The Costumer's Manifesto is written by Tara Maginnis, and proudly hosted by William Baker.

THE MANIFESTO IS MUTATING!  IT IS TURNING INTO A WIKI THAT CAN BECOME THE HIVE MIND OF ALL COSTUMERS, FINALLY LIVING UP TO IT'S SLOGAN: "COSTUMERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE!" YOU CAN HELP IN THIS PROCESS BY MOVING PAGES TO THE NEW SITE AT THECOSTUMERSMANIFESTO.COM, HELPING TO EDIT THE PAGES THAT ARE THERE ALREADY, AND ADDING YOUR OWN ORIGINAL INPUT.

 

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Ultimate Sticker Book: Costume

Huge numbers of students are given the assignment of interviewing a person who has the job they want to have as adults, and asking a series of job questions.  However, there are many, many kids who would like to become costume designers, and not a lot of us designers who have time to answer the dozens of inquiries we get.  I am no exception, I can't spend the time answering these inquiries individually.  What I can do is answer the questions I am asked most frequently, and give you links to a large number of other online interviews with costume designers (see bottom of page), many of whom have answered similar questions in their interviews.  As a student you can use these to complete your report.    ----Tara Maginnis

What Do You do as a Costume Designer for a Living?

Hello Tara, my name is Miranda and I'm in the seventh grade at Prospero Middle School. In English class I'm doing a job search. For my  profession I chose costume designing. I have a list of  questions that I would like you to answer as best as you can. Thank-you very much for your time, this is helping me out a lot.

 1) What kind of skills training and/or education would I need to become a costume designer?
 Tara:  I needed a Ph.D. and most costume designers in University theatre need at least an MFA, that is a Master of Fine Arts in Theatre Design. Generally, to  do this sort of work in an educational setting you need to be prepared to be a  college professor, that is do historical research, have English skills sufficient to be a published author of articles BEFORE you are hired, as well  as every year after you are hired. You need to learn to draw figures that look  well proportioned and in character with the play. You need to have lots of  social skills for interacting with your director, the other (scenic and  lighting) designers, each of the actors, and the public (not to mention the students who will be working with you to make the costumes. You need to learn  all sewing, painting, dyeing and crafts skills needed to make your costumes,   including how to draft period patterns from scratch, well enough that you can teach these things to your workers. You also need a good knowledge of costume history, theatre history, art history, and the usual more generalized social and political history. You need library research skills, internet skills, and  basic budgeting math. You should get a demonstrable competency with pencils, pens, opaque and transparent watercolor, drawing inks, felt pens and Prizmacolor pencils. Computer literacy is also a must.
Google
 

 

Eyewitness: Costume  

  Clothes in Colonial America (Welcome Books: Colonial America)

Costuming Made Easy : How to Make Theatrical Costumes from Cast-Off Clothing (written for adults, but any bright Jr. High School or High School kid could use it to make great cheap costumes for school plays)

Instant Period Costume : How to Make Classic Costumes from Cast-Off Clothing See above description.

Mask Making: Get Started in a New Craft with Easy-To-Follow Projects for Beginners

Basic How to Halloween Makeups 1 & 2

The Costume Book: The Non-Professional's Guide to Professional Results

The Magic Garment : Principles of Costume Design

Costume Construction Character Costume Figure Drawing : Step-by-Step Drawing Methods for Theatre Costume Designers

Costumes and Chemistry: A Comprehensive Guide to Materials and Applications

The Costume Designer's Handbook : A Complete Guide for Amateur and Professional Costume Designers Rosemary Ingham & Elizabeth Covey.  The standard textbook on costume design.  Illustrated in B&W and Color.

Costume Design
Fashion Design Drawing Course
Fashion Design
Draw Fashion Models! (Discover Drawing)
 

2) What does a costume designer actually do?

A costume designer in an educational setting (the majority of paid all year salaried costume designers in the USA outside the film industry), usually a theatrical costume designer has a sort of dual existence as a professor and a designer in a repertory theatre. In a usual week I will teach classes for part of the days (I teach two classes a semester taken from Theatre Makeup, Costume Design and Construction, Theatre History II, History of Fashion and Dress, Advanced Costume Design and Construction, and Art/Music/Theatre Aesthetic Appreciation) then supervise work in the costume shop in the afternoons 1-5pm. I go to about one meeting for the Faculty Senate and it's committees a week, and have to speak and vote on matters relating to the university as a whole. I also meet weekly with the faculty and staff of the Theatre department to make schedule, policy, and budget decisions. I meet weekly with the Student Drama Association to give them advise about their policies, schedules and budgets, as well as share ideas about creative ways to do publicity, fundraisers or shows. I do research in the library for upcoming shows, and make Xeroxes and sketches to show in another weekly meeting on whatever show is coming up next. In these meetings all the production people concerned, director, designers, the stage manager, and sometimes assistant designers meet, share ideas, work out conflicts, budget problems, time and staff constraints, etc. I shop in evenings and early mornings at fabric stores, Thrift Stores, crafts stores, Fred Meyer (Superstore), and even scrounge through the public dumpsters for materials for use in our shop. (A blunted sense of smell helps). I also maintain good relations with other University departments and the public by assisting outside groups with research, borrowing costumes, books, catalogs and patterns. During the hours spent in the costume shop, I may on any given day: paint renderings (figures of the costumes to be made), draft patterns, dye fabric or costumes, cut out fabric from commercial patterns, paint costumes, distress costumes (age and dirty costumes artificially with wire brushes, sandpaper and paints), make hats, steam or alter hats, dye shoes, pull costumes from stock, sew, fit actors, and instruct students to do any of the above. At home in the evening I work on my internet project, answer mails like this, learn computer graphics for the future of the web site, grade papers, and write reports for the university's administrative machine.

