The creative process

Wallfish has an elaborate creative process for designing the final costume. After receiving the show’s script, she reads through it once without making any notes. Next, she re-reads the script and takes notes about the time period, location and descriptors of the characters. She then does visual research for costume design and worldbuilding. After meeting with the director and discussing a shared vision for the production, she begins creating quick gesture drawings which will later become the final renderings.

Moore has a similar process involving an analysis of the script, in-depth historical research and designing the final image. She prefers to use a collage technique to create the final renderings of costumes.

Moore implements the historical research into the design but also likes to break away from historical conventions, updating costumes based on a liberal interpretation of the text. Evidence of Moore’s intermingling of historical fact and creative exploration can be seen in Blood Wedding, the Wirtz show she was the costume designer for during Winter Quarter.

The wedding dress is a black Victorian lace gown, as described in the original play. The black color is the traditional style of wedding gowns from Andalusia, Spain, the region where the story takes place. Moore maintained the Victorian style in the angular neckline but modernized the rest of the dress. She formed lines in the skirt of the dress to mimic the Art Deco style of the 1930s, which is when the play was written.

Staging for shows can also create unique challenges for costume designers. In Indecent, all performers remain on stage and visible to the audience the entire time. Each actor plays multiple roles throughout the play and has numerous costume changes that have to occur while on stage.

“We’re actually using a lot of magnets for this show because it’s much faster than velcro or snaps,” Wallfish says. “It’s much easier for the actress to get it right.”

Before coming to Northwestern, Kress had the opportunity to design costumes for community organizations that put on shows for prisoners. The prison environment posed a creative challenge; security limited many common items from being brought into the prison, such as sneakers.

“There’s few things you can bring in there, so the whole world has to be basically on their bodies,” Kress says. “You have to do all the world-building kind of involved in the clothes, and we still got to be super creative.”

This process of adapting to different environments, audiences, director’s suggestions and more poses a creative challenge that requires designers to be open to constant change and not become too attached to their first rendering.

“Costume design is an expression of art, and I love myself as an artist,” Kress says. “Maybe one day, I’ll want to express that in a different way, and that’s an openness to change that I hope to continue to foster here.”