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So the only other thing is the hem. As a costumer designer, you have to like
people. You have to have a sense of humor.
And you have to have a certain amount of tenacity.
And the fourth thing that you have to have is a little bit of luck.
[MUSIC][MUSIC]
Hi, I'm Carrie Robbins. I'm a costume designer for the theater.
Welcome, to my world. I love to draw and I love telling
stories, I love the theater. The process of design begins for me
getting the job. You get the phone call.
If it's a play you're going to want to read it, maybe a couple times if you have
time. if it's a, an opera you're going to want
to hear it if you don't already know it. If it's a dance piece, whatever they can
show you, you're going to talk to the choreographer.
In the White Christmas we had to make a...
Turquoise paisley because we had two ladies wearing identical sisters dresses.
[MUSIC] This dress is near and dear to all of our hearts.
It's a simple blue paisley, a kind of blue green.
We found ten yards. The dress takes many more than ten yards.
The ruffles alone take an awful lot of stuff, it's just very dense.
And, if you White Christmas and the famous sisters' number, there's two of
them. And we were doing three companies, so
there was six of them. So we needed upwards of 75 yards, and we
ended up with no other option but to make it.
We made it in the computer, which gave us the chance to actually print it on the
kind of fabric we wanted. So this is a silk chiffon, this is
actually a different kind of a silk satin.
it's a satin chiffon. It's still sheer, but has a little a
little more body, so the ruffles could be a little bit more perky.
And then we were able to actually glue these little sparkly stones on top.
From a distance it's really very magical. When the girls move, you catch these
little, little tiny bits of light. This is, a Bible, we call it that because
it's the most valuable organizational tool that we have.
This is a very rough sketch that I was trying to explain the way ruffles go on
to the dress, this kind of wave pattern, and here is the shop, trying to reproduce
that from me. This is the special fabric that we had
printed and another sample of it. And the bible gives us all of the
information, where we got the fabric, how much the fabric cost, the trimming or
detailing. This is a xerox of the button we used.
So that we have a full record. And if you should have a hit, and if you
should be so lucky as to reproduce it, this is the tool you use to reproduce it.
We make costumes so that they will last for eight shows a week, and I'm sure the
producers would like those to go a year. So you multiply that out.
Now, depending on what the actor slash dancer is doing in the costume and how
long he's in it, it might not make it a year.
We do, do replacements, but we make it much firmer it's stronger, it often has
an entire enterior to it, which can absorb sweat, that takes the edge and
protects the more, more fragile fabrics on the outside.
This is a a dance dress for a big dance number that our dancing lead has and
we're very lucky it has three different layers of shades.
It's an old trick, she does a lot of twirling.
She does a lot of what we call Spanish section.
>> Oh, well that's beautiful.
>> So the colors were very important.
>> Great.
>> What I'm doing in the fitting is I'm
making a sort of final adjustments by, by looking in the mirror to give myself some
distance to, to give me a sense of the person in the audience looking up.
We are so close to being done, it looks fabulous, it really does.
And when you twirl around it's going to be stunning, yeah.
Oh see so pretty.
>> Yeah, that's pretty.
>> It's very nice. I, I don't think we can do better.
>> [LAUGH]
>> It's a dress to dance in, right?
>> that's what it is.
[MUSIC]