Costume Construction: Shopping, Draping, and Stitching
Let’s get one thing out of the way right off: costumes are not sewn. They are built. Saying a costume is sewn is like saying that sets are hammered; sewing is just one of the skills employed in modern costume construction.
As a costume design is coming together, the designer must make a decision between four avenues for each piece of clothing: building, buying, renting, or pulling. Costume designers choose between these four paths by employing the same formula that all designers do: money versus time versus available skills. Actually, it’s all about money.
Buying is the most common option where contemporary clothes are involved. The options are limited to what is in the store, of course, but once you’ve found it, you’ve got most of your work done. Once you own the garment, you can also distress or alter it to your heart’s content. Renting is a great option when you are doing period shows on a budget, but you can’t change what they send you, and it can be difficult to make rental clothes match clothes that are built or bought. Pulling a costume from stock is fast and easy, plus you can mess with it however you want. If you don’t have it, though, you can’t pull it.
Regardless of which path each costume is on, the first thing a designer does, after a design is finalized, is go shopping. A costume designer must have intimate knowledge of every clothing store, fabric store, second-hand store, and notions shop in a fifty-mile radius (not to mention the ones in New York and Los Angeles).
Let’s go through these four paths, one at a time.
Building
Depending on how expensive your labor is, building is either the least or most expensive way to go. In an academic production, where labor comes in the form of credit-seeking students, both the cost and the skill levels may be low. If a professional shop is involved, both the costs and skills will be much higher. Building gives the designer the greatest control over the final product as well as the sturdiest construction.
If the costumes are being built, the first stop is the fabric store, where the designer will collect swatches, playing-card sized scraps of fabric that she can mix and match to find the right collection of fabrics for a range of costumes. Most costume designers collect swatches regularly, even when they are not working on a show. This habit helps them create a stock of colors and textures they can draw from when rendering their costumes. There is an old costume shop joke about a costume designer who dies and wakes up in a gigantic warehouse full of shelves, all of which are groaning under thousands of bolts of fabric of every description. Dozens of people are wandering around these shelves, staring up in wonderment. As the designer gapes at the untold bounty, she stops a passer-by and asks, “This is incredible. Is this Heaven?” The passer-by replies, “No, this is Hell. There are no scissors.”
After the swatching is done and the designer is ready to purchase fabric, she must figure out the yardage that she needs. Fabric is priced per yard, so the yardage times the price equals the cost of the fabric for the costume. The variety of available fabric is stunning, so let’s try breaking it down into some categories:
This is not nearly as clean of a distinction as we would all like it to be. Rayon, for example, which most people would call synthetic, is actually made from wood. In general, though, natural fibers are used in materials like wool, cotton, and silk, whereas synthetic fibers are used in materials like nylon, polyester, and spandex. You can generalize about these groups and say that natural fibers are more expensive, easier to work with, and harder to keep clean and pressed, but every costume designer who just read that sentence has got her hand up in the air right now to tell me about the exceptions. The fact of the matter is, this distinction is only useful to a point. With that in mind, let’s look at general groups of fabrics.
• Animal hair: Many types of wool, including Merino, Corriedale, and Leicester; also cashmere, mohair, alpaca, angora, camel, and many others. Luxurious, soft, and expensive. Can be a bit warm for the stage.
• Sheers: Chiffon, organza, lace, and other lightweight, gauzy, and see-through fabrics. There are both synthetic and natural varieties.
• Naps: Plushes, fur, corduroy, and other thick, fuzzy fabrics. Like the animal hairs, these can be uncomfortably warm on stage.
• Shiny: Satin, taffeta, silks, and other fabrics that catch a lot of light and look dressy. Also, many synthetic fabrics such as acetate.
• Cotton and blends: Cotton is lightweight, breathable, and easy to sew but gains durability and lower cost when blended with fabrics such as rayon, acrylic, or polyester. Linen, made from flax, a vegetable fiber, is similar but more durable, better-looking, and pricier.
• Synthetics: Nylon, rayon, spandex, polyester, and many, many others. Most are harder to dye than natural fabrics and not as luxurious to wear, but they tend to be cheaper and easier to care for.
• Plastics: These synthetic fabrics, such as vinyl, look shiny and colorful on stage, but they do not breathe and thus can be a pain to wear for long periods.
• Twinkles: Metallics, sequins, glittery and showy fabrics; there seems to be no end of variety.
Most designers will decide which kind of fabric they are looking for and then go looking for the color or pattern that fits what they have in their mind’s eye. When shopping for a show, many designers will avoid searching for a particular fabric for a particular costume. Instead, they are looking for a fabric that is within the style of the show. As Tara Maginnis, head of the costume shop at the University of Alaska, puts it, “I am always looking for a fabric that says, ‘I want to be in this show.’” Designers will stock up on fabrics that feel right for the show and then parcel them out later to various characters.
