How a costume is created.

I am occasionally asked what goes into creating costumes for a production, be it an opera, straight play, etc…. I am always glad to educate people in the way of my world. I worked with one company that actually appeared to NOT want to know what I did and how I did it—and that was their loss. After all, goes my line of thinking: I am spending your group’s money. If you do not want to know how I do what I do that is fine with me, because for all you know I might be spending your money on wine, women, and song. Ignorance, ladies and gentlemen, is not bliss.

How the magic happens.

I get a call from the company that wants me to work with them. With Durham Academy, I get the shows from the drama teacher. I read the script or the libretto a couple of times. The first time I read it for the reading, no notes, just straight reading. Then I read it and I take notes. I make a list of all of the characters with notes about who they are, their relationships with other characters, their back stories as revealed by the action in the work, etc…. I also make a page for each scene in the act. I note the time of day for the scene, where the scene takes place, the characters in the scene, and what happens to move the plot forward. From these two lists I note if there are any possible quick changes, any costume items that may need to be preset back stage, and any costume items that might need special attention. I then do the costume plot. A costume plot is the outline of who wears what when. Needless to say, a costume plot is very important.

During my first meeting with the production people I ask for production crew and cast list and contact information for the cast. I email them and ask for measurements. If they live in the area we can set up a time to do measurements. If not, they can email me measurements, but they have to be current measurements. I have had people tell me that they cannot send me measurements because they are losing weight. I am afraid that it does not work like that. We can adjust a costume after it is made much easier than we can scramble to make it if a singer waits until the last moment to get measured. I do ask that performers tell me if they have any allergies, tattoos, interesting things that have been pierced, if they are right handed or left handed. I especially want to know about allergies to pets since I have a cat at home and my Mother has a dog, and my studio is in my Mother’s basement. Plus, you really do not want to do anything that will harm a performer.


I start my research after I have read the script. When I get the assignment for the production I ask the director a couple of key questions. The most important is “when is the action set.” I need to know if we are taking a work and moving the time period. Shakespeare plays are a classic example of time shifting. Hamlet can be moved to 20th century Denmark or to a corporate boardroom in Los Angeles. I need to know the concept so I can do my costume plot and research to fit the director’s vision. We are lucky in the Triangle area to have so many research universities with diverse curriculums. North Carolina State University has a College of Textiles, UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke have renowned Art History Departments, and UNC has an internationally known theatre program. That means that these institutions have libraries that will be full of books on costume history, textiles, art history, and the like. One hidden gem is Joyner Library at UNC-Greensboro. Until the 1960’s UNC-G was Women’s College. They had an incredible Home Economics Department. That means that Joyner Library probably has every sewing-how-to book ever published. Knowing 20th century period sewing techniques is wonderful, because it is little details like getting bust darts right in a 1950s dress that make things look authentic. Also, for some reason, Joyner Library has a HUGE collection of books and magazines about Hollywood and the movie industry. So if you want to look at Hollywood film magazines from the 1930s, they are there on microfilm. Hollywood in the 1930s and 40s had a major impact on the domestic fashion industry in the United States. The library at the College of Textiles at NCSU has an expanding collection of early books on textile history and textile production for their Rare Books Collection. The titles collected include early 20th century imprints on dying techniques, working with various fabrics, milling machinery, and stain removal. I have copied most of these books for my own use, because a lot of the dying techniques like batik and dying silks have not changed. Plus the stain removal stuff still works now, one hundred years after it was first published! I also have a large collection of art books, museum collection catalogues and exhibition catalogues, textile books, books on costume history, designers, etc… My personal library must number at least five thousand books, magazines, articles, and the like. I know this because I recently moved them from my storage unit to my new house. I still have boxes of books that I have not unpacked because I have run out of bookshelf space.

Researching “Venus and Adonis” was fun. I love the court masques that Ben Johson and Inigo Jones designed for the Tudor and Stuart Courts in England. Chatsworth, the home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, has the largest collection of Inigo Jones drawings for the Stuart Court Masques. The Cavendish family has always been very generous in lending items from their collections, so the Jones drawings are reproduced in many exhibit catalogues, and there is at least one book devoted entirely to them and the symbolism of English Court Masques. For “Venus and Adonis” Geoff Zeger, the director, and I wanted to create two different worlds: the classical world of Venus and Adonis, and the Elizabethan world of the chorus. The four costumes for the singers and dancers pretty much copy the Jones drawings from a masque created for the court of Charles I. Did I mention loving to do historical research?