3) What are the working conditions?

As the above will perhaps make you guess, the hours are extremely long, regularly including weekends, and the pay is fairly low for a Ph.D. I am at the middle rank, tenured for a number of years , and make about $45,000 gross pay. On the good side one gets almost three whole months free in summer, plus three weeks at the winter holidays. One is also blessed with a tremendous variety in one's work, interesting co-workers, and a very fun working environment.

4) What are the average high/low earnings of a costume designer.

Costume designers without degrees often work for free, I can give you names of at least four fully competent designers in this town (Fairbanks, Alaska) who never get paid a dime, yet do wonderful work for FLOT and FDA. At the opposite end are successful film costume designers with union status and regular work from a studio doing TV work and films. These folks regularly make $70-150,000 a year. These folks sleep even less than I do by the way.

5) What is the future job outlook?

Rather bad in the educational area of costuming. Universities are cutting back theatre departments and professor salaries, so my sort of job is getting harder to get into. However, the US film and TV industry is expanding so Hollywood costuming is not as hard to get into as it once was. As with all desirable (read fun) professions, there are about 50 persons wanting any given job that opens, so it is highly competitive, however, like all these sorts of super competitive jobs, the jobs in the long run go to the most persistent, determined, hardworking types, not always to the most talented.

6) What is the most enjoyable thing about being a costume designer?

Getting to play with bits of paint and garbage and fabric, mix it with creative ideas, and finding you can create something magical.

7) What is the least enjoyable part?

The long hours, the constant dependence on others to do support work, which, if they do not do on time, or properly, or at all, you are left doing yourself at the last minute.

8) What got you interested in being a designer?

Seeing bad designs for a show I liked, and thinking "even I could do better than that".

9) How long does it usually take from the time you design something, to when it goes on stage?

I usually design costumes 2-6 months before they are seen on stage.

10) What is a typical day like?

Today I spent 9-1 doing assessment reports for the university administration, 1:130 helping a high school film class borrow costumes for a project, 1:30-3 sorting through our costume storage to weed out discards for the year, 3-4 discussing cleaning plans with my assistant, and digging through paperwork on my desk, 4-5 putting away antique costumes and accessories into storage. 515-7 Hunting for needed costume items at value village. 715-9 writing this. 9-930 vainly trying to get online to send it. After I do get through (945?) I'll go straight to work on scans for my web site, probably till 12.

11) How do you feel, in working in the costume world, design ultimately affects the performance?

Design affects different performances different ways:

Bad designs are those that detract from a performance by
looking inappropriate on a character, thus making an actor's work more difficult,
by drawing pointless attention through spectacle when spectacle is not called for,
by not providing enough spectacle when spectacle is clearly called for,
by confusing combinations of color that pull audience focus to the wrong place on stage,
by forcing actor movement in an inappropriate way,
by not forcing actor movement in an appropriate way,
by not making the most of the actor's body type in an intelligent way.

Good costume designs can help actors to better feel "in character", and better show their character's traits to the audience,
they can provide spectacle that makes musical numbers charming, distracts from poor sections of script, and amplifies scripts that need strong visuals to match the heightened emotion and languge (Angels in America, The Tempest, operas, etc),
they can provide a needed visual shorthand and coding that can direct attention to the right place on stage, explain character "types" faster than a script or actor can, thus speeding up the script, and let audiences know which people belong to which groups in potentially confusing scripts (Romeo & Juliet),
they can contribute with lighting and sets to a unified visual whole that can visually explain the concept of the director, and set the mood of the audience,
they can help actors to blend their body type harmoniously with that of their character, making the person look sexy or frumpy, young or old, regardless of what they normally look like,
they can provide cues, restrictions and/or oppertunities for movement that can appropriately limit, or enhance the actor's movements in keeping with the script,
they can communicate information to the audience about period, social circumstances, time of day, weather, socioeconomic status, and a host of other details without needing to waste script time on exposition.

