THE POWER OF RED!

When I was watching the Emmy Awards recently,  every time a gown made an impression on me, it was a red dress! See Kerry Washington, Lea Michele, Sofia Vergara, and  Kate Winslet. I guess I just love red dresses.

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 grey 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.  I’ve often wondered if Aggie just got lucky that day with the weather - would it have been as dramatic on a day with blue sky and sunshine?

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 design a dress for the star. The first time she emerged on stage wearing my 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.

Most of the time, especially in film, costume designers’ clothing for the actor should be so organic to the actors character that you are unaware of it. But once in a while, a costume is so dynamic to the moment that it lives in one’s memory forever.

For online costume training, visit me at http://hollywoodmentors.co

STARS IN THEIR UNDERWEAR: WHAT REALLY GOES ON IN A WARDROBE FITTING!

I must say, as a costume designer for primarily contemporary films and television, I LOVE what goes on in the fitting room. It is where the actor and I find the character. Together.

By the time I meet the actor, I’ve already talked to the producer and found out what he/she wants (“don’t spend too much”), I’ve talked to the director about the concept, and I’ve talked to  the production designer about the palette.

I’ve done the research, I’ve let it all brew together in my subconscious creative center. I’ve done the shopping, renting, sketching, and now the actor is coming in for a fitting. 

I set up the room with the mirror, good lighting, lots of pins and tags, and the selection of clothing that at this point is just “wardrobe”. With the actor, it will become a costume.

After the initial introductions and small talk, there will be that awkward pause, as the actor realizes he or she must undress and stand before me, near naked and at his most vulnerable. (Does my butt look big? Are my tits sagging? Did I wear clean underwear?)Some actors are totally comfortable “dropping trou” and getting ready to try on clothes. Others are more hesitant, as often it is the very first time they have met me. So at this point, I have to make a decision. Do I step  out of the room? Do I busy myself filling out a tag or looking at my notes? 

Often I just say “are you comfortable with me in the room?”. After years of experience, I can usually sense when I need to step out. I usually do so for really senior actors (even though often they are the most cavalier), for actors whose bodies might cause them to be self conscious, and for cerrtain ethnicities. I actually learned the hard way from an Indian actress who wouldn’t undress in front of me - she told me a woman of her culture would never disrobe in front of another woman.  And I ALWAYS step out if it is a child, as I expect them to have their parent or guardian with them.

Then the fun begins. We try on clothes. I have already brought in the clothes that I think will help them find the character, but I can never tell until it actually goes on the body and the actor “inhabits” it. I try and limit the number of “opinions” in the room, discouraging comments from assistants, girlfriends, agents, etc, so that I can carefully guide the actor into the outfit that I think works perfectly. They need to trust me, and I, in turn, need to earn their trust. I never tell an actor they look good if they don’t. If something is really looking awful on them, I make it my fault saying “damn, take that off, what was I thinking bringing that in”. I also know not to say “OMG, you have such a hot body!”, even though I might be thinking it!

Eventually I can tell from the most subtle of body language that the actor is starting to feel right in the clothing. Now it is beginning to become a costume. Now all is left is to do the alterations that make it perfectly adjusted for their body, photograph them in the wardrobe to send over for approval from the director or producer, make tags and notes for scene numbers and voila, we have a costume!

If the actor turns to me and says “i didn’t really find the character until I put on this costume”, you will find me beaming from ear to ear, as I have done my job.

Being out of your comfort zone is good for a career.

I am around young people a lot in my role as costume designer for independent films, videos, commercials etc and in my role as a mentor, and I am often reminded how terrifying “first times” can be in a career, especally at the start of a new job, a new film, a new anything that requires you to work in your chosen profession and risk failing. 

But risk-taking is essential for moving forward in a career. When I am asked, should I quit my day job and go for full time acting/directing/designing? Should I move to LA? Should I quit the full time dancing gig I have (in the chorus, where I can go no further), and risk everything auditioning for principle roles?..... my answer is always yes! yes! yes! If you are asking the question, then you are ready to take the next step. You must take the next step. If you are too comfortable, you won’t move forward. Somehow the very act of making that scary leap of faith forces you to land on your feet. 

Many years ago, when I was a dancer on Broadway, my friends thought I was crazy for turning down a new job in the long running show “Hello Dolly”, but it was another chorus job and I wanted to act. It took a while, but I eventually got my first acting role as Gendolyn Pigeon in the National Company of “The Odd Couple.” 

