Dramatics Magazine Online: There’s no doubt that sewing is a key part of costuming a show. A beginner seamster or seamstress can get by with just a bit of sewing. (We’ve got some tips here.) But you may not have the time or ability to learn how to sew ahead of your production.
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This article would be a great resource to someone who has little to no experience in theatre design and production, or who is extremely unfamiliar with working in the field. To me and many in the field, these solutions mentioned in the article may seem more obvious. In my high school, we often rented or bought costumes for shows. Once we felt we accumulated a good amount of pieces, we were able to pull from our stock. We also often asked the cast or crew to bringin specific pieces we felt were easy to locate or that they may already own. When we had an extremely specific costume show, like Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella. In this case, we rented a lot of our costumes from a local community theatre who recently produced the show, and had one costume constructor who made our Cinderella transformation dress, as this usually has to be made for the performer based on the vision for the show.
I hadn't considered the idea of not sewing anything while costuming a show. The article provides some good ideas for designers who are just starting out or have limited resources, like pulling from stock or thrifting pieces. I think the article could have explained the pros and cons of each option instead of only presenting the fact that they exist. For example, if you are looking for something specific strictly sticking with thrifting is not going to cut it. It also may make it difficult to find pieces that fit the actors, even if roughly. I would also discourage designers from asking actors to bring in their own stuff. The lines do get a little blurry the smaller the show is and depending on what “category” of theater the production is being presented in. There are a lot more variables when relying on actors, not to mention them bringing in and taking care of whatever they bring in.
Though I know next to nothing about the world of costuming, I thought that this article was really interesting. I am someone who should be the last person to ask about costumes of any sort because of the fact that I am colorblind but in the times when color does not matter, I’m happy to help!
I also love this article because I think it points out ways that the costume world can be more sustainable. If we look into our archives more and check thrift stores, making one piece have many lives. I think that this could be said for the world of props too but I think that it’s more common for them to actively look for things at thrift stores where as in a lot of costume shops that I’ve seen, their first go to is to buy the items outright. I think that this is a fairly reasonable thing to do but it could save so much more money if some time was spent to look at local thrift stores and explore what might be already out there.
In high school these were the only ways that we did any costuming. There were only a couple of us who even knew how to sew and none of us had any time to build any costumes. So we often just went through our stock to find as much as possible for each show and asked actors to bring in what they had that might fit the design. Sometimes we did rent costumes, mostly just for the spring musical because there was no way we had any of those costumes just lying around in the storage room. Overall, costuming without sewing is sometimes the only way that a theatre company can do it but sometimes it can be difficult and require some really creative solutions. And sometimes you have the same dress being used in all three of the productions one year, worn by three different actors.
This article does a great job with identifying the multitude of options costume designers utilize to costume a show. Their are multiple elements of costuming that do not involve building a costume from the ground up. Styling and being able to refurbish something that has already been used or very affordable is a very important skill for a designer/ constructer to be able to accomplish. It illustrates that you are able to visualize a look through pre-made materials and stay within a minimalized budget. Thrifting is one of my favorite aspects of costume designing. Their are so many treasures that can be found in thrift stores and people often over look a lot of cool things. Additionally, many people do not possess the budget, nor the skill set to produce costumes just from sewing/ building alone. Therefore, its nice to see articles like this one shed light on this notion and provide resources.
This article I find very helpful and insightful especially to younger artists who are looking for ways to be able to do theatre without having a certain skill. I think it is important to always find different ways of doing things in theatre because sometimes there are ways to adapt. In high school we did some of our own sewing and would pull or buy the rest of our costumes. Renting and buying costumes gives students a chance at creating their designs if they don't have the resources to make them. When I saw this article I thought about how many costumes I have made and I thought this article would be different ways to make costumes without sewing. That's the cool thing about art and theater. There are so many different ways to go about creating art and no way is more correct than another as long as its your ideas through art it is correct.
This article really hit home for me. These kinds of techniques have been present throughout my entire youth in theatre, where there wasn’t enough money or time to sew our own costumes. In community theatre and middle school, we would have to put together our own costumes on our own budgets. In retrospect, I loved having my creativity sparked this way - you wouldn’t believe the hours I spent going through my closet and making lists on Amazon. When I was helping costume a production of Seussical, I remember loving looking through blue 50s style dresses for Gertrude and being ecstatic when I came upon the perfect one, which she wore in the show, no sewing needed. When I was in a period piece called Orphan Trains (yes, you read that right), and everyone was supposed to be in dirty early 20th century clothes, we all went to thrift stores to find pieces. I remember my friend who had just played Miss Gulch/The Wicked Witch in the Wizard of Oz reused their Miss Gulch costume as one of the adults in Orphan Trains. My high school rented our costumes. The thing about renting, though, is that in my experience, it’s required a good bit of sewing to tailor.
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