My love for all things dance

I first witnessed ballet was when I was seven years old. My mother had taken me to see the Sadlers Wells Ballet perform Les Sylphides in London, and I was instantly mesmerized! Little did I know at the time that I would become a professional dancer, and then later transition to a costume designer.

That's not me in the photo. I just like the picture!

I never lost my love of dance and dancers. I know how hard it is to train, to become really good, and how short a ballet career will most likely be. Dancers of any age speak a common language, a language of sore muscles, intense and disciplined training, and the pure joy of artistic expression through movement.

In fact, it was my experience as a dancer that got me my first costuming job. I met one of the producers of Ann-Margret's lavish Las Vegas act, who was looking for someone to co-ordinate the 12 dancers' and 6 singers' costumes for her show. I thought I didn't know anything about costumes, only having worn them, never having made them, but the brilliant producer said I must understand what dancers need, and so gave me the job! That was what started it all.

Through Ann-Margret, I met Bob Mackie and became his assistant for the lavish Las Vegas show "Jubilee," and once again found myself costuming dancers. During rehearsals, I even took class with them from time to time if I wasn't busy downstairs in the wardrobe department. 

Leigh Taylor Young in Passions"

Many years later, while designing the show Passions, I had an unusual experience with actress Leigh Taylor Young. It turned out we had a unique connection from the past. She asked me, "Were you ever a student at the National Ballet School in Toronto?" I was surprised at the question, as that wasn't something that was in my bio. It turns out that she was also a ballet student there, a couple of years younger, and "looked up" to me, one of the "older" students at age fourteen!

From ballet to Broadway to ball gowns in Hollywood. Who would have thought!

Here is what makes me happy this week:

• A brilliant series on Netflix called "Unbelievable" with three gifted actresses in the leading roles: Toni Collette, Merritt Wever, and Kaitlyn Dever. It blew me away! It's based on a true story and was written and directed with such subtlety and authenticity that I couldn't stop watching. 
• The anticipation of going to see Swan Lake at the Smith Center on Saturday, yes, the full-length version, performed by the Nevada Ballet Company. I haven't seen the classic in many years, but it played a critical role in my early life. I made my professional ballet debut in Act 4 of Swan Lake at the age of 15, with the National Ballet Company of Canada.
• The nearly perfect Las Vegas October weather. I do love our sunshine! Never too much for me.
• Chatting with my former co-author, Gloria Lintermans, after a long spell of not being in touch. We wrote a book called Retro Chic in 2003 and had a great time doing it.
• Getting two more chapters edited and added to the master manuscript of my upcoming book, and the expectation of finishing the last two chapters by the weekend. Then it's off to an agent who has expressed interest in reading it.
• And of course, ice cream. Always ice cream.

What is my favorite color?

People often ask me what my favorite color is. That’s a tough one. It reminds me of when I asked my mother, who was the favorite of her children, my brother, my sister or me? Of course, I was hoping it would be me! But she said, “I love you all very much, but I love you each differently.” And so it is with color.

If I’m in the Caribbean looking out at the crystal clear water, I am sure my favorite color is aqua. But then in the spring, when I look at my Palo Verde tree covered in bright yellow blossoms, I think it must be yellow.

But I must say I am partial to a red dress!

There are a couple of iconic red dresses that are burned vividly and indelibly into my brain, never to fade. One was designed by the wonderful Aggie Guerard Rodgers for “The Color Purple” (for which she was nominated for an Oscar Award). It was worn by Whoopi Goldberg as “Celie,” and in the scene, she was running along the road towards her house. An ominous gray sky was behind her, which made the dark red dress become so much more intense as it swirled around her, and the whole mood felt intense and slightly dangerous.

The very first costume I designed for a major client was red and was for Ann-Margret. It was for a disco number (yes, disco..... this was a while back!) for her big nightclub act at Caesars Palace, and later the number was used on a TV special. I had already designed the outfits for the male dancers, and now I got to create a dress for the star. The first time she emerged on stage wearing my red dress was a moment I will never forget!

But if I am to define red, in a perfect world, it would be a beaded gown by Giorgio Armani on exhibit in Rome at a retrospective of the fashion designer’s work. I was in Rome on holiday and read about the Armani exhibit mounted at the ancient Roman Baths of Diocletian.

