Sometimes people think I am putting on airs when I insist on being called my proper title of costume designer. I do not want to be called The Wardrobe Person, any more than the DP wants to be called the lighting guy, or the Production Designer wants to be called the set boy. I don’t “do wardrobe”.
I know where it comes from and it is not a conscious slight. Film makers start out in student or low budget films, where actors bring in their own wardrobe, and whatever else is needed is begged, borrowed, or purchased from the thrift store by whoever is available.
So why then would the person who does this at this level think he or she deserves the title of “costume designer”? Because at whatever level, an artist deserves to be called the correct title of his or her job. The director is still called the director, the DP is still called the DP, not matter how humble the project. So should it go for all the departments. Producer. Editor. Composer. Casting director. Costume designer.
There are some common misconceptions about what costume designers do, especially when it comes to contemporary films or TV shows. It is easy to picture hiring a costume designer if you are making a period film based on the life and times of Henry VIIIth, or even a sci-fi film with some weirdly dressed creature from the future. But for a contemporary film with just people wearing “normal clothes”?
Yes, you will benefit from hiring a costume designer. Because what a costume designer does is take care of one huge aspect of the final visual project. He or she, after conferring with the producer, director, and production designer, will co-ordinate the gathering of all clothing to be worn, whether borrowed from actors, rented, purchased, or sewn from scratch. That person will co-ordinate the color palette, so that no two actors wear the same colors in a scene, or something that clashes with the set decoration. He or she will make sure the clothing fits, is clean and ready to shoot, is there on the day of the shoot, and is multiplied in case of stunts. The director should not be worrying about the wardrobe when he is setting up his shots. The actor should be concentrating on his or her lines and not wondering if the suit he brought fits right, looks right. Even on a low budget film, having a costume designer on board to take care of everything can still be an advantage. Obviously on a big budget film, it is a full blown necessity.
Some other misconceptions:
“I don’t need a designer, its just shopping”. In that case, you don’t need a production designer or set designer. They do the same thing - take something that already exists, and through the addition of paint, furniture, set dressing, etc, which is also “just shopped”, creates the look for the scene. It all takes the training and the artistic eye to do “the shopping” and then to assemble it to create an entirely new set or costume.
When is it wardrobe and when is it a costume? Again, people sometimes think it is pompous to call a contemporary outfit such as a pair of jeans and a t-shirt a costume. But that it is, especially if time and care has been taken to purchase and fit the exact right jeans and t-shirt, and to age them so that they look like they are suitable for the action - brand new? aged and old? comfortably worn? recently laundered? covered with mud or blood from a recent fight? It is wardrobe when the various pieces are just items of clothing. It is a costume the moment they go on an actor, are fit, approved, aged, and turned over to the care of the costumer for the run of the shooting schedule. That’s a costume, and I am so happy to be a costume designer!
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