Once again, thank-you for your time. ---Miranda

Fashion Rendering with Color

The Costume Technician's Handbook : A Complete Guide for Amateur and Professional Costume Technicians Rosemary Ingham & Elizabeth Covey.  The standard textbook on costume construction and costume shop management.  Excellent information on drafting, cutting, shop equipment, and forms.  This is the improved and expanded text of the old, beloved, The Costumer's Handbook. Illustrated in B&W and Color.

Stage Costume Step-By-Step : The Complete Guide to Designing and Making Stage Costumes for All Major Drama Periods and Genres

The Prop Builder's Molding & Casting Handbook

How to Dress Dancers : Costume Techniques for Dance

The Basic Costumer

 
The Prop Builder's Mask-Making Handbook

Costume Design : Techniques of Modern Masters Costume Design (Screencraft)

Costume Design 101 : The Art and Business of Costume Design for Film and Television Drawing the Head and Figure

Watercolor Basics People : People

The Figure : An Approach to Drawing and Construction

Draw Fashion Models! (Discover Drawing)

Sewing Seams Simple for Teens:Vol.1

 

 

Hand out for Middle School on Costuming as a Job:

WHAT A COSTUMER DOES FOR A LIVING

  • READS PLAYS-------HOW TO READ A PLAY (DEVELOPS A CONCEPT ABOUT THE SHOW AND FINDS INDIVIDUAL MEANING FOR EACH CHARACTER)

  • RESEARCHES COSTUME HISTORY

  • TALKS WITH THE DIRECTOR AND OTHER DESIGNERS

  • DESIGNS COSTUMES ON PAPER------RENDERING

  • SHOPS FOR FABRIC AND OLD JUNK CLOTHES

  • BUDGETS MONEY, MAKES PHONE ORDERS, AND BORROWS/RENTS ITEMS

  • MAKES PATTERNS USING DRAPING AND/OR GEOMETRY

  • SEWS, DYES, PAINTS AND EMBELLISHES FABRICS WITH BEADS AND EMBROIDERY

  • DOES COSTUME CRAFT WORK: CASTING PLASTIC, CARVING FOAM, STRETCHING AND WIRING HATS, PAINTING/DYEING SHOES, AIR BALLING, ETC.

  • DOES LOTS OF LAUNDRY, IRONING, STEAMING AND REPAIRS.

  • PHOTOGRAPHS THE SHOW FOR PORTFOLIO/FUTURE JOB HUNT

  • WRITES ARTICLES FOR OTHER COSTUMERS 

WHAT YOU SHOULD STUDY IF YOU WANT TO COSTUME: (EVERYTHING)

  • ART, PARTICULARLY DRAWING, WATERCOLOR AND ART HISTORY

  • SEWING, PARTICULARLY PATTERN DRAFTING

  • HISTORY, PARTICULARLY WESTERN CIVILIZATION AND 20TH CENT. AMERICA

  • ENGLISH, PARTICULARLY ESSAY COMPOSITION, ENGLISH LITERATURE, AND DRAMATIC LITERATURE

  • PHOTOGRAPHY, ESPECIALLY LOW-LIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY

  • LIBRARY SKILLS (YOU CAN'T GET TOO MUCH OF THIS)

  • COMPUTERS, ESPECIALLY PHOTOSHOP

  • WOOD AND METAL SHOP

  • FILMS AND FILMMAKING

AFTER SCHOOL PROJECTS:

  • SEWING AND CRAFTS CLASSES AT SEWING STORES

  • VOLUNTEER FOR COMMUNITY THEATRE & COLLEGE THEATRE COSTUME CONSTRUCTION AND/OR MAKEUP CREW

  • PAINT, PHOTOGRAPH, DO CRAFTS, HANG OUT AT MUSEUM

  • READ LOTS OF PLAYS

  • WATCH LOTS OF MOVIES

  • PART TIME WORK AT COSTUME RENTAL STORES IN SEPT-OCT

  • PART TIME WORK AT FABRIC STORES AROUND XMAS

  • TAKE PART IN YOUR SCHOOL'S THEATRE PROGRAM IN ANY CAPACITY BOTH ON STAGE OR OFF

Links to info about similar jobs

Links to Interviews

Places you can study Costume Design

Organizations of or for Costume Designers

Grants, Awards and Internships in Costume, Makeup & Fashion 

NYC Costuming info

Other Costume Designer Links

Learning Toys:

 

 

The Costumer's Manifesto is proudly hosted by William Baker.

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This Page is part of The Costumer's Manifesto by Tara Maginnis, Ph.D.  Copyright 1996-2010.   You may print out any of these pages for non-profit educational use such as school papers, teacher handouts, or wall displays.  You may link to any page in my site.

This page last edited on 01/27/2010