “to continue the legacy of the house and add a few new fancies.”
