Costume Design

In a recent e-mail conversation with my sister I mentioned some design projects that I have been working on and she asked me what it means to "design" a show and I realized that this is something that I talk about allot but that my family and friends who aren't involved in professional theatre may not know what I'm talking about when I say that I'm designing something so I thought I would post my response to her explaining what I do.

Hmm what it means to design a show... I guess that's a little tricky to answer but I'll try to explain. First to design costumes I read the script and make notes about it, then I talk to the director about their ideas and we decide what direction we want to go with the show. then I go do research on period and color and style and I usually make tons of photocopies so I can reference my research while I'm working. Then I usually start with rough sketches and show them to the director to make sure we agree with my approach. Then depending on the type of show it is I will either refine the rough sketches into final renderings or as in the case of The Good Doctor I just went down to costume storage and started pulling costume that I thought would work well for the show. for Ishun Boshi I will have to have good final renderings because we will probably build most of the costumes for it because it is so specific. ( in costumes we call it "building" a costume rather than "making" or "sewing" because allot of times they are more technical or specialized then sewing regular clothing) I will give copies of my renderings to the costume shop manager and she and I will talk about then and she and I will oversee their construction. I will need to chose fabrics and trims because all of the creative choices have to be made by me. Then when costumes have been pulled and altered or made from scratch I have to oversee fittings to make sure everything is right then I have to go to dress rehearsals to make sure the whole show looks right, and that everything works together.