Dear dear Desmond

I first met Desmond Heeley in 1986. I was a new stitcher, and I was in my third professional job contract, working at The National Ballet of Canada on his production of the Merry Widow.
I was gathering strips of different colour fabrics for the underskirts of the Can Can dancers. Miles of them, tying off the gathering thread on the door knob of the wardrobe workroom and standing at the other end of the long hallway, pulling, ruching.
Anyway, one evening after my cutter and I had worked some overtime, we exited the building at the same time as Desmond, and him, desiring some company, gathered the both of us up and took us to dinner next door at a very expensive restaurant. I sat there completely out of my element, enthralled and quite speechless at finding myself in this position.
I realized yesterday at his memorial that he was the age I am now when we first met -isn't that funny- and I had no idea at that time that he would have a great influence on my future development as a cutter and that I would have the very great fortune of knowing him just a little.

There have been so many people that he worked with in the early days and became his "family" and so many stories told by him, told about him, stories of the development of theatre in this country, the crazy things they did for the love of their craft and of each other. I wish, and not for the first time in my life, that I had been born a little earlier, to have been able to know some people a bit more fully.
He gathered people to him, and he treated you as if you were the most important person in the world to him, his letters were the most vividly described, his interest and emotion so genuine.

I discovered quite by accident his mentor, Oliver Messel, when I read an article in an architectural magazine about homes built on the island of Mustique by a man who had been a theatre designer- and the accompanying images made me think of Desmond. When I asked him about it he told me that Messel was indeed his mentor, and later sent me, in a letter, a photocopy of a design of a spray of roses by Rex Whistler for the ballet Spectre of the Roses (Sadlers Wells) - just before WWII- great hero of mine, killed on the last day. a postscript to check him out online and another notation * He, Tanya & Oliver Messel my idols.

We shared a a love of Gilbert and Sullivan and Desmond sent me a few things over the years- a little book he found, a postcard, but by far the most amazing and generous was a sketch he made of the Fairy Queen in Iolanthe for the G&S society in New York and I am going to transcribe the exuberant handwritten note that came with it.

p.s. Am not quite sure that this is the sort of sketch one hangs  BUT I thought it might make you smile- (and help G&S along) -
In the '60's I designed Iolanthe for Sadlers Wells opera- the first production away from the copyright (much concern from the diehards!) and a few sniffy folks at the Opera who thought that G&S was beneath them.
it was a huge success---this costume for the Fairy Queen was for a lady- named Heather Beggs- almost  six feet tall--glorious voice & great style--at the end of the piece, "Up in the air sky high--" we actually flew her in a chariot made of Giant roses & pulled by two vast butterflies!---- two baby paniers spangled crin overskirt, (silver & gold brocade under!)-- the "ermine" was swansdown with black coque feathers----and the centre panel "chunky" leaves, roses, with a gauze layer on top!----
 This sketch is a recreation done for the G&S Society here in NY

signed with a heart with an arrow through it,
 Des

Ice dance!

Well, I think I can let you know about my last project since it has now been seen in public.

Margaret (who cuts women's wear) and I just finished costumes for Canadian ice dancers Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje who are starting out their competition season this week  at the US Figure Skating Classic in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Whew! it looked like there were no costume malfunctions- hurray- since that results in points deducted!
We made two costumes for them, a "rehearsal look", with Kaitlyn in a thirties style playsuit, and the finale look which is what you can see in the video I am linking to here.
I made Andrew a pair of french blue high waisted trousers worn with a striped shirt for the rehearsal look and a black with blue striped trousers and waistcoat, with a white pinstripe shirt for the finale look.
It was very nerve wracking getting all of it together in such a short time frame and with basic/sketchy measurements and only one fitting.
    Adding to the pressure was the fact that the clothes have to not only look good, but must also fulfill a level of functionality that most clothing doesn't. He needs to be able to skate in them and do whatever the choreography requires, without any problems. I felt a weight lift off my shoulders as I watched both the practice routine and the finale and everything was fine. It always feels like flying by the seat of your pants when you take on projects like this. Yikes!

It seems like only yesterday that I was making opening ceremony costumes for the 2010 Olympics, and now my Olympic connection may continue as I wish Kaitlyn and Andrew all the best in their quest towards Sochi 2014.
I think we may have another project in the works for them.
Costumes designed by Debra Hanson.

Striped Suit

Stripes.
I fit the jacket today that I think we have to stripe, but now the designer if feeling iffy about it. We will look at it again tomorrow I guess and hopefully move forward with a firm decision.


So, in the meantime, to keep you amused (and me sane), here's a photo of a different striped outfit that we made a few years ago. This is "Billy" from the show Anything Goes, dressed as a gangster. I loved this suit. We make a lot of interesting and unusual garments but I really love making suits and it was a lot of fun doing this bit of exaggeration.
Designed by one of my favourite designers- Patrick Clark.
(I wish we had a clip of him talking about Anything Goes because the set and costumes were fabulous, but that was pre web cast days here at the theatre. If you like, you can listen to him talk about costuming for a production of Oklahoma! here.
No we didn't create the stripes for this- the wool just came that way.

It was a busy day today so I thought a couple of pictures from King Lear of 2007 might be nice to look at.
Lear entered through the house, down the main aisle of the theatre, and up onto the stage, so everybody got a good look at the cloak all spread out trailing behind him. He then walked up onto a raised platform where his throne was, and swished it all to the side and sat down. It was a great entrance.
He wore a gold long-sleeved under gown with lace cuffs(supported with Dior net and fishing line, if I recall) and the ruff, attached to the collar, and then the cape with a short over capelet, trimmed in graduated sized bands of gold lame and lines of gold soutache. Lined in gold organza to try to keep it lighter in weight. The reddish dupioni cross sash came from the under gown hip, cross the front and finished on his back right shoulder in a big rosette with tails. Then there was the chain of office. All of this had to be rigged so that everything stayed put, but also had to be able to be undone and got out of quickly.
Ann Curtis designed this show.

p.s fishing line-well, what we have found that works to support things like lace cuffs is the innards of rigilene polyester boning. It's made up of thick translucent filaments like a very heavy fishing line that you can cut apart and then zig over to give support..