Revealing Halloween Thrills

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Here’s a totally L.A. story: A former reality TV star and a costume manufacturer meet through their mutual makeup artist and decide to create a line of sexy Halloween costumes.

How sexy? Well, the former reality star is Bridget Marquardt, one of the original three Playboy models and Playboy Mansion residents made famous by the E! reality show “The Girls Next Door.”

The costume designer is Sam Fard, chief executive and designer of Roma Costume in Burbank, who has been making costumes and club wear since 1994.

They met in November through Katarina Van Derham, a makeup artist who has worked personally with Marquardt for two years and for Fard’s models for 10.

“I’ve always wanted to do my own costumes,” Marquardt said. “I told Katarina how I wanted to do my own costume line and she said, ‘Why don’t you do something about it?’”

In January, just a few months after their initial meeting, Marquardt and Fard were pitching a line called Bridget by Roma to potential buyers.

The 17 costumes are made at local sewing factories and most are standard fare – sexy pirate, sexy nurse – but others are tied to Marquardt’s time at the mansion, where she lived from 2002 through early 2009. One costume, paying homage to Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, includes a white boating cap and a cropped velvet smoking jacket.

“A lot of them are costumes I wore to parties at the mansion, but several were fresh, brand-new designs,” she said.

Fard said initial orders for the costumes, which retail for between $69 and $210, were good, and that the line can already be found at web retailers such as Yandy.com and in brick-and-mortar stores including L.A.’s Trashy Lingerie.

Marquardt is far from the first reality star to try to capitalize on their fame with a product line, many of which fizzle. But celebrity publicist Adam Kluger of New York’s Adam Kluger Public Relations, said this could work.

“I think it’s kind of smart. Halloween is a multibillion-dollar business,” he said. “If she can find someone who is going to pay her to put her likeness on some costumes, more power to her.”

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