We entered the exhibit, and the first cavernous room was exceedingly dark. I wondered who would be so perverse as to not light an exhibit so one could see it! But as our eyes gradually adjusted, we could begin to see display cases of the designer’s subtly colored and understated daywear emerging from the shadows. The shapes were uncluttered, slightly androgynous, and executed in his “greige” palette. But then we entered the next room, also dark. A single spotlight mounted up high shone onto a red beaded gown, and I gasped. The way our eyes had adjusted to the dim light in the previous room must have accentuated the brilliance of this dress. To me, it was the essence of red. The ultimate red. I shall never forget it.

Women in TV, Film, and (why not) everywhere!

As I work on my book (and yes, I have only 7 more chapters on which to do a substantial re-write and edit!), I think how lucky I have been to be able to pursue a career that I wanted. It wasn’t always so easy for women to choose anything that excited them and go for it.

I have been lucky in my life that I was born into a family where I had many strong women as role models. My paternal step-grandmother was a judge, a mayor, and was, in general, a no-nonsense kind of woman! My great aunt was an obstetrician, one of the first females to graduate in the early 1900’s with a medical degree. There was also a distant cousin who was an Arctic explorer in the early 1900s! So it never occurred to me that I couldn’t do whatever I wanted because I was a woman. It just never entered my mind.

 In high school, most of my classmates were going on to be either nurses or teachers. It seemed a pretty limited selection to me, but I already knew I was going to be a dancer, so what did I care?

 By the early 1970’s I was living in Los Angeles, and it’s not to say that there weren’t obstacles to overcome as a woman. It was difficult at that time, if not downright impossible, for a woman to buy a house without a father or husband to co-sign. Can you imagine! Do you remember Edith Bunker trying to get a loan at the bank? The 1970s were a tumultuous time with all sorts of reexamination of women’s rights going on, and women such as Gertrude Stein, and Erica Jong and Germaine Greer drawing attention. And of course, the demand for equal rights and the sexual revolution changed so much in how we could lead our lives. It was an intoxicating period, with the promise of greater freedom and power!

 And as I started my transition to my career in costume design, many of the top television producers, stars, designers were women. Think Murphy Brown, Designing Women, and Gilmore Girls. The very first producer who took a chance on me, hiring me for The Facts of Life, was a woman, and many of the producers (and a few directors) I worked for in television subsequently were women, including Penny Marshall, Yvette Lee Bowser, Irma Kalish, and Lisa De Cazotte.

 I still believe that it’s important not to feel that you are coming from behind, but that you are starting from the same start line, and that excellence in what you do is the thing that will propel you forward. Not nepotism, not cronyism, not anything but commitment and talent and passion. Call me naive or an optimist, but I’d like to think even men wouldn’t be dumb enough to ignore someone who is really really really good at what they do!

COMING FULL CIRCLE, BACK TO MY SEWING ROOTS!

During my costume designing career, often I have been asked if I sew all my costumes. It always bothered me a bit, because it assumed that a designer has to sit at the sewing machine turning out hundreds of costumes a show might need as well as designing them, meeting with the actors, going to production meetings etc. It is like asking an architect if he constructs all his own buildings!

However, I am now in the process of making a number of costumes for a musical groups’s new show, and to my surprise, I am loving it! I have put in far more hours than my fee would suggest but I don’t mind in this instance, because I am having so much fun! I sit up in my second floor office, which has windows on two sides and a view of Mt Charleston to the west, and sew away on my sturdy little workhorse Singer sewing machine. In the evening I sit downstairs on the sofa and hand sew, trying not to leave the tell-tale sequins scattered on the floor. (Sticky rollers are brilliant for getting up sequins!)

For thirty odd years working as a costume designer for stage, film and TV, I have sewn little more than a few throw pillows and hems and minor alterations on my own clothes. I have relied on the fully professional and divinely talented people in my costume workrooms who look at my sketches and miraculously turn them into fully realized costumes. They make the patterns, turn out a “muslin” sample for my approval, cut the fabric, assemble it, and put in those pesky zippers. Then, once the fitting is done, they make the adjustments, and add the beading or trim, and do the final hand finishing. One of the great joys of costume design is seeing one’s creation go from my imagination to sketch to finished product on the actor!

