Costume designers create the look of each character by designing clothes and accessories the actors will wear in performance. Depending on their style and complexity, costumes may be made, bought, revamped out of existing stock or rented.
The shapes, colors and textures that a designer chooses make an immediate and powerful visual statement to the audience. Creative collaboration among the costume designer, the director and the set and lighting designers ensures that the costumes are smoothly integrated into the production as a whole.
Stage costumes can provide audiences with information about a character's occupation, social status, gender, age, sense of style and tendencies towards conformity or individualism. As well, costumes can:
Costume designs also need to include any accessories such as canes, hats, gloves, shoes, jewelry or masks. These costume props add a great deal of visual interest to the overall costume design. They are often the items that truly distinguish one character from another.
Costume designers begin their work by reading the script to be produced. If the production is set in a specific historical era, the fashions of this period will need to be researched. To stimulate the flow of ideas at the first meeting with the director and the design team (set, costume, lighting and sound designers), the costume designer may want to present a few rough costume sketches. This is also an appropriate time to check with the director on the exact number of characters needing costumes, as any non-speaking characters the director plans to include may not have been listed in the script.
It is the costume designer's responsibility to draw up the costume plot. The costume plot is a list or chart that shows which characters appear in each scene, what they are wearing and their overall movement throughout the play. This helps track the specific costume needs of every character. It can also identify any potential costume challenges, such as very quick changes between scenes.
When the director and production team have approved the costume designer's preliminary sketches, she or he can draw up the final costume designs. The final designs are done in full color. They show the style, silhouette, textures, accessories and unique features of each costume.
Once the show opens, the designer's work is essentially complete. Now it's normally the job of a wardrobe assistant to make sure that every aspect of the production runs just as the designer intended, time after time, until the production closes.
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Unless your costume department never purchases any fabric, clothing, shoes, or accessories, you are part of the negative environmental impact of the theatre industry. We all know that plays require costumes, which require fabrics, dyes, and often newly purchased elements. How can we minimize the harmful impact our theatrical productions have on the planet? Never fear! There are several ways to design with “greener” methods in mind. Let’s start with things you may already be doing in your costume shop.
Upcycle:
Look through your costume stock and design with these pieces in mind. Can you retrim a garment to give it a fresh look? What about recutting the garment to change the lines? Simple things like adding new sleeves can dramatically change the look of a costume piece. This is not a new practice. If we look at costume history, we can see that having a simple bodice and several pairs of ornate sleeves was a common practice among the nobility in the Tudor era and beyond. Our ancestors were much more frugal and in tune with nature than we are.
Purchase Garments and Accessories from Secondhand Stores:
There are so many thrift and consignment shops available. Most garments needed for modern dress shows can be found gently used and locally sourced. “But what if it is a period piece?” Don’t worry! There are ways to save the planet and support your local thrift store as well. For example, if you need a Regency tailcoat for your Mr. Darcy, try building it from a secondhand suit; simply reshape the jacket and use the fabric from the trousers to create the “tails.” Most tailcoats from this time did not match the trousers, so you have no need to find a suit with two pairs of pants.
Establish Relationships with Other Theatres:
Professional, community, and college theatres may all be willing to set up a system of reciprocal borrowing. A gown from Hello, Dolly! may work beautifully in your production of A Doll’s House, Part 2. The rules for borrowing include returning the garments cleaned and in the same condition as when they were borrowed. Changing trims and buttons is okay, but permanent alterations or dyeing is not. Some costume shops may allow you to change the trim and leave it on, as long as you ask for permission ahead of time and the original trim is returned along with the garments. In most cases, alterations must be removed, and the garment restored to its original size, shape, and length.
Rent Garments from other Theatres or Professional Costume Rental Houses:
Depending on where you are, there may be rental options close by or ones that require shipping. Remember, the further afield you go, the greater the carbon footprint will be.
Think Outside the Box:
Are there non-traditional materials that you have easy access to which might be used for a costume? In a recent production of She Kills Monsters, I designed costumes using repurposed Amazon gift bags, soda can tabs, plastic bags from wood stove pellets, old foam packaging, and even old pantyhose that became tendrils on a mask.
Most costume shops employ at least one of the methods listed above, but what else can we do to create costumes that not only look good but are created through ecologically sound practices? Here are a few ideas. Not every theatre or designer will be able to employ every method, but by doing as much as we can, we can make a big difference.
Natural Dyes:
Using pre-packaged natural dyes and ecologically friendly mordants is a way to keep potentially harmful chemicals out of your costumes and away from actors’ skin. There are many commercial suppliers, so be certain to look for a company that values sustainable harvesting practices. If you have no local supplier, buying in bulk will lower the carbon footprint. You can also grow or forage your own dyestuff. Many plants will yield lovely shades of yellow, tan, peach, and pink, with a few even offering up orange and purples. Do your research to be certain you are using the proper mordant for your fiber choice. As protein fibers, wool and silk take natural dyes easily and more vividly than cellulose fibers like linen, hemp, or cotton. A few plants to try that may be available in a nearby field are Queen Anne’s lace, fleabane, and goldenrod, which all provide beautiful shades of yellow.
Natural Compostable Fibers:
Using natural fibers onstage is always kinder to your actors, as they are breathable and not composed of chemicals that may irritate the skin. After their working life is over, remove any notions (buttons, zippers, etc.) and tear the old garments into strips and put these in the compost bin. Cotton, hemp, linen, wool, and silk will all break down into soil.
Cotton is a problem plant. Yes, it is a natural cellulose fiber, it is compostable, and few if any people seem to be allergic to cotton textiles. However, there are some issues that make it less than perfect. Cotton needs water. The website, cottoninc.com, tells the reader that cotton mainly uses rainwater and that 64% of U.S. cotton does not use irrigation. If you look at worldwildlife.org/industries/cotton, the story is different. They discuss the heavy use of pesticides, the need for water to be diverted for cotton irrigation, and the negative impact cotton growing can have on certain ecosystems. So, what do you do? Research and learn. Plants like flax (from which linen is made) or hemp, use far less water than cotton and are viable alternatives. Does this mean you should not use cotton? You must make your own decisions but consider looking into organic cotton, which has no pesticide usage.
Textile Recycling:
Textile-to-textile recycling is the idea behind a circular textile economy: creating new materials out of old ones. Vivify Textiles out of Australia, Switzerland, and Italy creates fabrics from recycled nylon and polyester. Companies like FabScrap out of NYC, or Rewoven in Cape Town, South Africa, recycle or sell pre-consumer waste from designers. Textiles that were destined for the landfill may be purchased directly from the companies. Offcuts may be smaller pieces or many yards long. This is a good way to obtain fabric, leather, and notions at reduced prices (in some cases there is yardage or notions you can get for free.) But how good is it for the planet if it has to be shipped? Good question. The process of recycling is imperfect but look for distributors in your area, or at least, not halfway across the planet. Less distance for shipping means a cleaner choice.
No one choice is always the right choice. Every theatre and shop has its own needs, and location and the scale of a production will influence the choices that are made. What we can all do is design with greener choices in mind. Every choice can make a difference in the health of our planet, our communities, and our shops.