Costume Design Blog

Prepping for College – Part 1

I was recently sent a series of questions relating to the transition from high school drama club to college and creating a career out of costume design.  At the top of the list was, “how do I choose a college?” and “what schools do you recommend?”  Both are excellent questions!

Let’s start with choosing a school.

When I was first asked this, I didn’t know how to answer the question.  It has been a few years since I was in undergrad, and since I’m not in the academic world at the moment, I don’t feel that I have a pulse on all of the fine academic programs out there.  So I started answering this question by listing some things that, if I was going to go back to school for a BA or a BFA in theatre design, I would look for.

First.

I would want a place that has a substantial, developed theatre arts program.  By going through the course catalogue, or the major requirements, you get a sense for how large the program is.  Do they offer design courses?  Every year?  Every semester?  Do they tell you how many majors they tend to have in a year?  Do they tell you how many of those majors are design or tech oriented?  How many shows do they produce in a year?  Are the shows student led, or are students guided through them? (For example, are the students directing, designing, and acting in them; or are the professors directing and designing them?)

Which leads me to the large point number two.

What are the hands-on learning opportunities?  I would personally rank a school higher if there are ample opportunities for actualizing the student’s own designs, rather than one where most of the production opportunities are as an assistant to a designer (either a professor, or a professional who is brought in for the show).  Does the school do one show a semester, or are there multiple levels of shows that students can be a part of?  Will you be required to do production hours or lab work each semester? (You want this to be a yes.)

Thirdly.

I’d be interested in the teaching faculty.  And here it can be a bit of a mixed bag.  They should have professional credits, but you want them to be available.  Ideally, they will be working out in the “real world” as well as teaching your classes.  This keeps them up-to-date on what is really going on in the profession so you don’t end up with someone who teaches you some cool new academia thing, and then you go out and try and use it, only to find that no one in professional theatres does it.

This gives you the student the opportunity to potentially work with professors in the “real world” while you are still in school.  The down side of this kind of professor is that they won’t be hanging out in their office five days a week.  You’ll need to be able to reach them when they are away.  The thing is that those higher up in the academic echelon don’t believe that teaching professors should be away from campus.  Their duty to their students can’t possibly be fulfilled if they don’t keep regular office hours and teach class at the prescribed times.  And I have personally had experiences of professors who I thought were not attentive enough to me as a student.  After all, I paid a lot of money for them to be around, and well, teach me things.  This is the delicate balance that, unfortunately, many college professors can’t or won’t figure out.  So, be up front and ask directly what the college’s position is.

Fourth on my new list of criteria (this list is not in any particular order, because this is probably one of the first things I’d look for) . . .

What sort of professional ties the school can provide for me when I graduate?  Some schools actually have a relationship with professional theatre companies.  I see this as a very positive thing.  It would be an instant “in” for an internship if nothing else.  Plus it means there are probably more professionals coming through that I could learn from in a variety of ways, and the professors are most likely being challenged as designers on a regular basis – so they are growing too.

Finally something simple.

How many faculty members are there that I can learn from?  I think a really robust theatre design program should have no less than two faculty members devoted to the costume arts.  The more the merrier.  But there should be at least one person devoted to design, and one devoted to the technical shop stuff.  These are two different disciplines and while you need to know both if you are going to be a good designer, I believe that most costume professionals have a strength for either one or the other.

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Does this little list clarify things for you? Or did I just make things worse? And for those of you who are in undergrad or who are through with it, what would you add? I don’t know everything, so please speak up in the comments!

Up next: I attempt to rank colleges based on their online profiles.

Why Math Matters

(For my father (a maths professor), and my 7^th grade maths teacher.)

I distinctly remember a conversation with my 7^th grade teacher about how I would never need math out in the “real world”.  She was trying to impress on us the importance of her subject, and I was being a bit of a little snot. (It’s easy to be honest in hindsight and with some years gone by.)  In the end I’m sure I did the assignments, but I switched to using a calculator as soon as humanly possible.  A shift similar to my shift to a computer as soon as I learned to type and discovered spell check.  Since then, I have found creative ways to avoid having to do math  –  folding a measuring tape to find what half or a quarter of a given measurement is comes immediately to mind.

All of this is just a preamble though to the story this week of how I used geometry and algebra (narrowly avoiding some nasty trigonometry equations) in order to figure out yardage for an installation of a Mandap.