Some years later, after five years of being an assistant costume designer, (though an assistant to the very best, Bob Mackie) and wanting to move on,  it took working days as an assitant and nights designing low budget theatre projects for no pay. I often was so exhausted I thought I would die.  But I got my name out there as a costume designer in my own right, which eventually led to my first paid costume designer job on “The Fact of Life”. Flash forward: after I had designed half a dozen TV sitcoms, one producer had the nerve to tell me that I would NEVER get hired for a serious drama or movie, since I was known for sitcoms. I took great delight in proving her wrong! 

The scary times were many. But what I learned is this:

• You never die from exhaustion. You may feel really lousy and think you are going to die, but you don’t.
• You won’t starve. You may get a tiny bit behind on your bills, but you won’t starve.
• You will never get hired for a job that someone doesn’t believe you can do, even if you don’t quite believe it yet yourself.
• You can get through those first frightening days and weeks of a new job if you keep showing up, staying calm, listening and watching, and most of all, believing that each day will get a little easier and you will feel a little more confident. Before long you will feel totally confortable in your position, and before you know it, you’ll want to be out on the edge again!

Remember to check out my online costume training program at http://hollywoodmentors.co

What is Diana Ross really like, really?

One day, the phone rang in my bedroom very early, In fact my husband and I were still in bed asleep. He answered  the phone, and then turned to me wide-eyed, saying “it’s Diana Ross”!!. She was in Atlantic City,  was a week away from embarking on her European tour, and was short one wardrobe assistant. Bob Mackie had recommended me. Could I fly to Atlantic City tomorrow to meet with her?

And so I did. A ticket was sent, a car was waiting to pick me up at the airport, and I was brought directly to meet her backstage where she was appearing at one of the big hotels. Right away it was discovered that both of us having the same first name was not going to work, and since she obviously was not about to change her name, I was asked to quickly choose a name for myself that she could call me. On the spot, what name do you choose? Diane -- too close. Dinah - nah. Beatrice, my middle name? Quaint, but not right. So I settled on “Dee”, and that’s what I became for as long as I worked with her.

People often ask me what Diana Ross is like. The impression often is that she is a grand diva. But that’s not what I saw. I saw someone who was driven to be the very best she could be, but who at the same time was also very protective of her hard earned stardom. She made sure that she enjoyed the best for herself in hotels, dining, clothing, jewelry, private planes and limos. She adored the police escorts she sometimes got leaving a concert and heading for the airport. But she also treated her musicians and crew to the finest in hotels, the best catered meals, and private planes to transport us around. In return she expected 110% from all of us.

There was always a bit of a push-pull dynamic between her and her musicians and crew. She kept the line very clear between her as “The Boss” (in fact, we all had to call her Miss Ross). She was not our pal, our girlfriend, our drinking buddy. Not at all. But at the same time she considered us all her tour family, and took very good care of us.

She insisted on signing all the checks, since she felt that was the only way to keep an eye on and some control of the money. This however, sometimes could be a problem. If she was exhausted from flying around, performing  and doing press,  a huge pile of checks to be signed would pile up, and pay day was sometimes late. 

One concert venue gave me an interesting insight into her. We were playing an old arena (in Hershey Pa.) and the dressing room they had set up for her leaved a lot to be desired. She usually was quite demanding about the privacy, decor, and everything else for her dressing room, but it was obvious that in this particular arena, those usual needs were not going to be met.  I mentioned something in apology, and she said “Oh Dee, I have seen far worse than this in my touring days with the Supremes. If its honestly the best they can do, you just have to go with it”.  I had seldom heard her refer to Motown days or Supreme days, so this was an interesting revelation.

Other than her body guard, I was probably the one who was closest to her for most of the concert. I got to the venue early, was shown the room which would be her dressing room. I organized how it could be draped or reconfigured to meet her needs. I surveyed the food and drink that was ordered for her to make sure nothing was forgotten. I set out her make-up on the table for her, put the shampoo in the bathroom, lined up her shoes. Once we got close to show time, where she was preparing, I was even the gatekeeper! If there was a knock on the door and her musical conductor, Joe Guercio, or her lighting designer Allen Branton wanted to see her, they had to ask me. I would then ask her if she would see them.

