1st Edition
The Costume Designer's Toolkit The Process of Creating Effective Design
The Costume Designer’s Toolkit explores the wide-ranging skills required to design costumes for live performance in theatre, dance, opera, and themed entertainment. Arranged in chronological order to create a design, each chapter describes tools, strategies, and techniques costume designers use to create lively and believable characters within a story environment. The book provides a step-by-step outline of the costume design process beginning with developing as an artist and creating an artistic vision for a script. It covers a wide range of topics, including:
- Assessing the scope of a production
- Understanding design thinking and the creative process
- Project management and budget forecasting
- Collaborating with and leading creative teams
- Current practices in costume rendering and communication
- Mixing purchased, rented, stock, and built costumes to form a design
- Designing a garment with impact
- Fitting costumes on performers
- Combining grit and grace for a successful career
Each topic includes case studies and tips from experienced professionals, identifies vital skills, describes techniques, and reveals the essential elements of artistic leadership, collaboration, and cultural acumen.
The Costume Designer’s Toolkit is the perfect guidebook for the student, aspiring, or early-career costume designer, to be used alone or in costume design university courses.
Part 1: The Designer’s Tools 1. What the Costume Designer Brings to a Production 2. Collaborative Creativity 3. Design Elements Create a Picture 4. Color Creates Emotions 5. Design Principles Create Meaning 6. Fabrics Create Definition Part 2: A Designer Prepares 7. Getting Paid: All that Glitters... 8. Script, Plot, and Story 9. The Mechanics of a Script 10. Characters Engage the Audience 11. The Story Unfolds on a Stage Part 3: A Designer Explores 12. Generating Ideas 13. Adding Authenticity with Research Part 4: Concept Development 14. The Design Approach 15. Designing the Character Costume 16. Communicating the Costume Design Part 5: Feasibility 17. Defining the Scope of a Show 18. Budgeting Creative Projects 19. Leading Teamwork Part 6: Production 20. Pull it Together: Sourcing and Organizing Costumes 21. Styling Menswear 22. Meet Your Maker: Made-to-Order Costumes 23. Accessories and Costume Props 24. Hair and Makeup Design Part 7: Evaluate 25. Preparing for Fittings 26. Fitting Garments 27. The Rehearsal Period Part 8: Refine the Vision 28. Dress Rehearsals Part 9: Opening and Epilogue 29. Design Documentation 30. Growing Your Art Appendix – Sample Resume
Biography
Holly Poe Durbin is an award-winning costume designer for theater, opera, independent film, and themed entertainment. She has collaborated with notable actors such as Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson, William Shatner, Martin Short, and Tessa Thompson to create engaging characters. She has worked internationally, on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and in regional theaters around the US including the South Coast Repertory, the Old Globe Theatres, Mark Taper Forum, St. Louis Repertory, Cincinnati Playhouse, Portland Center Stage, Shakespeare Center LA, and Playmakers Repertory in North Carolina. She was the costume director for the Center Theater Group in Los Angeles and is the head of costume design studies at the University of California Irvine.
