Costume Design Blog

FAQs

I apologize for the long silence.  As it happens, I’ve had a very busy fall season so far.  Three shows in a relatively short period of time, one of which was Hamlet (huge!), and some family things made life interesting this autumn.  I do want to share some more of my experiences with Hamlet the steam-punk Dane, but first something else.

I’ve been getting many emails, all with similar sets of questions.  So here are some FAQ answers for those of you doing projects on what it means to be a costume designer.

1)  What is your favorite part of the job?

Answer: I love many parts of my work.  I love reading a good play.  I love researching new places and people and time periods.  I love fabric shopping.  I love hunting for the “perfect” pair of shoes and then finding the “perfect” dress to go with them.  I love spending money without actually impacting my personal budget.  I love the first preview and watching how the audience responds to all of our hard work.

2) What is the least favorite part of the job?

Answer: I get nervous just before the first time I show my work to the director or actors.  It’s showing my “baby” to people who may not love every inch of the design the way I do.  This is not to say that I don’t have a thick skin and I can’t take criticism.  But as another designer once put it: “we always want that ‘wow!’ factor.  We want everyone else to be impressed by our ideas.  And we are worried that they won’t be.”

3)  What is the hardest part of your job?

Answer: The constant change.  There is a rhythm and a cycle to being a freelance designer, but there is also constant change.  There are times that I’m up extra early because I have a fitting first thing in the morning.  There are times when I’m up extra late, because that’s the only time to get work done.  There are times when there aren’t enough hours in the day.  And there are times when I’m looking desperately for work.  You have to learn to live with uncertainty.

4)  What is the easiest part of your job?

Answer: Reading the play, and watching it when it’s too late for me to change anything.

5)  What is an average day like for you?

Answer: there is NO average day.  I don’t work in a costume shop, so each day is different (not that working in a costume shop is the same day-in and day-out either!).  If I’m working from home, and I don’t have much that needs to get done before the end of the day, I’ll watch the news and work on email, then head to my studio mid-morning to read, sketch, research, shop online, sew, draft, or clean.  I stop for lunch.  I stop for dinner.  I work until I’m tired, or all of the things that needed to get done, are done.

If I’m working on location, I grab a cup of tea, check email quickly, and then head to the shop for fittings, or go shopping for the show, or search the internet for costume pieces I need to find, or go to a read-through, or go to a tech rehearsal, or do some of each of these.  I still stop for either lunch or supper, but usually one of them is eaten while I’m working and the other one is late.

The nice part is that I can set my schedule most days.  The down side is that I’m ultimately responsible for EVERYTHING being completed, so I have to be on top of everything, even when I have help.

6) How did you choose to become a Costume Designer?

Answer:  In high school I loved making things with fabric and was considering how to make that into a career.  When I realized that I could work in the theatre, on different shows, with different people all the time, I knew that was what I wanted.

7) What challenges/ obstacles did you have to overcome to be a costume designer?

Answer: Drawing has always been a challenge for me.  I think it probably always will be, though I am getting better the more I practice.

8)  What education is necessary to be a good costume designer?

Answer:  This is a point of much contention.  So much of the theatre arts can be learned on-the-job that one really doesn’t need anything more than a GED on one hand.  However, It’s hard to learn how to dissect a play and interpret character without the help of experienced professionals and professors in a college setting.

For many theatre producers and directors, an MFA is the mark of someone who knows what they are doing. I will say, however, that I have met several excellent designers who never took more than one or two courses in theatre or design.  So it really depends on the designer, and their own artistic development.  I will say though, that the more education you have, the easier it is to get a foot in the door. That’s why I spent the three years getting my MFA.

9) What are your tasks/responsibilities?

Answer: I am responsible for finding/buying/acquiring/renting/building/and adapting all pieces of clothing and some costume-props for every actor in every scene in the entire play.

10) How much money do you make?

Answer:  This depends entirely on the show, the theatre, and where you are in life.  I did shows for free when I was starting out in order to build my resume.  I still take shows that pay $400 – $600 if they really excite me.  Mostly I get $1500 – $5000 per show at the moment.  The designers for major Broadway musicals earn significantly more.

If you branch out into television and film, the scale changes completely. I’ve done some independent films, but if you’re designing a major motion picture, think in the tens of thousands of dollars for each show.

11) What skills do I need to be successful in this field?

Answer: You need to be creative.  You need to be focused.  You need to be organized.  You need to be able to follow through without being discouraged, or distracted.  You need the drive to get you through the boring parts, and the self-assurance to keep putting yourself “out there”.

I hope this is helpful to those of you who are in school and are trying to find answers to these questions either for an assignment or for yourself. For my other readers who are active professional designers, please add your thoughts to the comments. I certainly don’t have a corner on Truth in this stuff, and more perspectives are always better.

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