Clothes Make the Man (or Actor)

Why Costume Design Matters?

Imagine attending a play or musical and walking away knowing something was missing. Sure, the performers were great. The sets transported the audience to another world, yet something was still amiss. Although most people cannot put their finger on it, the missing piece was most likely the right costumes. When a costume designer does their job correctly, their hard work is often overlooked, but when it not done well audiences pick up on it.

Sierra “Sisi” Clark, Green Room Theatre Company president and costume designer of Antigone (2023), said a costume designer’s job is to “make the show and actors look the best they can.” Actors construct personal views of their characters, and Clark feels the addition of costumes and props subconsciously help actors’ discover their roles more profoundly.

Camila “Cami” Yanez, Green Room Theatre Company Event Planner and costume designer of The Life of Galileo (2023) and The 39 Steps (2023), views costumes as a part of the world-building of theatre as integral as the set.

“Costumes tell a lot about the character, and even when you look at people’s everyday outfits or their aesthetic you get a pretty good idea of who they are,” said Yanez. When a play or musical lacks intentional costume design can make all the difference.

The Process of a Costume Designer

Although there is a nuance between designers, the process of a costume designer starts the same—with reading the script and noting what actor needs to wear, what and when they need to wear it.

Yanez says the most important step is to “talk to the director and know what their vision is.” From there, Yanez makes a Pinterest board for each character. Clark also employs Pinterest boards, but also makes character slides. Once the director approves the designs, they are sent to the cast and crew. Depending on the production actors will pull costume pieces from their own closet that match the designer’s boards and slides, the designer will go to the costume shop and pull the pieces from there, or the designer will make or modify costume pieces. Typically in shows set in modern times, actors pull from their own closet, such as in Antigone (2023), which was a classic Greek tragedy set in a  2023 art gallery.

Clark prefers to have actors provide their own clothing whenever possible because she believes her top priority is “to make sure actors feel comfortable,” but sometimes that is not an option.

“[Costume design] involves historic research and accuracy in reproducing clothing of an era, class, and setting; construction or re-construction of the clothing using appropriate techniques and textiles; and the artistic end product that conveys something about the characters in the play for which costumes are being designed,” said Cathy Goodwin in the article Information Seeking in the Hummanies: Costumes Design and Historical Research from Current Studies in Librarianship.

For The Life of Galileo (2023) and The 39 Steps (2023), Yanez had a mix of the costume shop and actor’s closets since they were set in a classic, timeless environment and the 1930s respectively.

During the entire process of designing both Yanez and Clark stress the importance of keeping up discussions with the director. During Antigone (2023), Clark frequently updated the character slides as the director fleshed out the show. As the show was shaped, some of the original costume designs were not functional with a costume change because the buckles on the actor’s shoes took too long to fasten making them late for their entrance. This forced Clark to redesign the costumes and find a solution that was visual appealing and practical.

Yanez also experienced the need for discussion during The Life of Galileo (2023), when one of her designs for a wedding dress matched the aesthetic of the show but did not fit through the dressing room door. After the first rehearsal with costumes, Yanez had to quickly communicate with the director, Shelby Black, to come up with a solution to remove the hoops.

When the same actor either plays multiple characters or the same character with costume changes, the costume designer must get creative. This was especially the case for Yanez and The 39 Steps (2023) because the cast of four had about 35 costumes among them. She had to consider not only the visual appearance of the costumes, but how quickly the actors could change into the next one and still make their entrances. One of the ways Yanez combatted this problem was layered costume pieces that could quickly be removed as the actors portrayed a new character.

“I think the best part about costume designing is when the actor first sees their costume. There is a certain excitement, a certain joy they have that you just can’t beat,” said Clark. She loves costume design because she knows she adds to the big picture of the show and gets to support the cast and crew in a tangible way.

Although it may seem like a small part of the show, costume design puts shine on the talent the cast and crew already provides to make the performance complete.

Clark and Yanez’s Designs in Action

To learn more about Green Room Theatre Company’s design work and team, click here.

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