A Mandap is used in traditional Indian weddings

The legs were pretty easy.  Length plus 12” to flip over the top and secure it to the header and another 12” for some nice puddle action on the floor.  And width is the total width of the leg times three for fullness.

The swags were where it got really interesting.  I knew the total length of the swag but needed the real length of the bottom edge – which is an arc from a circle.  But I had no idea of how big that circle should be.  It isn’t a half circle, that would hang down too far, and look like a presidential banner.  I assumed that a circle has a standard arc, it’s just that the dimensions change.  So if I worked in scale, I can figure this out without hauling out a load of scrap fabrics and trying to mock it up, cutting and pinning as I would on the dress form.

I drew a circle with a line through it randomly placed towards the bottom of the circle.  Well, not randomly, at a point that looked artistically pleasing to me as the designer.  I knew the length of that line would end up being 6’.  So, 6’X = the inches in my drawing.  The scale ended up being .109375.

Now, you may ask, if I knew what the scale was, why didn’t I just measure the arc length and multiply by the scale to get the final arc length.  The short answer is, “What a silly question!  This would be an incredibly short blog post if I had done that!”

The truth is, by this point I’d awakened some long-forgotten need to re-learn mathematical concepts from way-back-when.  The fun is in learning (or re-learning).  I could also have saved some math by drawing this out on grid paper that comes with a standard scale, but then I’d have to dig out my scale ruler, and on, and on….

So, from that I could determine the radius of the circle by measuring and multiplying by my invented scale.  And now that I knew the radius of the circle, I needed to find the central angle of the arc.  Ironically, my scale ruler is buried under piles of papers in my room, but the compass was sitting out on my desk.  Go figure.

As we all know from cutting circle skirts, the circumference of the entire circle is 2(pi)r.  (pi) being a standard 3.14159 and r being the radius I just calculated.  Then if you divide the central angle by 360 (the total number of degrees available to you in a circle) you have the percent of the circle’s circumference represented in the arc. So your 2(pi)r multiplied by the angle/360 = tada!  Outside length of the fabric needed for the arc of the swag.

This is how I figured out the angle.

Then, just to challenge myself a little further, I wanted to see if I could figure out the drop of my ideal swag so that I could estimate how wide the fabric would need to be in order to drop appropriately.  I will say that when I first went out looking for possible math equations to help me figure this out, I started finding things with sin, cosin and tangents.  Those make my head hurt.  I have my limits.  But I figured that if I could find out the length of  the line from the center of the circle to the line intersecting the circle, I could then subtract that amount from the length of the radius.  Nice, easy math.

And since the line from the center to the intersecting line created a nice right triangle, I could use one of the other few equations I remember from Geometry: A-squared+B-squared=C-squared.  A squared is what I wanted to know.  B squared was half the length of the intersecting line / half the length between the legs of the Mandap. And C squared was the radius.

A-squared + B-squared = C-squared

The best part of the whole thing was finding the drop length and realizing that it really was a great depth for the swag.  So, in a way, I proved all of the math with the circle and arc by doing more math.

See? I was listening! It just looked like I didn’t care about math!

The Fitting Room

The fitting room can be one of the scariest places in the theatre.  Large intact egos enter, and are left torn and broken on a regular basis.

Designers, technicians, and actors alike typically enter the fitting room one way, and leave it changed.  Sometimes good, sometimes bad.

One of the greatest things effecting the outcome of a fitting room session is the attitude you have within it.

If everyone is amicable, easy-going, relaxed, and awake (ie: caffeinated and or appropriately medicated) the fitting generally runs more smoothly.  A willingness to work co-operatively as well as a sense of humor can gloss over many insults – real or imagined.

You must grow a thick skin.  Everyone wants a final, fantastic product.  But the designer’s vision of that product and the actor’s vision of that product are often two different things.  That’s what makes theatre a collaboration – and what gives many of us ulcers during shows.

Unless you are building the entire costume, often what you find/pull/buy is not exactly what you drew.  And there is usually an understanding from others in the room that the sketch really is just your inspiration, a starting point.  Occasionally, actors don’t understand, and assume that you will find/pull/buy your sketch down to the detail.  In that case, you may need to say, bluntly, several times, “the sketch is really just an inspiration.”  By engaging in discussion, you find out what the actor is seeing in the sketch that he/she really likes, and can change what you buy, or how you alter the pulled pieces.

