The Costume Designer for a film is the person in the production team who creates the wardrobe for each cast member, and decides on hair styles and makeup together with the Hair Master and Makeup Designer. Few members of the filmmaking crew collaborate as closely with the Director, Lightening crew, Property Master and stage crew as the Costume Designer.
Working as a Costume Designer means more than working with clothes. Typically a Costume Designer needs to be sensitive to a character’s personality, social status, time period of the movie and of course the director’s vision of what the movie should look and feel like. Actor movement, location, production design, durability, climate, lighting, sound (yes, wardrobe can affect sound decisions), and of course – the Costume Designer’s own creative vision, are all things that affect costume choices in a film.
An experienced Costume Designer has a good grasp of history, fashion and textiles and other materials. But also has a keen passion for film, and adapting a vision and clothes in a creative way to fit with a story – regardless of whether or not that story is set in 1700s Georgia, United States or in 2150s outer space.
Good skills to have if you are considering a career as a Costume Designer: Fashion and design skills (for obvious reasons).
Research skills (in order to fully understand the world of the story and character you are creating a look for, you have to be able to immerse yourself in facts and figures, history and other information).
People skills (whether you need to spend hours with other designers, swallow all your pride when the director hates your work, or convince an actor to wear your much-too-tight costume – knowing how to deal with people will help you plenty).
Ways to become a Costume Designer: Take an internship or trainee position working under a Costume Designer.
Go to Fashion and Design school.
Make your own costumes and photograph them on models/friends (if you can afford it) and bring the images around to potential employers as your portfolio, even if you have not actually had them in a movie.
GOOD LUCK!
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