Costume designer: Difference between revisions

A costume designer or costume mistress/master is a person who designs costumes for a film or stage production. This role is an important part of the production team. The costume designer works alongside the director, scenic, lighting designer, sound designer, and other creative personnel. The costume designer may also collaborate with hair stylist, wig master, or makeup artist. In European theatre, the role is different, as the theatre designer usually designs both costume and scenic elements.

Designers typically seek to enhance a character's personality, and to create an evolving plot of colour, changing social status, or period through the visual design of garments and accessories. They may distort or enhance the body—within the boundaries of the director's vision. The designer must ensure that the designs let the actor move as the role requires. The actor must execute the director's blocking of the production without damaging the garments. Garments must be durable and washable, particularly in extended runs. The designer must consult not only with the director, but the set and lighting designers to ensure that all elements of the overall production design work together. The designer must possess strong artistic capabilities and a thorough knowledge of pattern development, draping, drafting, textiles and fashion history. The designer must understand historical costuming, and the movement style and poise that period dress may require.

In the United States, costume designers are represented by International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, United Scenic Artists Local 829.

A costume designer creates the look of a character in film, television or in a stage production and in a play. Their main duties are...

1. Read and analyze the script.

2. Work closely with the director and other designers (set designer, lighting designer, make-up artist) on the production team to develop design concepts.

3. Do research to flesh out design concepts. (for example, geographical setting, time period, characters and their relationships and actions)

4. Produce drawings and colour renderings of costumes.

5. Meet with the wardrobe manager and head cutter to discuss each design.

6. Purchase fabrics, new or used clothing and accessories.(Along with prop ideas)

7. Develop and implement a budget for costume-related expenses.

8. Develop patterns for costumes if it is necessary.

9. Attend fittings and rehearsals. (for theatre, dance or opera productions).

Professional costume designers generally fall into three types: freelance, residential, and academic.

• Freelance designers are hired for a specific production by a theatre, dance or opera company, and may or may not actually be local to the theatre they design for. A freelancer is traditionally paid in three instalments: Upon hire, on delivery of final renderings, and opening night of the production. Freelancers are not obligated to any exclusivity in what projects they work on, and may design for several productions concurrently.

• A residential designer is hired by a specific theatre, dance or opera company for an extended series of productions. This can be as short as a summer stock contract, or may be for many years. A residential designer's contract may limit the amounts of freelance work they are allowed to accept. Unlike the freelancer, a residential designer is consistently "on location" at the theater—at hand to work with costume studio and other collaborators. Residential designers tend to be more established than strict freelancers, but this is not always the case.

• An academic designer is one who holds professorship at a school. The designer is primarily an instructor, but may also act as a residential designer to varying degrees. They are often free to freelance, as their schedule allows. In the past, professors of costume design were mostly experienced professionals that may or may not have had formal post-graduate education, but it has now become increasingly common to require a professor to have at least a Master of Fine Arts in order to teach.

Both residential and academic designers are generally also required to act as Shop Master or Mistress of an onsite costume shop, in addition to designing productions. In a resident theatre, there is almost always a shop staff of stitchers, drapers, cutters and craft artisans. In an academic environment the shop "staff" is generally students, who are learning about costume design and construction. Most universities require costume design students to work a specified number of hours in the shop as part of their course work.

USA is the union that represents costume designers. Although most professional designers are union members, USA has relatively few collective bargaining agreements with theatres when compared with other theatrical unions. However, most major US opera companies do have CBAs with USA. The majority of union contract work for designers is on a project by project basis, not as a part of Collective Bargaining Agreements with theatrical establishments.

• Willy Clarkson who designed costumes for London's West End theatre
• Theoni V. Aldredge: Annie, Barnum, A Chorus Line
• Bob Mackie: On the Town
• Desmond Heeley: Brigadoon
• Julie Taymor: The Lion King
• Gregg Barnes: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
• Ann Roth: Assassins
• Jane Greenwood: The Scarlet Pimpernel, Once Upon a Mattress
• Santo Loquasto: Fosse, Ragtime
• Susan Hilferty: Wicked, Spring Awakening
• Ann Curtis: Jekyll & Hyde
• William Ivey Long: The Producers, Chicago
• Ann Hould-Ward: Beauty and the Beast, Dance of the Vampires
• Willa Kim: The Will Rogers Follies
• Gregory Gale: Urinetown, The Wedding Singer
• Valentina: The Philadelphia Story
• Toni-Leslie James: Jelly's Last Jam, Footloose
• Tim Hatley: "Spamalot", "Shrek]"

• Colleen Atwood: Chicago (2002), Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), Alice in Wonderland (2010)
• Cecil Beaton: My Fair Lady, Gigi
• Jenny Beavan: Howards End, Sense and Sensibility
• Milena Canonero: A Clockwork Orange, The Godfather, Part III, Marie Antoinette
• Oleg Cassini: The Razor's Edge, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, The Mating Season
• Ngila Dickson: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The Last Samurai
• Danilo Donati: Romeo and Juliet
• James Galanos: Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad, Never Wave at a WAC, Ginger in the Morning
• Adrian Greenburg: The Wizard of Oz, Marie Antoinette
• Julie Harris: Darling, A Hard Day's Night, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, The Slipper and the Rose
• Edith Head: Sabrina (1954), The Sting, Lady in the Dark, Emperor Waltz, The Hurricane
• Dorothy Jeakins: The Sound of Music
• Orry-Kelly: An American in Paris, Some Like It Hot, Gypsy
• Jean Louis: From Here to Eternity
• Deborah Nadoolman: Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Three Amigos, Michael Jackson's Thriller
• Walter Plunkett: Gone with the Wind, Singin' in the Rain
• Sandy Powell: The Wings of the Dove, Shakespeare in Love
• Ann Roth: The English Patient
• Irene Sharaff: Call Me Madam, Guys and Dolls
• William Travilla: How to Marry a Millionaire
• Theadora van Runkle: Bonnie and Clyde
• Hazel Webb-Crozier: Mickybo and Me, Closing the Ring, Your Highness

• Madeleine Boyd: Pelléas et Mélisande, Orfeo ed Euridice, La Gazzetta, Partenope, Peter Grimes, La scala di seta

• Costume design
• Filmmaking
• List of film formats
• List of motion picture-related topics

• Costume Designers Guild