Some of the most challenging things you can have in the fitting room are distractions.

These take many forms.  Loud music, pets, children, extra personnel, even well meaning directors can add frustrating elements for both the person being fit, and the one doing the fitting.

Just last week I had an actor bring her younger daughter to a fitting.  Not only did the person who was supposed to be taking notes feel that now she needed to babysit the kid so that she wasn’t in the way, but the actor seemed to take the 8-year-old child’s comments on the pieces I had pulled over my own assertions that we could adapt them into the perfect outfit.  I completely agree that bringing your child to work can be a fantastic learning experience and a wonderful introduction into the backstage world, but this was beyond frustrating.

We all have horror stories about things that have happened in the fitting room.  I also have many wonderful memories of pulling a piece and thinking there was only a 1% chance that it would work only to find that on the actor it was PERFECT!  The fitting can be an exciting time of discovery if it is handled well.

Just keep your ego in check, and remember to roll with the punches.

Color Pallet and “The Crucible”

The long silence on this blog comes from my involvement with a wonderful production of Aurther Miller’s “The Crucible”.  Those of you who are unfamiliar with it really should find a moment to read it.  It looks at the Salem witch trials of 1692 through the lens of McCarthy’s communist witch hunt of the 1950s.  And it still speaks about mass-hysteria, pride, and childhood infatuation.  To say nothing of the dangers of miscommunication, the separation of church and state, and religious fervor that gains control of a society.

The Crucible, Ursinus College. Photo credit: Jim Roese.

For this production we wanted to keep a tight color pallet, and explore the confining nature that surrounded this community.  For my part, I also wanted the acts to move from a cool color pallet at the beginning and end, to a warm, even fiery one for the big courtroom scene in Act III.

Because the budget was severely limited (and I didn’t have the luxury of a shop on this project) I needed to keep the design simple.  One costume per character.

There are 21 characters in the show.  Surprisingly it seems like a much smaller show than that when you read the synopsis.

I also wanted to draw lines and color connections between the different groups of characters: the judges and reverends, the farmers, the townsfolk, and the young girls who are the catalyst.

The girls’ chorus in the courtroom scene was, in many ways, the starting point for color.  I wanted to capture the colors of fall, late summer, heat, and raw emotion.

Abigail – the instigator and ringleader is in a passionate burgundy/almost purple.  Her fan group were shades of gold and burnt orange.  Tituba (who doesn’t appear in that scene) was the most brightly colored with deep red and purple, and contrasting blues and greens.

The authority figures for both religious and civic duties lived in black and white.  This reflects their world view.  Everything in cut and dry, black and white, good or evil.  You are either with them, or against them.  There is no middle ground.

Of course, Rev. Hale has a “come to Jesus” moment, in which he realizes that what the court is doing, is wrong.  So he does have some grey in his costume.  And some of the towns folk, who side with the powerful religious authority, also have grey as well as brown in their costume color pallet.

This leaves the farmers and semi-wealthy townsfolk.  These more sensible people (in my book), and for whom Miller creates the most empathy, are in browns and drab greens. Brighter versions appear on the more wealthy, as well as variations such as printed fabrics, and lace accents.  The theory being that brown is an “honest” color, and connects them to their setting (the set was designed with off-white walls and blonde-wood accents.)  Olive, beige, and tan accents blended well with the brown for contrast without being over-powering.

The Crucible, Ursinus College. Photo credit: Jim Roese.

So that was the thought process behind choosing colors.  I know that often this show is done in a mostly monochromatic color pallet.  My research showed that a different interpretation could be used, as the Puritans were not offended by color and small decoration, as much as the gawdy fashions of the day.  If a fashion was popular in other areas of the country, they did the opposite.  But this did not mean that they shunned color all together.

The small budget and lack of shop made this a challenge (I made a full dozen real corsets from scratch!), but it was a tremendous learning experience, and it gave me the chance to work on one of the classic shows of American theatre.

The performance was pretty good too.

Green Costume Design

I’ve been thinking about how to incorporate more green (sustainable) practices into my design work. On the one hand, frugality is a quality that’s highly desirable in a designer. On the other hand, I’ve recently realized just how many single-sided or photocopied scripts I throw into the recycling bin every year. This met up with a recent article I read on a general trend towards environmentally friendly practices in the stage and film industry. Needless to say, I’m feeling inspired.