With all of my research and costume plot and notes in hand, I am now ready to begin the design process. I can draft patterns and can alter existing commercial patterns if need be. There are a growing number of really good commercial costume patterns out there from Butterick, McCalls, and Simplicity. There are also historical pattern companies out there that people who do historical recreations use. There is a big difference between a commercially created pattern and a pattern used for historical recreations. People who do historical recreations make sure that every “t” is crossed and “i” is dotted—they have period closures rather than zippers or snaps or metal hooks and eyes (closures depend on the year of the costume). In short, these patterns, while they are wonderful in terms of period detail, are not always the most ideal for stage use. We need to be able to make one costume serve for a long time, so I may cut the fabric a little too large and sew it to fit the singer. We have to plan for quick changes, so lots of hooks and eyes and laces, like those on dresses from the 1880s need to for show rather than for actual use. If you use a zipper to do the actual closing and holding together of a costume, who is going to notice (if you hide the zipper) that the laces and hooks and eyes are simply decorative…

Shopping fabrics for shows is always a challenge. I get a budget from the production company, and I am honest if I think the show can be done for that amount. I do not like scrimping and cutting edges. While I do not want to spend a whole lot on fabric, I also do not want to only shop at the $1.00 a yard pile at Wal Mart or someplace like that. I shop shows all over the Triangle, and I know where I get discounts and where I do not. I use coupons where I can. I also shop in DC and Virginia Beach and online. My father and stepmother are supporters of the Virginia Opera Company, and they arranged a tour of the costume shop for me at their headquarters in Norfolk. The costume shop manager turned me on to a great fabric store up there. This way I can combine trips and make a visit to see my folks tax deductible—the mind is always working! Choosing fabric colors is always fun. It helps to know what a performer looks like so you can pick fabrics that are flattering to their complexions. In the case of one singer I have worked with a couple of times, it is hard to pick fabrics that will work with his skin tone. He is very pale, and I do mean pale. Too strong a color over powers him out so that all you see is the color on the stage. Too pale a color washes him out so that all you see a void that happens to be singing. For “Venus and Adonis” it took me two hours to find the fabrics for the costumes that needed to be built for the production so that they would all coordinate.

Sometimes the libretto will give me a clue as to color choices. The red dress that Dessie wears at the fish fry is specifically mentioned in Lillian Smith’s novel. All I needed to do was choose a pattern and the fabric. I chose an original 1931 Vogue pattern from my collection and resized it to work for the wonderful Rita Addico. If you look up Long Leaf Opera on YouTube you will see the fitting for the red dress.

For “Strange Fruit” I used mostly original vintage items from the 1920s and 1930s. I have a large collection of vintage clothes and I am always on the hunt for quality vintage items that I can use on stage. I love eBay for that reason. There is also an excellent vintage store in Virginia Beach, and here in the area we have Beggars and Choosers in Pittsboro. My car has a little autopilot button to the parking lot beside B&C. The trick with vintage clothes is that the singers have to be very careful, because it is not like there is a backup in case something happens to the original! When I tell people no food and drink in costume I have my reasons!

Fabrics and colors also need to be discussed with the lighting and set designers. No one likes a surprise when it comes to these things. Lights can change the colors and read of a fabric from the stage to the house. Several years ago I did a production of a Kauffman and Hart play and was not told (and we really did not have any production meetings, but that is another story all together) that the walls of the house were going to be orange. Well, more burnt umber, but really orange. Surprise!

I do will renderings, if asked, of costumes. Now I am not the best sketch artist in the world, and renderings take time for me to do. I put the bits of the fabric I am going to use for the costume on the drawing. I can scan the images and put them on a CD for the other techies to have—it is all a part of good communication. Besides, all of the costumes and the costume plot have to be approved by the director—so having renderings or a research notebook is a good idea.

