Costume Design Blog

Costume Design Appreciation

This summer I have had several different opportunities to speak with people not in theatre about what it is that a costume designer does.  This was fascinating on several levels.  Theatre is such an insulated field that I often forget that I’m speaking a different language when I’m talking to someone outside of that world!

An Academic Conference

The first occasion was at a conference at the Annenberg School of Communication in Philadelphia that brought together academics from a variety of disciplines to discuss the science of performance and how it relates to the theatre.  Interestingly, while many of the participants had never had an experience other than as an audience member in the theatre, many of the presenters were theatre practitioners.  Much of the conference was devoted to steampunk- and this idea of using technology in performance.  A very exciting idea, and I wish that I could have listened to some of the other presenters, but I was pushed for time (I was actually in tech that week for another show) so I could only do my presentation.

In my presentation, I focused on translating a 2D image (a costume rendering) into a 3D costume. Over the years, I’ve found that non-designers have the toughest time understanding how that happens more than any other concept. I have them an overview of the discipline and showed them a gown I’d build from a fantasy artist’s painting. I intentionally used a non-theatre starting point, because I wanted them to see that art of any sort can be translated from two dimensions to three dimensions, so long as you know how to accommodate for gravity and other interesting differences between art and the real world.

High School Students

The second occasion was a talk with a group of inner city high school-aged students at the Mariana Bracetti Academy in Philadelphia who were taking a summer course in theatre.  They were all very attentive and asked some really good questions that I would not have thought to answer in the context of my presentation to them.

The kids were surprised by the amount of time that goes into a costume design.  As one student said, “One thing I learned from talking to you and seeing you [was] seeing is easier than actually doing it.  Because from the looks of it, it seems like it doesn’t take that long to design, but [you] fooled me!  Thank you for coming.” (the students all wrote thank you notes – a dying art – that I was most grateful to receive.)

Interesting Questions

One of the questions from the conference was,

“So, who do you report to as the costume designer?”

This took me a little by surprise, but I started the list: we report to the director, the other designers (sets, lights, sound), the producer (and sometimes the producer’s spouse/partner), the actors, and everyone in the costume shop – shop managers, drapers, stitchers, wardrobe staff, etc.  I didn’t even think about it much, but as I was listing all of the people that I work with on any given show, the eyes of the conference participants grew larger and larger.

What I Learned from These Engagements

What did I get out of all of this?  Mostly satisfaction that what I do really is work.  That those of us who are good, make it look far more effortless than it will ever be.  That it’s an art form unto itself.

It’s nice to be reminded that people appreciate what you contribute to the show.  It’s so easy to walk away from a show opening and run straight into the next one, forgetting why you are doing it at all.

My thanks to the conference participants and those wonderful students for reminding me.

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