I started hand sewing at an early age, growing up in England. All little girls were taught to sew, and we had a class where the teacher would read to us while we did our embroidery. When I was 8 years old I won my first prize for embroidery!

Later, during my teen years in Canada, I went to a summer course at the Singer Sewing Machine center, realizing that I could get more clothes to wear if I learned to make them myself.

During my Broadway career (as a dancer and actress) I used to sew many of my own clothes, inspiring my friends to ask me to make clothing for them. I even had a line of dresses that I took around to the various theaters on Broadway for the dancers and singers to look at and buy. 

Once relocated to Los Angeles to pursue my acting career, I supported myself in-between gigs with making patchwork dresses and skirts, also quilts and pillows which I sold to interior decorators, private clients, and at outdoor craft shows.

Eventually my career morphed from performing to costuming. My first job was co-ordinating the costumes for Ann-Margret’s nightclub act, dealing with the many costumes for the dancers and singers. When I worked up the nerve to ask if I could design a dress for Ann-Margret herself, guess who sewed it....ME!  I remember many a night struggling away to make it fit, make it perfect, even adding the rhinestones myself.

So, flash forward to my professional costume design career for TV series and films....no sewing! I remember fondly the many wonderful women and men who made my designs come to life. And now, I am happy sitting upstairs sewing away, trying to do as good a job as they did.

DREAM BIG, FORGET THE SAFE LIFE!

In two weeks I will be going to the airport to pick up a young lady I have never met, a young woman who sought me out via email a couple of years ago. She grew up in Turkey, and now lives and works in Germany. She told me about her dreams of designing costumes, even though she is highly educated and accomplished in the field of politics and international relations. I do not know her design talents, but I do know that if she wants a costume career as badly as she seems to, I should encourage her to give it a try. So I did.

She has saved up enough money,taken some classes, got her visa, and is coming to intern with me for a couple of weeks and look into further longer lasting internship possibilities.

She has said in her emails that no-one else has encouraged her but me, so when I read Xazmin Garza’s column in todays Las Vegas Review Journal, I thought of her. Below is an excerpt of Garza's column:

Everyone has a dream somewhere along the line. Dreamers just dare to keep having them well after society expects them to stop. There’s a reason the question “what do you want to be” always ends with “when you grow up.” We equate dreaming with immaturity. 

......To go after something beyond standard goals — 10 fingers and 10 toes, a corner office, the lifestyle that comes with the Champagne that comes with the car — requires bravery. Not just for what might be sacrificed to do it, but for all the naysayers who will inevitably be encountered along the way.

It’s also Father’s Day today, so I am grateful to both my parents (both long gone) for allowing me to dream big. It wasn’t always easy for them, I don’t think, as my dreams of a showbusiness career did not guarantee me a nice stable and possibly affluent lifestyle in the city where I grew up, surrounded by family and friends. But they didn’t stop me when I flew off to Boston the day after I wrote my last exam for my BA, to audition as a dancer for the “My Fair Lady” National Company and, as it turns out, never to live at home again.

So Mum and Dad, thanks so much for letting me go, letting me dream. And I’ll write more about my intern in a few weeks. I hope to be part of her realizing her dreams.

Costume design for Sci Fi, who knew!

I am currently spending many hours at my desk preparing for my first ever three hour seminar on Costuming for Film and TV, which is being presented on April 13th at UNLV. (see link at bottom for more information).

The first hour will be film clips from some of my favorite films from various genres, starting with period (Marie Antoinette), then moving to more recent periods such as the 1940’s (42, the movie about Jackie Robinson) and the 70’s (Argo). We’ll also look at a number of contemporary films such as Silver Linings Playbook, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Then I am turning to Sci Fi and fantasy films, and oh what a revelation for me! Confession alert: I am so not a fan of sci fi and rarely see those films. I love films rooted in reality, so even if a movie starts off looking “real”, the moment weird creatures start flying in, I’m out!

