Party City

Ghost Corp Apparel — resurrecting iconic corporate ghosts.

Party City began in 1986, when Steve Mandell opened a 4,000-square-foot party-supply store in East Hanover, New Jersey. The formula was beautifully straightforward: balloons, paper plates, costumes, favors, and enough themed plasticware to make any occasion look professionally overcommitted.

The chain expanded through company-owned and franchised stores, becoming a familiar national destination for birthdays, graduations, holidays and, especially, Halloween. In 2005, Party City combined with Amscan, the longtime party-goods wholesaler; the marriage joined retail spectacle with manufacturing, sourcing and distribution. Later acquisitions included iParty in 2013, whose New England stores were converted to the Party City banner.

Corporate operations were associated with Rockaway, New Jersey, and Elmsford, New York, before the company consolidated its headquarters in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey in 2022. At its scale, Party City operated hundreds of stores and paired the familiar retail chain with Amscan’s wholesale business. It made last-minute celebration shopping feel less like planning and more like a controlled supply-chain emergency.

After a 2023 Chapter 11 restructuring, Party City Holdco began another Chapter 11 case and a wind-down in December 2024. In February 2025, New Amscan PC, an Ad Populum affiliate, won the Party City brand and related Amscan operating assets at auction, while the legacy company’s store and wholesale operations were wound down.

Our Party City collection celebrates the balloon-wall era, the costume-aisle scramble, and the gloriously excessive retail machine that insisted no gathering was complete without more party for less.