I would also set up her quick change areas for those incredibly fast wardrobe changes. Even those had very specific requirements. There had to be four walls and a roof drape for total privacy,  enough light to see well, a good mirror, a chair for her to sit on to make a shoe change, and a pot of hot coffee, which I had to struggle to make the exact right temperature. As she came rushing off stage, I would strip off her gown, and help her into her next gown. The shoes were the worst -usually high strappy sandals which I had to wrap around her ankles and thread through the buckle as fast as I humanly could, fingers shaking or not! Once I did it in record time and without thinking I slapped her on the butt as if to say, go girl! Then I realized what I had done. But she was off and on stage singing, and I don’t think she noticed.

I was also with her at the famed Central Park Concert that got rained out....but I’ll save that for another time. It deserves a post of its own!

And don't forget to visit me at http://hollywoodmentors.co

Late Bloomers and Mentors

One of the things that has inspired me to launch HollywoodMentors.co are the emails I receive from aspring designers who ask me for advice about how to get started in a career in costume design. 

It is not an easy question to answer, as the business is so unique, the locations where one can be a designer so few and far between, and the way in so different for each person. But what I DO know is that it is always possible for those who have the the persistence, perserverence, and down right tenacity to do whatever it takes to get that foot in the door.

I once interviewed several highly successful designers about their career beginnings. Al Wolsky, for example, seven time Oscar nominee, and two time Oscar winner for Bugsy and All That Jazz, started “late”, in his thirties. He had started his professional life as a travel agent, working in his family’s firm, but felt after a while it was not for him. He got a job “picking up pins”, as he puts it, at famed costume workroom Barbara Matera’s. The point is, he was willing to do the lowliest of jobs just to be in the right environment and in a place where he could learn from the best.

I did not start my career in costume deisgn until I was in my thirties. After a number of years dancing in shows on Broadway, followed by another 5 or 6 years touring in national companies as an actress, I moved to Los Angeles and met a man who was looking for someone to coordinate wardrobe for the dancers and singers in Ann-Margret’s Las Vegas nightclub act. I didn’t think I knew much about costumes, but I knew about dancers and their needs and next thing I knew I was flying up to Las Vegas, staying at Caesar’s Palace, and organizing and prepping mulitple outfits for 8 dancers and 4 singers. I was working with Ann-Margret, Roger Smith, and was soon to meet my future mentor, the fabulous costume designer Bob Mackie.

It was never officially called “a mentorship” as I was hired and paid as one of his assitants for the show “Jubilee”.  I can trace every job I have had in the last 25 years to my start with Bob, and just about everything I learned about costumes I learned from him. 

As the saying goes, “ luck is when preparation meets opportunity.” I was one lucky girl! 


More on my costume training at http://hollywoodmentors.co

Thomas Haden Church's fashions on Ned and Stacey

The TV series Ned and Stacey brought me my first fan letter! It was from a guy in New York who just loved the way Thomas Haden Church was dressed and wanted to know where he could buy similar clothing. It was so exciting to know my choices had an impact!

I was hired to costume design the sitcom New and Stacey just days before production started on the first epsidode, and literally one day before TV Guide did the photo shoot for their Fall Preview issue. I talked to Tom by phone and got a sense that he liked the high buttoned jackets and vests he had worn in the pilot. I had one day to race around and gather as many choices as I could - I think I worked 16 hours that day! Then I met with Debra Messing, who immediately looked at the long bias-cut skirt I was wearing and said “Can I wear that?”, so I took it off and lent it to her to wear for the shoot.

That’s how my two seasons with this marvellous show started. Thomas Haden Church and Debra Messing, though totally opposite personalities in reality, were a perfect comedic foil for each other in this crazy sitcom. I had grown tired of designing sitcoms, but this one piqued my interest with its quirky characters, sharp writing, and the opportunity to do something really different in the costume department.

I have to credit Tom for initially creating his look. He in no way wanted the usual sitcom look - the “Seinfield” style - jeans and casual shirts. He wanted Ned to be formally dressed no matter what, buttoned up and wearing a tie, even cooking in his kitchen.Tom is tall and slender, a size 42 long, a perfect figure for male fashion.  I used almost exclusively four button jackets for him (not easy to find), with vests with a very high stance worn underneath. A few were purchased, many were made. Shirts were crisp and with a high collarband where possible, as his neck is long, and his ties were of very stongly colored regimental stripes. Since such a small part of the tie showed, we needed that punch of color.

