Any Costumer

Playing Dress Up

As a somewhat solitary child, I enjoyed dressing up. As a member of a particularly thrifty family, the skills to make my dress-up clothing became quite essential. I first took pleasure in mathematical manipulation of fabric and how the human body interacts with it's clothing. An obvious interest in fashion grew throughout my late teens, so I attended a program in Apparel Design. Frustration with the Machine of Fashion grew through college internships in tandem with discovering the magical existence of a costume shop.

Growing up in a lower middle class family and pursuing a career in fashion, I frequently doubted the importance of my aspirations. As a Costume Designer, I can a) be a nerd, b) tell stories and facilitate storytellers by creating or altering their appearance, c) interact with groups of amazing artists, d) avoid off-shore production, e) recycle clothing, and f) not have to pretend that I have enough money to wear designer clothing. Not that fashion is completely ruled out for my future, but at least at the moment I am practicing analysing personality and associating it with dress.

Over the years I have learned that Costume Designer doesn't end with great ideas or even the production of great ideas and when you're starting out in the field your title should actually read: Stitcher, Dresser, Shopper, Haggler, Self-Esteem Booster, Maid, Volunteer, Fit-Model, Driver, Bank, Surrogate Mother, Laundress, Listener, Big Sister, Aspiring Costume Designer. And I'm OK with that. The relationships cultivated, art created, and therapy occured in my experiences are well worth the low pay and thong washing.

This blog was created to share my first experience in summer stock and the things I get a kick out of doing. During a walk in the forrest today, I saw these amazing trees and ferns growing off of a giant rock and I was excited about illustrating them and making an animated film with all sorts of creatures playing in the land. But I thought "That would be a lot of work, and in the whole process, I probably wouldn't actually get to play." That magic land was all around me. I encourage you to get out there and play first. If something occurs that you just can't keep from the rest of the world, then make it art. Make the story and the characters and the world, but don't forget to play.

--Any Costumer

Sunday, July 13, 2008

The nice thing about summer stock is that I have been fortunate to have just a bit more time to really focus on character and color, rather than just slamming out shows as I often times must do back in Chicago, as I work a full time in production on top of designing. Here are some of my renderings for Cabaret: