understudies

It's been quite busy these past couple of weeks, our new designer came in for fittings and we are still trying to get our understudy costumes fit and finished for the other shows that have already opened. You may wonder, "understudy costumes"? Yes, understudies. For every major role and many of the minor ones, understudy roles are assigned and costumes are needed. The first choice is obviously for the understudy to fit into and wear the original costume. When that doesn't work, we try to pull similar costumes from stock and fit and alter those. Sometimes though, the understudy and the original actor are too different in size or the costume is too specific to work, so we occasionally build understudy costumes.
In some cases, these costumes never get worn because the actor never misses a show between April and November. In other cases, especially musicals, injuries are common and the understudy must go on. Injuries are so common for musicals that in addition to understudies of major roles, there is often a "swing" hired. The "swing" is an actor/dancer who understudies many "tracks". For instance, a male swing may cover the entire chorus group of male dancers and they learn all those singing and dancing parts in order to go on whenever someone in the chorus cannot. They usually have a costume made for all the major looks so they are made and ready to go at the tech dress.
This year one of our lead dancers hurt himself so badly that he cannot continue in the season. This means that his understudy has assumed his role and someone else is moving into his role and so on down the line. In fact between injuries and colds and replacements, there were seven people doing other parts today. The pre-show announcements seemed endless! Luckily everyone involved is so talented that this happens seamlessly from the audience's point of view.

up next

Well, sorry, I have no photos this week because I've been scrambling trying to draft patterns and get as much cut into fabric and basted together for fittings this week.
It turns out that I have only been assigned straight tailoring of the 1950's for the last show and someone else has been assigned the show with the costumes of the 1740's.
Oh well, I do like to make suits and so do the sewers on my team. They will have a lot to make them happy. I entered all the paperwork into our time records binder and tallied it all up.
In the next 8 weeks, we are going to build 15 pairs of trousers, 2 pairs of riding breeches, 6 waistcoats, 2 tailcoats, 1 hunting jacket, 1 Balmacaan overcoat and 12 jackets. This includes all kind of variations of jackets, such as regular SB and DB jackets, shawl collared cream dinner jackets, and black SB and DB tuxedos.

Does that seem like a lot for one cutter and five experienced tailors? I guess I can sew too if needed, but it will be a lot to cut out and keep organized. I do like to make trousers though.........

I had my first fitting today of a lovely black barathea SB peak lapel dinner jacket with matching pleated trousers.
It's always interesting working with a new designer, and he seemed very happy that the jacket was nice and slim fitting and had a good natural shoulder line. I've been promised more fittings tomorrow,
So, ready....set...go!

begin again

Well, our designer is coming in this week and we've still not finished with fittings for understudies in the previous shows.

So, I need to juggle the workload (and my poor head, which could use a rest) around in order to get some things ready for him to see.

I've been asked to cut right into fabric, which can be a bit nerve racking because this is our finished product- so I better be right or I have to be able to make it right if I am wrong. (within budget too!)
There are many elements that come into play when interpreting a design and making it real. One is the feel of what the designer is after. If the design is set in a specific time, say the 1920's, there are still many variations within it that help to define the character. There are period details in tailoring that can be rather subtle to the average eye and it is my job to know or discover these when making patterns. In addition to design interpretation I have to deal with all different shapes and sizes of actors. Some of them I have made things for previously so I have an idea of their shape and figuration, but others I haven't, and I am working from measurements that I did not take myself, so the pressure is on to get all of these elements right the first time through.

So, I've started with some trousers.

reward/award

It's been a long week or so since I last posted. We've all been under a bit of stress getting 6 of our shows open this week, dealing with understudies and injuries to dancers and fine tuning 3 more shows that open in a couple of weeks.

I met with a new designer in the last week of May for the last show that I will be working on, and he is coming in this week for more meetings and some fittings. The design assistant on his show is still dealing with her previous show, which hasn't opened yet, so that is a bit of extra work for her.

In that regard, I thought that I would share a little something that the ladies wear team made for one of the design assistants.
One of our costume design assistants, Laura, is young, and at an early stage in her career, and she was assigned to assist on a big musical show. The designer she was to work with had never worked in our theatre before, and it turned out that he was not going to be in residence very often. She then became the "go to" person, and was required to go above and beyond the usual duties of a design assistant.
In recognition of the effort she put in, the team put together this manneqiun for her. I think everyone was charmed by the mini shopping bags filled with miniature bolts of fabrics and trim and by the show "bible" which was filled with swatches of the show fabrics and tiny design sketches.
Congratulations!

Now, onward to our next project.

closures

Here's a peek at the way we closed this doublet at the centre front.
We used alternating hooks and eyes down the front. The buttons are decorative and are stitched just to the edge of the front so that when the hooks are done up, all you see is the illusion of the buttons being the closures.
If you put all the hooks on one side and all the eyes on the other, there is a risk that with movement, the hooks could pop out of the eyes. If you sew them on alternating this does not happen. They are stitched on with a buttonhole stitch with heavy thread. When stitching hooks and eyes or bars, it is important to take at least one small stitch through all the layers to the right side of the garment. This holds all the layers together as one when the hooks are done up.
The centre front is supported on both sides with spiral steel boning to keep it rigid. We also put boning in the garment underneath the trim detailing at the side front, sides and side back. This will keep it looking crisp and uncrumpled over the months to come.

more completed

I just wanted to post a picture of another completed doublet that I had posted about previously here and here
I find that I am so busy juggling so many projects at the same time, that it is hard to get in and photograph all the stages of building a costume.
Today we realized that we will need to build something for an understudy and I just stood there with a couple of my team members while we debated whether or not we flat mounted the original costume fabric or not. That happened only a couple of months ago, but we all had different opinions as to how we proceeded. There's just too much information to absorb! I'll deal with figuring it out tomorrow and start drafting anew.

completion

Completion!
This is the final stage of the doublet that I have been posting about since February.
It has successfully made its debut onstage in a technical dress rehearsal and the 1st dress. This Tuesday it will be worn again for the 2nd dress rehearsal and after that come a number of previews, then opening night.

All of these rehearsals allow a chance for everyone involved in the production to run the show from beginning to end with costumes lights, sound, changes and cues to make sure that everything runs smoothly. For the costume designer, it allows a chance to see the costumes from the audiences perspective instead of in the fitting room.

It will be worn until the beginning of November, and that is why we take such pains to construct these costumes well.
They have to withstand being worn and sweated in, and cleaned a number of times a week over many months and when the show is finished, they are catalogued and put in our warehouse of stock costumes. They then may be resurrected another year, refit and altered, and changed to fit another designer's vision.
It feels good to have it, all the others finished too and to look back on all the stages it has gone through getting to this point. The last things we added were the rosettes at the waist, and the Cordon Bleu medal .