Here are some things that I already do. I encourage you to consider whether these might not work in your design flow as well.

I bring home recyclables if there isn’t a bin provided.

I use reusable travel mugs and water containers. When I need something to drink when I’m on set, I try to use my own mug, or at least do my best to use the same disposable cup more than once. It’s hard to do either of these when I’m out shopping, so I don’t have a perfect system for this one … yet. If I buy a can of soda or bottle of water, I take it home at the end of the day and add it to my recycling pile.

I encourage email over printouts.

When the production reports are sent out to all of the appropriate people, there shouldn’t be a need for a printed report. I know this flies in the face of convention where there is a centrally located bible that everyone has access to, but the amount of useless information that is reprinted for all parties tends to be excessive. I find it just as easy to get an email and enter the pertinent information on my own “to do” lists as needed. (Keep in mind, that with all of the useful gadgets in today’s world, you don’t necessarily need paper to-do lists anymore either!)

I turn off equipment when it isn’t in use.

The exception to this is the iron – it takes too long for the iron to warm up that it messes with the workflow. But sewing machines, sergers, and extra lights don’t need to stay on all day.

I shop at a LOT of thrift stores.

This is often for financial reasons, but it helps the planet and the local economy!

I try and use as little polyester and plastic in my design as I can get away with and maintain my design’s integrity.

Not only do the natural fibers look better under stage lights, they are renewable. Polyester? No so much.

I no longer print out all of my research unless I am required to.

Many times, directors can view images I have collected online and respond via email or telephone. Occasionally, we need displays for presentations, but as the workforce gets younger and more familiar with the technology, I think we will have more virtual meetings, and more acceptance of combination electronic and tactile presentations.

Other things that I’ve thought of working towards…

I receive a printed or photo copied script for every production I work on.

I read it several times throughout the process, but I don’t bother to keep them after the show is up because it’s just a photocopy, not a bound script. And while I recycle them, I’m wondering if I should instead just ask for an emailed copy, or get a copy from the library if necessary. This won’t work as well for film and television where there are constant re-writes, but this could be a policy for theatre work. Of course the down side to this is that reading on the computer screen isn’t as easy on the eyes as paper, but thankfully that technology is getting better.

I would like to remember to take re-useable shopping bags when I go out.

I do this for my food shopping, but not show shopping. That should be an easy fix.

I would like to find other alternatives to harmful chemicals for things like dyeing, distressing, and costume crafts.

This will require some research.

I would like to find a way to use all of the scrap bits of fabric.

Whenever I am building part of a show it seems as though we empty a garbage bag of random scrap bits every day. The scraps are too small to keep for costumes and there is too much to try keeping it in stock for future craft or props projects. Perhaps there are local schools that could use the material for arts and crafts projects? I don’t know. I just feel that there should be a viable solution for this problem.

What ways do you live into the green initiative? Have you even considered it for our industry? What can you think of that I’ve neglected to put here? The best way to grow this is by throwing out ideas and seeing which ones stick and improve our ability to reduce, reuse, and recycle.

I look forward to your ideas.

Happy Holidays!

Christmas Carol | Berkshire Theatre Festival

Whether you’re working over the holidays, or taking it easy with friends and family, I wish for each and every one of you a happy, healthy holiday season, and a prosperous New Year!

May all of your designs be the best you’ve ever done, and may your directors, actors, and fellow designers understand the first time around.

Jessica

Hamlet … Evaluation from the Other Side

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

There is so much I could say about this project. Now that it’s over, and a month has passed, I come to the place that I do with many of my shows… review and critique. The show’s design took many twists and turns throughout the process.

I’m almost hesitant to list them here because most designers, while admitting that some changes occurred, will try and claim that they initiated the changes, and that they were happy about them. I will make no such claim here. I will say though, that I think looking back, all of the changes contributed to a better show.

We called it “steampunk-lite” in design. Those familiar with steampunk will no doubt call it “steampunk-non-existent,” but there are enough solid references to the steampunk culture that I think it can be counted among the sources for the design.

For those of you who have not yet heard of steampunk, I would direct you here or here or here to get a sense of the style. Basically it is a combination of Victorian dress, and a fascination with science or machinery. This is a very exciting subculture style to me. Lots of intricate detail work. Lots of fun combinations. And a few HUGE problems for a design of Hamlet.

