A costume designer creates or acquires wardrobe items and accessories for characters in theater or film productions. They consider durability, lighting, and quick changes for theater productions, while film costumes require more intricate detail. Costume designers can work freelance, residential, or academic positions and collaborate with hair and makeup experts. The field is unionized, with major companies using union workers.
It takes countless numbers of people to stage a film or theater performance, and many of them are never seen by the audience in the final product. A costume designer is one of those people who work behind the scenes. A costume designer is the individual responsible for creating or acquiring the wardrobe items and accessories that are essential to the characters’ outfits in the performance. A costume designer strives to capture a character’s personality or social status, but also strives to create costumes that remain in tune with the setting and time period of the performance.
Costume designers create costumes with a variety of things in mind, depending on whether the clothes are to be used for theatrical or film productions. Costumes designed for theatrical productions that will last a long time, like a Broadway show, for example, need to be durable and washable. Theatrical costume must look good under stage lighting and allow the actor or actress to change costumes quickly if necessary. Movie costume design takes some of these qualities into account, but movie costume design generally requires clothes to have more intricate detail and less need for quick-change options.
A costume designer is usually hired in one of three capacities: a freelance designer, a residential designer, or an academic designer. A freelance costume designer is hired on a per-project basis and is often not exclusively required to work on one production at a time. A home costume designer is hired exclusively by a theater or company to work on their costumes and run their clothing store. Academic designers tend to be professors at institutions of higher learning in addition to creating and maintaining costumes for the school’s theater productions.
A costume designer doesn’t just create costumes, however. They also work closely with hair and makeup experts to realize a director’s vision of a character. The field of costume design is considered a unionized field, represented by both the International Theater Employees Alliance and United Performing Artists. Not every production company has a contract with these unions, and many designers are non-union, although nearly all major ballet, opera, and film companies use union workers.
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