Whitney Anne Adams Remember to have cried on the set of "The Great Gatsby" by Baz Luhrmann, during the filming of a lavish party scene in the New York Gatsby mansion in the 20s.
Adams, then costume design assistant, had worked for so many hours that some nights slept in the office.His team spent months making hundreds of costumes, and it was the first time he saw them all together.
"The musical track that we temporarily used to get the appropriate tempo was‘ Party Rock Anthem ’," he said, referring to a LMFAO electronic dance theme."So here I was, crying to the rhythm of‘ Party Rock Anthem ’, and that was definitely the moment I thought:‘ This is what I want to do the rest of my life ’".
AnuncioThere is no doubt that there may be moments of glamor working on the costume design.Salvador Pérez, known for his work at "The Mindy Project", recently spent his birthday wearing Bette Midler for "Hocus Pocus 2"."Bette Midler is the reason why I'm a costume designer," he said.
But work itself is not glamorous.It is a very physically demanding job.The people of the costume department are usually standing all day, whether transporting bags, ironing the clothes or running test in test.They have to deal with dirty clothes.
"It's dirty, sweaty, you touch things that are not fun to play," says Janelle Carothers, costume designer of the television program "All Rise".
"Many people believe that costumes are smoke and mirrors, and that clothes simply appear," said Adams."Many do not know how really difficult it is to make all the costumes ready for when they need".
We ask the Adams costume designers ("India Sweets and Spices" and "Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin");Pérez, Carothers, Natalie Bronfman ("The Handmaid's Tale"), Susanna Song ("Mini") and Mona May ("Clueless", "Mixed tape") for their advice on howThe garments appear effortlessly at the time they are needed on screen.
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Who can become costume designer?
Interest in costume design usually begins with an interest in fashion.But the main difference is that in the fashion industry, clothing is the protagonist, while in costume design, clothes are there to accompany and improve a story.
The costumes helps to form the public's first impression on a character, even before any dialogue is pronounced.The costume designers, who are the heads of the costume department of a production, begin to study the script and work with the directors, producers, actors and the rest of the team to find out how to visually express the characters.To do this you have to take into account the time, the place, the personalities, the mood and other things.
"You have to perform many functions," says Adams.“You are not only a designer, but also a psychologist, historian and researcher...And then you have to really deepen a lot of details and keep all that in your brain.So it's not just about having a good eye and sense of design ”.
Hollywood costume designers have to be very meticulous."In the movies there are first planes, so you can see the intricate embroidery and rhinestones, but these wide group shots are also made," he says."So the small details and the great image are seen at the same time".
It also helps if you like spreading sheets, because there is much to control.Costume designers can dress not only the main cast, but also to the guest stars and the background characters.As scenes are often out of order, designers have to plan.If a scene takes several days to shoot, the costumes must be managed to appear in the same way so that there is continuity.Costume designers also have to remember if an actor likes a certain underwear or stockings, and if anyone prefers protections in the armpits.In addition, they have to make sure that the double costumes are exactly the same to those of the corresponding actors, unless they are a larger size to accommodate the filling and have stitched bellows so that their pants do not break in the middle of a kick.
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"If everyone does their job correctly and maintain their weight, it is a lot of T Cruces and points of I," said Carothers."There are many moving pieces and many large and expensive balls that can be dropped ... it is better if you can apply the same type of meticulous details that you do in the design work to the operational part as well".
And it also helps to be a fast problem solving."Do you know how to make McGuyver under pressure?" Says Carothers."I love you know how the last season of Prada is, but if we are rolling, can you take a piece of gum and fix a hem if you only have 10 seconds to do it?".
May recalled an occasion when his team realized that he lacked a cure suit."We entered crisis," he said."We ended up using a tablecloth, cutting a hole to put our heads, draping it and making a kind of chal".
How do you start?
At first glance, Adams' story about how she became a costume designer looks like a fairy tale.When I was at University, he won a costume design contest for the Luhrmann “Australia” film of 2008.He ended up drinking tea with the director and his wife and frequent collaborator, the costume designer Catherine Martin, who hired Adams as an assistant in "The Great Gatsby" years later.