No judgement here. It’s just my taste, my preference. So I have surprised myself in discovering how fascinated and impressed I am with the work of sci fi costume designers. As I research films like Tron, Prometheus, After Earth, and more, I realize how much goes into coming up with the looks. As one costume designer I saw interviewed said: “sci fi is the last place where you completely rely on your imagination. Period films can be largely rented, contemporary films can be largely shopped, but in sci fi you create a costume from scratch.”

I am learning that these costumes more than many others require extensive collaboration with the director, production designer and art department, props, lighting, and special effects, as everyone together tries to create a brand new world. Sci fi designers have to deal far more with technology, and can discover and use materials that you don’t usually think of as materials for a costume. 

One designer commented that in over 60 years of Oscar Awards, less than 10% of Best Costume Design nominations have been for futuristic costumes. John Mollo’s designs for Star Wars won one back in 1977, but normally the heavily ornamented period costumes of “corset dramas” usually garner not only the nominations, but also the wins. This year Jacqueline Durran won for Anna Karenina, last year the 1920’s costumes of The Artist, and Elizabeth The Golden Age, The Duchess, and The Young Victoria, all won in the recent past.

So I have a renewed respect for the imaginative and innovative work of the sci fi costume designers. Bravo!

https://connect2.unlv.edu/costuming

www.dianaedendesigns.com

MY LAS VEGAS

I feel a real kinship with Las Vegas, my city of residence since 2008, as it has figured largely in my professional and personal life through 5 decades. 

My association with Las Vegas starts in the 1960's (yes, I was alive in the ‘60‘s!) when, as a very young dancer, I came through the town on the train with the My Fair Lady company, on our way to Los Angeles. It was 2 am and the train stopped on the tracks downtown. I don’t remember a station, though I know there was one.  From our part of the train, we descended into a dirt lot, which we ran across, then crossed a street, and into a casino, what must have been the Hotel California. We had 30 minutes to put our quarters in the slot machines, something I had never seen, before we had to run back across the dirt lot to the train! It all seemed very strange and exotic and somewhat wicked!

I didn't return until the early 1970's when I got my first job in costumes, hired to co-ordinate the dancers’ wardrobe for Ann-Margret's nightclub act at the Hilton International, and then at Caesars. It was one of the highly successful acts of the time with dancers, singers, scenery and costumes galore, a live 30 piece orchestra on stage, and the best production talent around. Elvis Presley used to send Ann-Margret flowers on opening night in the shape of a guitar!   My first professional design was a dress for Ann-Margret that she wore in the TV special "CInderella at the Palace". 

Through Ann-Margret I met Bob Mackie, and my costume career really got underway. In 1980 I returned to Las Vegas for a 2 month stint, staying at the MGM Grand, as assistant to Bob Mackie as we prepared to open Jubilee, (the same show currently running). I was on the eleventh floor when I was awakened by the sound of running feet in the hall and people calling out, and I emerged into the hall to find it full of smoke.  I grabbed my purse, pulled on a sweat suit, and hurried down 11 flights of fire escape stairs emerging into the street, and started to look for my colleagues. The smoke was black and racing up the side of the hotel. Huge helicopters from Nellis AFB were hovering, trying to blow the smoke away from the rescue teams. Police cars, fire engines, news media were starting to arrive amid the chaos. I was barefoot and my feet were freezing until a man stopped and offered me his sneakers, a size 13! I wore them the rest of that day.

There were 14 of us Jubliee costumers from Los Angeles staying at the MGM for the great fire. Sadly, only 13 of us survived. I will never forget that day, nor the kindness of strangers who tried to help us. 

I returned many times in 1981 as we pulled out the ruined costumes from under the stage, led by firemen with flashlights, as there was still no power. We rebuilt the show in Los Angeles, and returned in July to re-do all the fittings, staying at Maxims across the street. 

In the early 80’s, Las Vegas still was small. You could cross Las Vegas Boulevard directly (no overpasses), there was no freeway, we ate at a little dive called The Tower of Pizza. The desert was near. The airport was very small. I don’t even remember noticing the mountains all around...the focus was all on the Strip.