1. Most steampunk clothing is geared (pun intended) toward women. In Hamlet, there are two female characters. What do we do with all of the men?
2. Many images of steampunk online look like costumes. They don’t look like real people because they aren’t intended to look like the rest of the society. This was perhaps the largest problem, as we wanted Hamlet to be accessible to the audience of a mostly non-urban community. An audience that may not have been familiar with the text of Hamlet. We couldn’t have the audience looking at the costumes, and not paying attention to the story. So how do we keep them from looking “costumey”?
3. Unfortunately, many characters in the world of steampunk, do not translate to the characters of Hamlet. There are no tinkering, scientific women, nor are there evil mad scientist men. And, we didn’t want to loose the Danish flavor of the piece. Cold, barren, high fashion, increasingly became more important that “steampunk”.

What we did use from the world of steampunk culture, was a sense of bound, and unbound. Brass fittings, lacing, buckles, and leather. Unique combinations of clothing pieces, watch chains, and goggles also came in. Some examples:

Ophelia had layers of clothing including a chiffon overskirt that was hitched up with a series of trimming and small buckles. She also had a chocker that included buckle details.

Fingerless gloves and many layers gave Ophelia her steampunk flair

The armies had variations on a theme, with long coats, fingerless gloves, and tall gaiter-spats that buckled up the side.

A variety of buckles on the soldiers' costumes were their main tie to the steampunk genre

The players included pieces that are stereotypically steampunk: goggles on the top hat for the first player, and watch chains on the corset bodice for the player queen.

The players received some of the most direct steampunk references

Ultimately, we came to the issue that I think many productions attempting to transpose Shakespeare from Elizabethan to any other time period or culture runs into. While he was brilliant and wrote universal themes that can be adapted to virtually any place, any time, it doesn’t always work.

We have a commitment to the script that cannot be ignored. We have an audience that is unfamiliar with the language. And we have a desire to make this show “something special.”

Everyone asks, “what is your concept for this show?” when you say that you are doing Shakespeare. They don’t always ask if you are doing, say, an Arthur Miller piece. Or Beckett. Or Brecht. But the more you try and shoehorn Shakespeare into something specific (like steampunk) the harder it is to get there and justify your choices.

Which is why, in the end, we used a variety of sources from steampunk, to Goth, to punk, to high fashion, to Manga, to deciding that nothing would simply button down the front.

This is a really good example of why design and theatre in general are truly a process. The director and other designers and I sat down and came up with a fantastic concept, using steampunk as our guide. However, as we got into things and looked at the direction our concept was taking us – away from the storytelling that is the heart and soul of theatre – we had to shift direction.

Changing direction mid stream can be frustrating … infuriating even. But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s necessary and critical; if we want to have a successful production. At the end of the day, I’m incredibly proud of this Hamlet. No men in tights here. Just a raw, gritty production that allowed Shakespeare’s story to unfold night-after-night in front of an audience that was changed in the viewing.

Theatre (or film or television) is hard work. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.

But there’s no other work I’d rather do.

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.

Recommended Reading List for Designers

If you are a designer (or are working to become one), you know that there are books, books, and more books out there that can help you learn and grow in your art. There are also practical books out there that focus on the technical aspects of costume design. Then (my favorites) are the pure art books that serve as resources to our designs. As you might imagine, collecting that many books can be hard (if you live in a small apartment) and expensive.

I’ve compiled an incomplete list of books that I consider indispensable for anyone in this industry. Here they are for your perusal. Please add ones I’ve missed in the comments. And should you disagree and feel that something I’ve included here isn’t worth the effort, speak up too. Everybody learns best by having a conversation.

The List

At the top of the list are The Costume Designer’s Handbook and The Costume Technicians Handbook by Rosemary Ingham and Liz Covey.  These are fantastic resources and used as textbooks by many colleges and universities.  I don’t know of a professional designer, or costume shop, who doesn’t own these.

The next important book is a costume-specific dictionary.  It’s vital when you are working on a project that references costume pieces that you may be unfamiliar with.  I have A Dictionary of Costume and Fashion by Mary Brooks Picken, though there are many other options out there to choose from, and the internet is filling up more and more every day with resources from around the world.

It’s also extremely important to have a sewing book of one type or another.  I have one from the 1950s by Better Homes and Gardens that is a simple “how to” for home sewing.  It’s a great desk reference for simply adjusting patterns, guiding the fit of the garment, how to put in a hem.  I’m sure there are more modern versions of this, but I’ve found this book just as useful as any more current versions out there.  And since I found it in a local used book store for 50 cents, I’ve found no reason to replace it with a $20 version.