But in the meantime many things happened.Acquired experience working as a tailor in a Broadway costume store.He has sewn costumes for more than 30 Broadway shows, sewed and made the costumes for tour I am...Beyoncé World in 2009 and has designed costumes for several shows out of Broadway.When the deceased Eiko Ishioka designed the Broadway musical "Spider-Man", Adams was his personal tailor, and created white covers for television and cushions for Ishioka's white apartment.All this was before he got his first job as a cinema assistant.
Many costume designers begin as production assistants in the costume department.Most of the time they carry and bring errands.("We have all tanned by making thousands of returns," says Adams).Production attendees cannot manipulate clothes, but it is a great place to learn how the industry works, meet people, understand work pressures and find out the necessary deadlines to have a suit ready for the camera.
However, there is another way to enter the industry if you have a technical skill, said Pérez.
Many fantasy, science fiction and period projects are "construction programs," Bronfman said;Because you can't buy any of these costumes, you have to build them.
Bronfman was the costume supervisor of the first two seasons of “A Handmaid’s Tale” and became the third season's costume designer.Construction series need more artisans, such as tailors and seamstresses, as well as agitators and tintos, that is, people who make new clothes seem to be used.
You never want a character to look like a newly bought shirt, says Bronfman.In addition, if it is a series in which an actor has the same outfit throughout the season -as in the Netflix “See” science fiction drama, which she designed -the clothes have to adjust to the different levels ofwear."For example, let's say that [a character] returns from a war all bloody," Bronfman explained.“Then the blood dries, the mud is caked a little, it looks different, but then someone may have washed their jacket.So blood stains are a bit more dim.These are the different layers of transformation that help tell a story ".
"Everyone wants to go to school to be a costume designer," said Pérez.“Very few want to go to school to be a ager/dyer, a cutter/fitter or a seamstress...We are not teaching enough trades, [which are] a good way to enter the business ”.
What are the professional trajectories?
There are many paths to become a costume designer, but two of them are the set route and the office route.
People who work on a film or television set are called "Figings".There is a key figurine, which supervises the tasks of the costume department on the set;a truck figurine, who manages clothes on the trailer;Figurinists of set, who make sure that the actors feel comfortable and that the costumes are exactly as the costume designer wants them;and Figurinists dedicated to background actors.
The office route refers to the people who are responsible for operations, which includes the purchase or construction of the costumes.The functions vary, but in general, the costume supervisor is responsible for much of the logistics, including the hiring of the equipment and the budget management.The costume coordinators are the planners who take care of the receipts and work with the buyers, who go out to buy the clothes or fabrics that are needed after the designer has devised the plan.There are also tailors, seamstresses, agitators, tintos and more artisans in the team.
For Bronfman, the most fun to work in “Handmaid’s Tale” was the variety of artisans."I even had shoemakers," he said.
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Pérez advises spending time as a figurine before becoming a costume designer."You must understand how clothes work on the set," he says."And then become a costume assistant, so you can work with the costume designer and understand the aspects of this activity".
It is also useful to acquire experience working on different types of decorations.In an indie movie, the costume department can be formed by a handful of people, while Bronfman has a 57 team for “The Handmaid’s Tale”.The biggest costume team that has directed May consisted of about 100 collaborators for "Lointed" by Disney.
Once designers are prepared to direct the costume design, it is usually easier to start in a smaller project, Adams said.His first film as a costume designer was the black and white horror tape.The film, which was presented at the Sundance Film Festival in 2016, covered from the 60s to 90, so the locker room was important to mean at what chronological point the story was.
"It was difficult, but really amazing, and fantastic to be able to design my own costumes, even if it was very, very small," he said.
How do you earn money?(And how much money?)
"Minari "'s costume designer, Song, had graduated from the fashion program of Pasadena City College and had achieved a production assistant work in a theater when the costume designer there said without surroundingmoney working on these little stores.
As Song comes from a low -income family, it did not have a financial security network.I had to find out how to earn money, otherwise I couldn't continue doing what he liked.
For years, he was a specialist in Sake at Whole Foods, which provided him with medical insurance and a schedule flexible enough to be able to take free time when he got jobs in movies or television programs.
The goal is to enter the union, designers say, because their members charge more and receive medical insurance and a pension.Costume designers are part of the International Alliance of Theater and Scene Employees.Within the union, there are two costume guilds: the 892, Costume Designers Guild, which includes the costume designers, the assistants of costume designers and the illustrators, and the 705 local, Motion Picture Costumers, which includes the peoplewhich is on the set, as well as those who build the costumes or keep them.
