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Overview
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- Read the play
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- Asses resources: Time, Money, and Labor
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- Consult with the director
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- Get other to help you
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- Do the paperwork: lists, drawings, reproductions of research.
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- Make a schedule (Found costumes take about 10 hours, personally made outfits can take up to 30 or 40 hours.)
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- Make the costumes.
Advice
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- Do not panic - write everything down.
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- Make a spreadsheet (see below)
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- Have a travel-size folder to keep things in
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- Find inspirational pictures. The best place to go to determine the "look" of a costume period is art work and costume books. When looking at these books, you should look for the general lines of the costume first. Detail work comes later. Questions you should ask are: - Where is the waist? - What type of sleeve are we dealing with? - Is the neckline high or low? - Are there any outstanding features that immediately capture my eye? When you have answered these questions, you are ready to start browsing through pattern books for patterns that highlight these features. Once you have achieved the basic look of the period, you can go on with other concerns such as unity of line coordination of color, and overall appearance of the show.
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- Be creative with fabric - dye it, pleat it, make it more fun (just be careful, this takes time)
Documentation
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- Items to buy
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- Items to find
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- What people are wearing
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- How to make things
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- Measurements
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- How much you spent
Resources
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- Rinaldi
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- Thrift stores
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- Garmet District's Dollar-a-Pound
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- Goodwill stores (esp. Roxbury)
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- Old drapes, tablecloths, linens, and lace for fabric
Timeline
Costume Designer can be a demanding or simple job depending on the show, the number of characters, and the director's vision. When the design is well-planned out, it should not be too time-consuming, but any prospective costume designer should be aware of how much they are willing to commit to the show ahead of time, and should make the producer and director aware of how complicated of a design they can manage with their time and budget.
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Functions
Function of Costumes
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- Defining character differences
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- Setting a character in time and space (history, geography)
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- Age and gender
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- Rank or status
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- Personality
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- Mood
Theme, Concept, Mood
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- Realism
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- Stylization: exaggeration of shape
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- Stylization: exaggeration of silhouette
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- Distillation of period - mixing of periods
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- Abstraction, Color
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- Texture
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Previous Version 1
====== The Psychology of Clothing ======
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This understanding comes from observation & research!
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Previous Version 2
====== All About Sewing ======
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