I was very proud of some of the more daring looks I created for him. I had several wing tipped shirts, usually made only in white for formal wear, made in striped fabrics. I also did a white scarf wrapped around his neck, Beau Brummel style, for a New Years’ Eve formal outfit. One fan wrote and said he was copying the look for his wedding. I was tickled pink when Church was named “One of the Best Dressed Men on Television” by TV Guide, “E” Entertainment, and the Atlanta Journal Constitution by Scott Walton, who declared the sitcom to be “more fashionable than anything else on TV.”

Tom’s humor was dry dry dry! Debra, on the other hand, is funny, outgoing, disorganized, generous, and everything with her was right up front. I went for an eclectic look for her, mixing tops and bottoms together that were flattering but unexpected. She liked a special one-of-a-kind jewelry made by designer Aklia Chinn, which has an exotic ethnic style.(aklias.com/ ) Debra also refused the producers requests to pad up her bras - she saw no need to fall into that cliche. She is her own person.

The two other leads were the darling Greg Germann, whom I had costumed on the drama Sweet Justice, and later co-starred in Ally McBeal,  and Nadia Dajani, who opted for a very New York look. Some of the “unknowns” who had guest starring roles were Megan Mullally (pre-Will and Grace),  Marcia Cross (pre-Desperate Housewives), Kathy Griffin (pre-LIfe on the D list) and John Slattery (pre-Mad Men) 

It was one of the big disappointments in my career that Ned and Stacey never had the huge mainstream success that Debra’s next hit show, Will and Grace had. Ned and Stacey suffered from a change of networks between season 1 and 2, and never got the full power of a network behind it. However, it has a huge cult following, and I often hear how much the show was loved. I know I did.

Filming On Location

People often ask me which of the TV shows or films I have designed costumes for is my favorite. That’s a tough one as each show is so unique. It’s like asking which of your children you like best!

I loved doing “A League of Their Own” ( see my last post) because of the 1940’s period costumes and filming on location. I loved doing “Family Law” because, as a 60 minute prime-time drama, we had top level actors, wonderful scripts, and spent 3 out of 7 filming days on location, which lends lots of variety to the job. 

One day we’d be on Venice Beach amidst the roller skaters and beach-goers, another day on skid row, another in a beautiful arboretum, another in a high school. I never got tired of driving to an entirely new place (usually at 6 am!), looking for the parking lot where all the trailers were parked, finding my wardrobe trailer, and getting started with my crew preparing the actor’s wardrobe and setting it up in their dressing rooms.

One of my favorites was the day we shot “Sweet Justice” at the racetrack. No matter how long I am in the costume designing business, there is ALWAYS something new to learn, some new aspect of “clothing” that I knew nothing about prior to finding it in my script. I had never really paid any attention to  jockeys’ outfits, other than that they are brightly colored. But I learned that the jockeys and their horses wear specifically designed outfits called “silks”  which are provided by the horse or stable’s owner. Though we had professional jockeys in our shoot, I had to know what was ocrrect so I could outfit my actor jockey in the right thing. (Who knew jockeys wear four or five pair of goggles so they can peel them off one by one when they get mud kicked up over them? I didn’t).

Another day in the same script we were about an hour out of Los Angeles at a gorgeous ranch with beautiful stables. Inbetween takes we walked around and looked at the gorgeous horses grazing in green pastures, or being exercized in their water treadmill. It hardly seemed like work! (for me, not the horses!)

Not all location days are that pleasant. I remember one day we were downtown in a very seedy neighborhood and it poured with rain all day, a cold, hard-driving rain. Since on location we work out of “trailers”, every time we had to deliver a costume to an actor, or head for the set, we had to deal with getting soaked, but keeping the costume and the actor dry.

I’ve also filmed at a prison, which is weird. The coldest I ever felt was during an all night shoot in Detroit in March. The hottest I’ve ever been is on the beach in Fort Lauderdale in mid August.

The saddest day on location happened to be the first day back to work after September 11th, 2001, the day of the terrorist attack on the world trade center. We were filming, ironically, in a cemetary. Everyone, cast and crew, seemed to be walking around in a fog. We were so overwrought anyway, the cemetary setting made it worse. I had worn a vintage American flag pin, and when one crew member (a big burly male) saw it, he burst into tears. 

Well, I had started out thinking I was going to write about one of my favorite shows, Ned and Stacey, but that will have to wait for another post.