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Another reason why Pérez recommends newcomers to enter the industry through a trade, instead of a costume assistant work, is the salary difference.
As a production assistant, you are likely to win the minimum wage in a day of 10 to 12 hours without benefits, he said.(Production attendees are not part of the union).However, a basic level costume assistant in the union will earn between $ 30 and 45 per hour.And the customists usually work between 60 and 70 hours a week, so there are many extra hours.
"You are going to earn four times more money as a customist than you would have earned as a personal assistant, and you continue making contacts and knowing the same people," he says.
Some other rapid breakdown, according to Pérez:
But in general, costume designers usually charge less than other department leaders, and the guild advocates salary equality.
"It is because" women's job is considered, "says May.“Despite how important it is for the screen, costume designers have been ignored in some ways.We have always been paid less ”.
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How is this race different from 10 or 25 years ago?
Instagram has become a powerful tool so that aspiring costume designers show their creative personality online.May says that when he hires someone, he looks at his social networks.Pérez encourages costume designers to create a brand, because they can take advantage of their name to obtain greater remuneration.
Schools also offer a more relevant teaching today.20 years ago there were fashion design programs, says May, but less of them were specifically dedicated to the costume design for cinema and television.Now, many of the best film and fashion schools include costume design programs.
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What advice always listen to professionals that is wrong?
Although it is good to be proactive, Bronfman believes that one of the biggest mistakes that young people see is to launch a job for which they are not prepared.
"They accept the work and fail loudly in it," he says.“You have to be good, because people speak, and it will be difficult for you to hire you next time, if you can keep that job.Because having so much pressure, if you are not good, they replace you immediately ”.
Carothers was 21 when he accepted a job for which he was not completely qualified, and said they continued to fire her but continued to come back.In retrospect, he believes that the only reason he left with his was because the person who hired her was also inexperienced, and was finally fired.His boss was replaced by designer Karen Perry, who took Carothers under his tutelage.
"I skipped all the rules, I got out of my lane, I spoke out of place, I gave my opinion when they did not ask me," Carothers revealed."And finally, Karen took me out of the test and said:‘ There is something of you that I like, but if you don't shut up and learn ... 'and then I shut up.And I learned ".
What would be good advice?
Trust that your unique origin is an advantage
For "Never Have I Ever", Pérez hired a young graduate of the Los Angeles Fashion Design and Fashion Institute, Ammaarah Jalal, as assistant to costume production.Although he has been buying in Crafts for decades, touring the boutiques with an Indian-American designer was a totally different experience, he said.
"It's great for someone from that culture to help you," he said.“Yes, you can read all the books you want.But she was someone who could say: ‘Well, this is what my aunt would take.This is what my mother would wear ’".
For "Minari", Song investigated a lot about how South Korean immigrants dressed in the United States in the 80s, but could also resort to their instincts and family history.He understood that a low -income Korean family would continue to want to dress well and that children's clothes would be more Americanized.For the character of the immigrant mother, Monica, opted for a light blue polyester blouse with a polka dot, because she reminded a suit that her mother kept in her dressing room for a long time."I remember that, as a child, I pulled that skirt," he said.
"That's why you have to bring new blood to the industry," said Pérez."You learn from them".
Tell all your acquaintances that you want to be a costume designer
"Talk about it all the time for people to know what your professional goal is," Pérez recommended."You never know who is at a party, who is in a store".
When she worked in retail trade, a costume designer entered her assistant, and Pérez heard her talk about needing help to sew.When they came to pay, he mentioned that he had heard his conversation and that he knew how to sew.
"I worked for her for two years...Because I had the value of saying: "Hey, I have heard that you need someone," he said."Speech.Don't harass people, but talk ".
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Be humble
"Do not let your ego get in the way of a job you could get," Song suggested.After working in ads and a small feature film, he got a costume designer job in a large -budget film that allowed him to travel to Russia, Romania and Greece.And although it was a glamorous job, when he returned, he had no other chance.
He had the opportunity to be a production assistant for a day in a universal project to cover someone, and a part of it did not want to be an assistant.But he had a good feeling on work, it seemed to fit well, so he accepted it and ended up doing some important relationships.
"In a way, I had to take two or three steps back to take a big step forward in my career," he said.
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