Natural look wins fans at Covent Garden costume sale

Sam Andersen may have been sixth in the queue, but she had trainers on and young legs. When the doors of the Royal Opera House, in Covent Garden, London, opened at 10am yesterday, heralding the start of its sale of opera and ballet costumes, Ms Andersen, 23, hared past the opposition.

"I'm after corsets, evening dresses, anything I can wear," said the drama student from West Hoathly, West Sussex, who had been queuing since 6am. "My heart's racing. Oh my God, it's so exciting!"

For the dressing-up enthusiast the event bordered on the orgasmic. Standing next to a long dress from which a gargantuan naked latex bosom protuded, was David Roberts, 35, from Enfield.

Mr Roberts, who had picked out £1,000 worth of costumes for his interactive theatre company, said: "It's hard to take your eyes off the naked breasts everywhere. There are a lot of people carrying stuff that they are going to have to explain very clearly."

One of them was Danny Walker, 32, a film maker from Crystal Palace, south London, who had picked out a £3 strap-on latex bottom complete with tail. It had been worn, according to the label, by one L Scott-Rogers playing Mephisto's helper in Faust. "I've just made a short film and had to make a tail. I should have come here first, I can't believe I found this," he said.

But Mr Walker wasn't stopping at the buttocks. He had spotted a £60 naked woman's fat suit, also made of latex, bearing tomato-red nipples, worn by a Rhinemaiden in Das Rheingold. "I'm going to hang it on my lounge wall," he said. "It's very Hannibal Lecter, my friends will try it on during parties."

Philip Ponticelli, 43, an engineer from Nuneaton, left home at 3am and was first in the queue at 5.50am. There was method in his madness. By 11.30am the queue snaked back to Leicester Square.

Mr Ponticelli had also bought something to hang up at home. "It's going up on the landing, which has a theatrical theme," he said explaining his purchase of a £250 nymph tutu from Sleeping Beauty.

Michael Tiedemann, 39, a graphic designer on holiday from Boston, was looking decidedly Napoleonic in military tails and a cocked hat. "This is awesome." he declared. "My wife heard about it in America and we've been waiting for it to happen since we got here two weeks ago.

"My daughter does ballet so we came to get her a tutu, but the opera stuff is so over-the-top we had to look at that too. I'm a big nautical fiction buff. I'm going to parade around the house in this."

More than 1,000 costumes and endless accessories including hats, shoes and fans from opera and ballet productions including Aida, Sleeping Beauty and Arabella were up for grabs.

A Royal Opera House spokeswoman said: "We have run out of space. We recycle as much as we can, but some productions are very designed and are not reusable."

The costumes included Armani suits worn in Jonathan Miller's production of Cosi Fan Tutte, a snip at £70. The most expensive item was a beaded tutu worn by Viviana Durante in Sleeping Beauty, which cost £650. The proceeds will be invested in future productions.