The notebook is your sacred text! In my notebook I have contact lists, copies of the measurement charts, a copy of the costume plot, the libretto (if it will fit), copies of my research, and other notes. I always make at least three copies of the meaurement charts. One is kept in the notebook, one in my studio, and one is for me to have when I give a sticher a costume to build. It is important that the sticher have a performer’s measurements when they are building a costume. I have also learned that having copies of your research on hand is always a good thing. On many an occasion I have had a performer question their costume. It is nice to pull out the notebook and say ”Ingres, Portrait of a Lady, 1829, the Frick Collection, New York.” I have worked with directors who have wanted to me to redo period waists because they are not flattering to the actress. Well, the show is set in 1900, not 2007—waistlines were different! This was the same director who allowed a performer to wear a contemporary cocktail dress rather than the period appropriate dress I had made for her character. “It is not flattering on me,” the young lady complained. This was also the director who told me that she had taken a costume history class in college. Well, I took four years of costume classes in college, so I think that I know what I am doing by now.

After everything has been approved and communicated in terms of patterns, fabrics, trims, etc… it is time to start cutting. I cut one costume at a time. Each costume gets its own plastic bag (I reuse Target bags) which contains: the cut fabric with the pattern piece attached, all the thread in all of the colors, a copy of the instructions for making the costume piece, any trims and notions (buttons, snaps, zippers), and a copy of the performer’s measurements. When I am cutting a pattern I measure all of the pieces to make sure that they will fit the actor. Sometimes, if I know it is a costume piece that we can use and reuse over again, I will cut it a little too large and change the seam allowance that the sticher will use when building the costume. With women it is important to have bust inhale and exhale measurements and with men you want the same measurement for their chests! Performers move, so you want their costume to be able to move along with them. You also want an over the bust measurement—from the top of the shoulder (where the shoulder seam in a blouse is) to their waist. Some people are short waisted with a large bust and some people are long waisted with almost no bust—and that has to be accounted for in their costume so that things will fit properly. As a rule for pants or skirts and dresses I ask that the sticher not put the hem in the bottom of the garment. That gets measured and put in after the first fitting. It is important that you fit the garment with the shoes that the singer will be wearing and that the singer is wearing proper foundation garments. I do not allow performers to “go commando” in my costumes! The wearing of proper foundation garments is fundamental. Plus, I have to do the laundry, so—well we won’t go any further.

When costumes are made it is called building. This process pretty much is like construction: lots of different pieces that have to be put together in a specific way. Like I said above, I do try to make it possible for a costume to used as many times as possible. It is easier to take in than to let out! We use large seams when we can so that a garment can be resized as need be for different singers. That makes fittings all the more fun and why it is important that the sticher have good instructions!!!!

Laundry. This is an important part of the fabric picking process. You really want to use fabrics that can be laundered or dry cleaned, but sometimes that is not possible. Fabreez and stain removal products and rubber gloves are your best friends. People laugh, but I handle all of the laundry for shows with rubber gloves. I also use Dryel for the things that normally would be dry-cleaned. We do not have a quick turn around dry cleaner here in the Triangle, so I use Dryel when I need to have something ready on the quick time for a show or photo call. My student assistant from Durham Academy and I spent 6.5 hours doing laundry for “Strange Fruit” during the day of the Friday opening. It got so bad laundry-wise that I had to bring my laundry from home to do while I was at Memorial Hall or I would not have had clean clothes!

I have a great crew that usually works with me on shows. My Mother serves as my chief cook and bottle washer and she keeps me in line and organized. My friend Shirley Rollins is an incredible sticher, and she sews without pins. One thing that I hope will come from the Festival this year is that I will be able to have one or two of my students from Durham Academy as assistance. I still need to work on the details for this program.

Once the costumes are made and fitted and altered the show can go on! By now I am accustomed to not seeing my name in reviews, I guess that means that I have done my job.

When the show is done the fun of strike begins. I have an inventory of all of the costumes from hats to shoes and in between. For “Strange Fruit” there were over 200 costume pieces on the stage. All of them have to be cleaned, either in the washer or at dry cleaners. I take the items to the cleaner and get them back when they are ready. Since the cleaning is free I am willing to wait until Medlin Davis can finish them up. The rest go in the washer and dryer or get Fabreezed. State law says that these items must be put back into storage clean—so I do it.

The opera festival is done for me now. It has been a terrific experience, three shows, two world premiers, over 300 costume pieces—all in two months! Here is to next year!