Costume Design for a Cast of 40+

Sorry for the lack of posts recently, I have been very swamped the past few months with a huge costume design project. I was lucky enough to get to be the Costume Designer for "Joseph & The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" for the Champaign-Urbana Theater Company. With a budget of $500, two months, and a cast of over 40, I needed to make this production come to life. 

I had a lot of fun working on the show, especially making the dancers' looks. I'm going to try to post some progress pictures for the pieces I made from scratch. I loved working with quick changes, multiple costume changes, and a cast this large. My first show as a designer I only had 2 actors (they played all of the characters of course) to work with, so this was quite a step up from that show. I look forward to working on more shows like this in the future. I was very thankful to have a few people help work on some pieces for the show and to have some help backstage for changes and costume needs.

Stay tuned for more pictures! You can always check out my portfolio for more pictures too!

Ensemble in motion.

Close up of the Pharaoh's cape while backstage.

  

During "One More Angel," we had a hoedown feel to the cast.

Update!

It feels like I haven't posted in forever, but I've been insanely busy with costumes for Oklahoma!

We open the first week of August and we're trying to do fittings with EVERYONE this coming Saturday. However, because of my work schedule I won't be able to be there and since I work Friday as well all of the costumes I've been working on need to be dropped off tomorrow morning...so I'm feeling a tiny bit of pressure. I've had the costumes since Monday morning but I haven't really had a chance to work on them between work and unpacking in my new apartment. I'm sure I'll get it all done it's just a matter of how late I'll be staying up or how early I might need to wake up to finish...

As of now I've seam ripped some ribbon trim, a lace ruffle trim, and 2 sleeves. 

Next I'll be cutting and sewing the 2 sleeves on to the blue dress. Then I'll probably go ahead and sew the purple gingham skirt back together (My boss had seam ripped all the seams so that they could be sewn to make the waistband a little bit larger). After that I will either sew this ruffle thing on the bodice of the 3 look or cut and sew the ruffle for that look. After that it'll just be a matter of closures/trim. So overall I feel pretty good about my time and where I'm at with these projects. I'll post some pictures when I get a chance (probably Saturday/Sunday since I close tomorrow).

Okay Oklahoma!

 

Progress Update on Oklahoma!

All the prairie dresses are sized, organized and mostly pulled. The female ensemble's dresses are pulled, along with children and the dancers' prairie dress looks. We still need the dancers' ballet and can-can looks. We also found a great dress option for one of the leads. This week has definitely been eventful and lots of progress has been made for the costumes for the show. The show starts in about a month and I think we're doing pretty well overall. We've sized the cowboy shirts and we've pulled some leather and suede vests and jackets for some of the guys to try. I'm excited to see everything come together.

Pants Galore!

Some of the new donations!

Since I've moved from St. Louis to Champaign, IL I've interviewed at a couple places, unpacked my things, and tried to improve my website and portfolio. I've accepted a management position since here in Champaign the costume design positions are insanely slim and not really paid. I'm about to start working as a costume design assistant for Oklahoma! and I really can't wait. Since Wednesday morning I've been helping (It's kind of like being the Costume Shop Manager Assistant) the Costume Shop Manager (who is also the designer I'm assisting, go through the costume shop and organize everything. Since the shop is also where the costumes are kept it's not in the best shape. People leave stuff on the front tables instead of putting it away, or they put it in the wrong box, or they move stuff into the wrong sections. It's crazy how people put things everywhere without thinking. Next week starts measurements of all the actors and actresses and then BAM we'll be pulling costumes.

Most of the brown pants
ready to be put away.

In preparation for pulling for such a huge cast, we've been going through the shop's costumes. Wednesday I moved all the prom & wedding dresses to a new spot and then shuffled the period section around until it was less chaotic and crowded. Yesterday and today I've been focusing on pants. We both thought it wouldn't be such a huge task...well...the boxes all were labeled but what was inside them was wrong. So I've been going through the new donations and labeling & sizing them. Then I went ahead and went through almost all of the rest of the pants boxes to make sure everything was labeled, sized and would go in the right color box. It's a very time consuming job but it's neat to see the entire stock of pants and to get an idea of options for the show.

One of my favorite boxes to go through is the "Loud Pants" box. It has crazy patterns, colors, and more. It's just a cheerful box and has some great options. I was able to add a couple new pairs to the loud box and if any more need to be included then we'll need another box, which is a great thing in my opinion. I wish we had this many women's pants options, but I may just have to try some of these on for fun! Or somehow bribe my boyfriend to come to the shop and model some pairs for me so I can blog about them and have decent pictures to show off. 

*Side note: I've started a tag on Instagram for whenever I post neat costumes from the shop (or other places) & it's #mycostumefind so check it out for more finds!

Just some of the "Loud Pants."