I returned during the 80's now and then to work on shows (such as Splash, at the Riviera) but I wasn't prepared for the change when I returned in the late 80's. The airport had exploded! By this time I was working full time as a costume designer for TV series and films in Hollywood, and occasionally came up to Las Vegas to shoot on location. In 2003 we bought our first house here, and so when my husband and I were ready to make a semi-retirement move, Las Vegas already felt like home.

Since moving here in 2008 I am experiencing Las Vegas in a whole new way. I love looking at the mountains on all four sides of the valley, and in winter I love observing  the snow capped peaks of Mt Charleston out my second floor office window. I hike with friends year round at Red Rock, Lake Mead, or Mt Charleston, and I have discovered all sorts of unique little neighborhoods. In the north part of town where we live, sometimes I come across a small ranch with barns and horses, completely surrounded by new housing developments. I even enjoy hearing the trains that still travel down that same track that I travelled so long ago. There is still a flavor here and there of the old West, ranch life, desert life, mixing with the sophisticated elements of the Strip restaurants, shops and shows.

I visit the Strip quite often (more often than many full-time residents) to attend events, shows, parties, and to work, shop or eat. It’s only 15 minutes away! As I exit the freeway at Flamingo I pass Caesars, where so much happened for me professionally 30 years ago, and the huge bill board for Jubilee, which played was such a pivotal role in my life. I even pass by the fire escape door where I exited the MGM into the cold daylight on Flamingo Blvd. that fateful morning.

Old Vegas, New Vegas, there’s a part of my in all its parts, and I am happy about that.

WORKING WITH PENNY MARSHALL

I just saw Penny Marshall on The Today Show, and I have ordered her book. Can’t wait to read it!

I had the interesting experience (and yes, I would say, the pleasure) of working with her in 1992 when I was hired to costume design the TV series A League of Their Own. The movie had been a huge hit, and the TV series was the hot ticket - everyone in Holllywood wanted to be involved.

A man I had previously worked with on several other series was producing it and set up a time for me to come in and meet with Penny. She was sitting behind her desk in her huge office at Sony Studios when I entered, and was eating from a large bowl of spaghetti! She apologized, saying she had not had a moment to have lunch, and to please sit down and show her my portfolio. It was a bit disconcerting, and I was nervious. She was so droll! In my nervousness I said that I was experience in the “thirties” costumes that would be needed, and without missing a beat and without looking up she said “forties”. I had nearly blown it! World War 2 story - of course 1940’s costumes!

I started work early before the cast was set, as she wanted me to have enough 40’s clothing to outfit all the actors doing screen tests. Every actress in town wanted to be cast and therefore were so sweet and appreciative of my efforts to make them look the part. Only later when we were well under way filming did the seven “Peaches” girls start to get competitive and fight for rank!

Penny was always droll, both in production meetings and while filmling, and she had her favorites. She was never big with compliments or lots of touchy feely stuff, though I think I would have heard about it if she hadn’t liked what I was doing. She expected top level work from everyone, but didn’t see any need to draw attention to what she thgouht was the norm.  Her brother,  Garry Marshall, on the other hand, was the exact opposite - outgoing, mellow, kind, full of smiles and compliments all around. I reminded him that he had nearly cast me as Gwendolyn PIgeon in the TV series The Odd Couple  some years back (while I was still an actress) and he was kind enough to say I was a wonderful and he wishes I had got the part! He may not even have remembered me, but I didn’t care!

We only filmed 6 episodes, and Penny directed a couple of them. Tom Hanks came in to direct one episode too, though at first I didn’t recognize him, as he had just finished filming Philadelphia, and was still thin and growing his hair back from that Oscar winning performance.

Only two episodes aired, in mid summer. The show got bad ratings, and was plucked off the air. I however, was incredibly honored to still get nominated for my first Emmy  for Best Costume Design for a Series.

THE VALUE OF HAVING A MENTOR

When I was starting my costume design career many years ago, I was very grateful for the guidance and encouragement I received from several “mentors”. Back then, the word “mentor” was not in common use as it is now, but I realize in retrospect that several key people played a very important role in my life.

Bob Mackie is obviously one of THE most important mentors in my life. When I met him, I had already transitioned from my career as a dancer and actress and started my costume career  co-ordinating the dancers and singers wardrobe for Ann-Margret’s big Las Vegas nightclub act in Las Vegas. For you younger readers, she was a huge star at the time, and had all the best musicians, writers, set designers, and of course, famed costume designer Bob Mackie to do all her fabulous costumes and beaded gowns. 