Draping
Once the fabric is bought, the designer faces another fork in the road: patterning or draping. Patterning means that the shop must create a pattern from which they will cut the clothes. Sometimes these patterns are designed by taking apart existing garments and copying them, but in most cases, the cutter, the costume shop person who specializes in this area, must be able to look at the costume rendering, visualize each piece of the costume in her head, and draw it out using the actor’s measurements. It’s an impressive display of three-dimensional visualization, particularly since the cutter is imagining how the pieces will connect in her head, without the ability to see how it comes together until it is time to assemble the whole thing.
It is possible to build a costume using patterns that were actually used at the time, but in general, it is advisable to use contemporary patterns and adapt them to period costumes rather than adapting period patterns to modern bodies and construction techniques. Recently, there has also been a trend from pattern companies, like Simplicity and Butterick, toward producing patterns for costumes. As fewer and fewer people sew their own clothes, these companies are trying to open new markets in theater companies and historical recreationists. If you are building period costumes, check these companies’ catalogs for useful patterns.
In order to drape a costume, the shop sets up a dressmaker’s dummy that is the same size as the actor who will wear the costume. A proper dressmaker’s dummy has adjustable panels that can be made to resemble the shape of the performer’s body. Draping is the process of laying fabric onto this dummy and building the costume up piece by piece, using the costume rendering as a guide. There is no pattern. The draper, as this person is called, must call upon her knowledge of clothing construction to determine which pieces go where. It’s a bit like doing sculpture, and a good draper, like a good cutter, is worth her weight in gold.
Both drapers and cutters often do the first version of the costume in muslin, a cheap but pliable fabric that can be used to make a mock-up of the costume without spending a fortune. Having a fitting in a muslin mock-up can be disorienting to an actor, who might walk into the shop expecting to be decked out in her Act Three ball gown, only to be unceremoniously safety-pinned into an itchy, off-white pile of fabric with extra pieces sticking out of it everywhere like Medusa’s hair. Don’t panic—it’s only the muslin mock-up.
Once the draper has the costume looking like she wants it on the dummy and has checked it on the actor, she cuts the fabric into its final pieces, leaving extra fabric all around for the seams.
Whether the fabric pieces come from the cutter or the draper, the next stop is the stitcher, an expert in construction. Of course, in a small shop or one-person operation, one person might build the entire costume start to finish, but in a shop of any size, these jobs are split between three people.
Buying
One might think that buying clothes would be the easiest way to do a show, but it ain’t necessarily so. If you are buying costumes for a show, it generally means that the show is a contemporary one, and when it comes to contemporary shows, everyone has an opinion. An actor might object strongly to a costume choice, saying, “My character would never wear that!” If you are doing The Merchant of Venice in the seventeenth century, though, the designer can gently remind the actor that yes, it looks a little strange to our eyes, but that collar was the style in Venice at the time. Research settles a lot of issues on the spot.
If you are depicting people in modern dress, you will sometimes be shopping for things that could be built in an historical style much more cheaply. If your character is a wealthy New York socialite, it might be cheaper to fake a nineteenth-century evening gown than to purchase a modern one. Modern dress means a tighter standard of accuracy.
If your run is short and your relationship with the community is positive, you can often borrow certain kinds of garments, such as police or military uniforms, lab coats, waitress uniforms, athletic equipment and clothing, choir robes, clerical outfits, and so forth. Naturally, the shop and the actors would need to treat these garments with extra care so that they can be borrowed again next season; and, of course, the lenders should be given credit and/or advertising in the program.
Second-hand and thrift stores can be a gold mine for costume designers, even if you are planning on building a costume. These days, the price of fabric is high enough that it can actually be more cost-effective to build a costume out of an old garment than to buy the new fabric. Find something that is close at the Salvation Army and then cannibalize the fabric for your new costume.
Renting
In some cases, it is best to rent a costume that has been built by someone else. This is most often and most effectively done when you are looking for an entire production, especially musicals and operas. It is best not to try to put rental clothes onstage with clothes that you have built. It can be challenging to make them look like they are in the same show, especially because you cannot alter rental clothes in any way. You can get away with putting rented uniforms or men’s formal wear in an otherwise built show, however, because those things are pretty standard.
Rentals can allow you to save a lot of money, but you must be very cautious with the clothes. You have to tell everybody that the costume is rented and no harm must come to it. That means no spills, no tears, no alterations, no dyes, no nuthin’.
When you are setting up the rental, get a complete list of all the measurements that the rental house needs. You will need to take these measurements carefully from every performer who is wearing a costume and then hope that the rental house gets it close enough. If you are not familiar with taking measurements, the rental house can provide a diagram showing you where each of the measurements is taken.