After these books, I have a large collection of more specific books that I reference.  And I still enjoy browsing the local library.  Here’s a list of the ones I frequent the most:

20,000 years of Fashion

National Geographic: Fashion

Fashion: The Collection from the Kyoto Costume Institute

The Art of Dress

Life: a Century of Change

In Focus: National Geographic Greatest Portraits

100 Years of Adventure and Discovery (National Geographic)

The World in Vogue

Harper’s Bazzar:100 years of the American Female

The New Look: The Dior Revolution

The Cutting Edge: 50 Years of British Fashion

Grand Illusions

Gentleman

Corsets and Crinolines

The History of Underclothes

Complex Cloth

Art History vol. 1 and 2

Patterns of Fashion by Janet Arnold (now 4 vol.!)

Julie Parker’s Fabric Reference series (3 vol. set)

Stage Makeup: Step by Step

The Timetables of History by Grun

Clearly this is a serious investment of money.  The best suggestion I can give is to keep your eyes open at library book sales, flea markets, and yard sales.  Look for books that have good first-source material and good quality photographs rather than a single person’s renderings of fashion or art history.

If you are serious about this career, start building a library of inspirational books by single artists (like Dorothy Lange), comprehensive catalogues (like the 100 years of fashion), and books specifically on technical elements that you would like to increase your proficiency on (like a guide to embroidery).

Start small and build steadily.  I like to add one book for every show I work on. I find that when I plan on spending $X of my design fee on one or two books with each show, I can budget better and I can save up across a couple of shows if I really, really want a book that’s in the multiple-hundred-dollar range. Yes, there are several of those that I really want.

And don’t forget the library. If you’re lucky enough to have access to a university library, you can likely find a treasure trove of reference materials. Or if you live in a large city or in an area where your local library is very well-supported, you can find books there too. You don’t have to own them to access them.

But I’m the first to admit to having a book addiction, so yes, I admit to acquiring more than I borrow.

Communication

One of the most important skills costume designers need is communicating effectively with the director. You need to find ways to communicate the ideas you come up with during the initial design phase, and also during the build phase, so that you don’t end up at tech and discover that you were speaking two different languages.

It’s also important to keep in mind that language is dynamic. Connotations differ between two individuals. And everyone interprets visual imagery differently. Many times, I’ve shown an image to the director and they have seen something that I didn’t see before. Or they interpreted the lines on my sketches as something completely different than I had intended. One of the biggest issues I’ve seen in costume designers is their ability (or inability) to get their ideas out of their heads and into a format that others can understand, identify with, and discuss or create.

Obviously the first attempt at creating a common language with the director is through a combination of research, sketching, and renderings. It’s important to dialogue with them during this because as I said above, everyone brings their own past associations to an image.

What I may see as an innocent, youthful young girl, someone else may look at it and see an over-sexed teenager. One person’s punk rock look is another’s Piccadilly Circus. So it’s great to sort things out visually, but you should never rely solely on visual images – you need to verbalize your ideas as well.

There comes a point where the ideas are transformed from the two-dimensional to the three-dimensional. Whether you are shopping the show, building the show, or having the show built for you, you must keep the director in on the process. Even if they don’t respond to you directly, or overtly, they want to know that you are producing what is in their heads. I know that may seem slightly backwards, it is your design after all. But theatre is collaboration. No designer – world famous, or fresh out of school – dictates to the director what the costumes will be.

So here are some tips for improving the language gulf between design and direction…

1. Put words on your sketches. Describe what you are drawing. Clarify details that may be missing or smoodgy. Take notes during meetings directly on the rendering so they know you are paying attention, and you both remember what decisions you’ve come to.
2. Take photos during fittings and send them to the director. Take photos while you are out shopping if you see something you may want to use, or characters you see on the street that may be good resources for characters. Invite the director to come to the shop and see the progress multiple times.
3. Take real items into rehearsal from time to time. This not only lets the actors get used to how the real shoes, hats, coats, purses, etc. work but the director sees these items as well.

The more open you are during the process, the easier it is. The designer and director get to know how the other thinks and problem-solves. By the end of the show, each is better at anticipating what the other means when they say “…”.