I remember the first time I met Ann-Margret and Roger Smith, her husband and manager. I had been taken to their house in Beverly Hills, up a dirt road off Benedict Canyon where once Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart lived. It was about ten am, but Ann-Margret had slept late. Eventually she came out of her bedroom, hair tousled, no make-up, but warm and gracious. She hugged me and I was astonished at how petite she was. She asked me if I would put a heavy metal zipper in the back of one of her stage beaded gowns so it would be easier in a quick change. Imagine me, replacing the exquisitely hand sewn zipper in a $10,000 Bob Mackie beaded gown with a big metal zipper! What would he Bob Mackie think?

It wasn’t long after that I met him and I guess something about me struck him as, a year or two later he asked me to be his assistant for the Oscar Awards Show 1980, and then Jubilee, opening at the MGM Grand in 1980. This started a life-long connection with one of the best designers in the business, and with a kind and generous man. I did not call him a mentor, I was just his assistant, but I had the opportunity to watch him work at every level of the process - greeting a star when they arrived for a meeting, sketching, designing, choosing fabrics, choosing the best pattern-maker and team of sewers and tailors to execute the design, and most importantly, fitting it on the performer, usually many times. I watched perfectionism at its best.

There simply was no better training ground for me. I watched everything, asked many many questions, and for many years during my career, called for guidance and advice when I got stuck. Even last year, when I requested an hour out of his busy schedule for an interview for a book I am writing, he willingly gave me his time.

I would be remiss not to mention my other mentors, two designers who worked in Bob Mackie’s company, Peter Menefee, whom I assisted for several years, and Ret Turner, who is known and loved by every designing and costumer in Hollywood. 

So why would someone like me be willing to mentor someone at the beginning of their career? Well, one of the obvious answers is that others helped me so much along the way, and it is my turn to help others. 

I had started this blog with the intention of discussing how to find a good mentor and why it is important, and why I like to mentor talented young designers and costumers, but this is running on too long, and I will have to save it for my next post.

In the meantime, you can find out more about my mentoring and training course at my website www.hollywoodmentors.co

ROBERT FLETCHER, famed Costume Designer

For those of you interested in costume design and costume designers, please enjoy this  article I wrote, for the website of the Costume Designers Guild, my "union", local 892, for most of my designing career in Hollywood.

http://costumedesignersguild.com/articles-videos/news-events/

Costume Training! Dance! Olympics!

My attention has been split recently between a lot of exciting things happening!

1.) My www.HollywoodMentors.co online costume training website is finally getting out there! Yesterday I heard from a potential student in Nigeria, as well as getting a number of emails and enquiries. I do hope I will have time enough to help all the interesting and talented people who contact me for help with entering a costume career in TV and film.

2) I was in Los Angeles over the weekend, enjoying a fabulous visit with my former intern from Belarus, who spent a summer with me on "Passions", and who now is a very successful costumer and pattern-maker, working on the TV series "Dexter". We went together to see the Dizzyfeet Celebration of Dance Gala at the Music Center in LA, where we met a number of our favorite choreographers and dancers from my favorite TV show "So You Think You Can Dance", and witnessed some amazing performances from many talented dance professionals in all types of dance. Even though I have been a costume designer for many many years, I started my working life as a dancer, and, you know what they say, "once a dancer, always a dancer"! We came away totally psyched by the positive energy of the wonderful evening, and it took several days to come down from the natural high!

3) Yes, I've been watching the Olympics every night on TV. It's wonderful to see the young athletes pushing themselves to be their very best, physically, emotionally, and mentally. All achievements come with dedication, commitment, occasional heartache, discipline, consistency, some sacrifice, and lots and lots of passion. Be it sport, costume design, or dance.

4.) We have six more days of filming on the Gregory Popovich movie during the month of August! I have two costumes yet to "establish", that of the "Voice of the American West", an iconic cowboy-for-al-times look, and one for "Johnny Fantastic", a mix between a ringmaster and an old Western medecine man.

Talk again soon. Got to get back to the Olympics.