Pulling
Pulling clothes can be as much of an art as patterning, draping, or designing. A talented designer can look at a stock garment and see a world of possibilities. The ability to see the patterned waistcoat in the Renaissance tunic can keep your costs way down. If a show is going to be pulled, the designer will generally go through the stock before she does the renderings.
One of the most valuable kinds of stock that a theater can have is hats and shoes, because both are expensive to buy, and shoes cannot be built.
The great thing about pulled clothes is that they are already yours, so you can disassemble, dye, paint, cut, and distress them to your heart’s content. You can even stitch them together with other clothes, if you want. In this way, costume stocks keep turning over, year after year, providing season after season of Mercutios, Blanches, and Mames.
Fittings and Measurements
Very early in the production, the costume designer and her assistant will visit the actors to get measurements. This is more conveniently done at the first read-through, when the designer might also display the costume renderings. Measurement sessions can be a little nerve-wracking for actors, especially those who battle their weight, but designers are firmly professional about taking measurements and it is usually over quickly. If you are an actor being measured, just stand still and just let them do their thing. It is perfectly acceptable to ask that your measurements be taken in a private space.
Depending on the costume, an actor may have anywhere from one to five fittings, not counting the initial measurement session. The first one usually involves a costume that is not quite finished. Don’t freak out if trim is missing, the color is too bright, or it doesn’t fit you correctly. You are in the middle of an ongoing construction process, and lots of things are going to change.
You are also, however, a member of the team that is creating this costume, so you should feel free to share information and make respectful requests. The shop wants to know how the costume fits you, so take the time in the fitting to move around with it on. Stretch your arms and legs out as you will onstage. If your character walks or sits, you should do that in the fitting, after first warning the crew. You don’t want to find out the hard way that there is a pin stuck in the butt of those pants. Let them know if the costume is binding you anywhere and if it is comfortable. The time for this conversation is now, not at dress rehearsal. It’s a good idea to take a look at the costume rendering during the fitting, as the garment you are wearing might not resemble it yet.
One conversation that seems to take place a lot during the fitting starts with the actor saying, “I wouldn’t wear this!” First of all, remember, you are not wearing it, your character is. Second, remember that this design was agreed on between the designer and the director, so if you disagree, it might be because you have a different concept of the character than the director does. Ask respectful questions of the designer if you don’t understand her choices, but serious disagreements should be taken to the director, not the designer.
Actors should also remember that the shop has a lot of fittings to get through, so try to keep the process moving.
Fabric Augmentation
Once the costume is built, the shop isn’t finished. Besides attaching trim and fasteners, the costume artisans often augment the fabric by dyeing, painting, distressing, or otherwise texturing it.
Fig. 38. The costume fitting
Dyeing and painting both involve putting color onto the costume. Fabric dye actually seeps into the threads of the fabric and permanently colors it. Dyes and dyeing technique vary depending on what kind of fabric is being treated, so if you are interested, get one of the many books on dyeing as a guide. Many dyes are hazardous to work with, so pay attention to safety warnings. Paint sits on the surface, which gives the costume more vibrant color but makes it less washable. Sometimes a costume is too bright on stage, so it must be dipped in a lightly brewed tea to “take it down.”
Distressing is a general term that simply means to make a costume look older and more beat up. Costumers might grind dirt into it, wash it repeatedly, rough it up with rocks, slash it, or otherwise make it look like it’s been through hard times.
Dealing with Hair
The first piece of advice I can give any actor is to forget about having a memorable hairstyle. The first thing they’re going to do is make you cut it. Men, keep your hair a neutral length. Forget about dreadlocks, ponytails, shelves, Mohawks, or any other unusual style. Insisting on keeping a style like that will shorten your list of possible roles considerably. Women may keep their hair long or short, but stay away from funky colors and braids. Musicians may (and should) ignore everything I just said.
If you are going to need a wig, remember that wigs come in synthetic and human hair. Synthetic wigs usually look more fake and are harder to style, but cost much less. Human hair wigs, however, can be a good long-term investment because they can be styled over and over for years to come. Above all, don’t put human hair wigs on stage with synthetic. One will call the lie on the other. (The same goes for fur, by the way.) Any wig looks like a wig when it first comes out of the box, so they all have to be styled before they are ready for the stage.
One Final Note
For many actors, the most important person in the theater is their dresser and/or their makeup person. Like a lot of things in the costume area, this is an intimate relationship, dealing with issues of body, appearance, and ego. One longtime actress told me, “The dresser is either my enemy or my best friend.” If you are an actor, recognize that this person is here to help you and deserves your respect. If you are a dresser or a makeup artist, remember that it ain’t gonna be you doing your thing in front of hundreds of people. Acting is hard.