@broadwaycostuming - Tumblr Blog

New character portraits by Kai Revelson Madden

The word garbage sounds like it should mean clothing

It does! Or rather, it does come from garb. Garbage originally meant the small fabric scraps left over from tailoring--all the tiny bits that were too small to cut a pattern piece from.

Back when you generally bought fabric by the yard from a draper and then took it to a tailor to be made up, keeping the garbage was the tailor’s perquisite. Unscrupulous tailors were accused of deliberately cutting to maximize the garbage, which still had various uses in tailoring--as padding, or for backing buttons--and could also be sold for making paper.

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That is DELIGHTFUL information oh my god!!! Oh that's my new favourite bit of trivia thank you so much

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Details of Glinda’s Bubble Dress - Wicked Korea

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Backstage Photoset Series: Costume Fittings!

First off, fittings from all three (or more angles) are always well documented with pictures for the drapers and their team to reference when they’re putting in the alterations after the fact. Second, these are all public pictures and I say this specifically because it is an extremely important professional courtesy to never put up fitting pictures without express permission from the person.

When a new performer joins a show and has a new set of costumes ordered for them, the shop gets a very detailed list of the performer’s measurements and begins draping a custom pattern in muslin. Sometimes the muslin drape becomes the mock up, which becomes the foundation, but the idea is to approximate the right drape of expensive fabrics that haven’t been cut yet, so that’s why you’ll see things made out of cheap draping chiffon, which is cheaper than woven silk or imported lace (Pics #4 and 6)

The most important thing in a fitting second to the obvious one where you make the thing fit, is getting as close to actual show conditions as possible. One example is when a show has aerialists and the costume is extra complex enough the shop actually has a rig to suspend the performer in the air because there are in fact subtle but significant changes to how the costume fits when gravity is doing different things to your body, this was something that was particularly important for a show like Spiderman, which had a great deal of heavily costumed flying.

Most examples are less extreme. The last fitting I sat in on was a mix of new bodices being built and refitting some old pieces and sure enough it was almost identical to the wedding bodice/wishing skirt combo (and also a muslin drape Don Juan top with paper flounce print outs pinned on) because they needed the silhouette of the bustled skirt to make sure the hips of the bodice weren’t doing strange things, that’s how we end up with those fun but seemingly random combinations.

Eventually the performer comes in for the actual fitting and it varies how far along the costume is at that point. A wardrobe person (and sometimes the costume designer or someone from the design team) from the show they’re on will bring show shoes and any other show garment that’s needed so that the costume actually gets fit correctly (i.e. if they wear two pairs of tights during the show and wear none during the fitting, you’re not actually replicating performance conditions). Design’s job is to confirm that everything looks the way it should, necklines, sleeve lengths, whether the skirt should hit at the ankle or mid-calf, etc.

Keep reading

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Hamilton Costume Fittings

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The Eliza Schuyler Burn Dress, by Paul Tazewell

It’s one of the the most deceptively simple costumes in the show because of the empire waist and straight silhouette but hard to tackle when recreating. I only just realized I never created a photoset for this particular costume (whaaaaaa? I know)

Here are some of the pics that were particularly helpful for me when I was building mine a few years ago since production shots only do so much.

Hamilton Costume Tag

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Not just actors are theater kids ♥️ A shout out to the rest of the team!

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#kara lindsay #are you ok

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😍😍😍

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For our final #SIP, I offer you a series of previous #SIP posts of the Donny Nova Band members attempting to teach me their instruments. Not only am I now proficient at them all, I also trained them to be my six sexy backup singers, so that’s cool. Hope to be “gigging” around NYC w/ the #DNB in the near future, cuz I simply won’t be able to say goodbye to these guys. #lovethemall #ilearnfromthebest#withtheband @bandstandbway#oneoftheguys

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Here’s some fun facts about one of my favorite stories being told in Hamilton: this is Ariana Debose, who plays a special role within the ensemble known as The Bullet. She’s killed for suspected espionage right after You’ll Be Back, and is the first one to die (not counting Hamilton’s mother or cousin who hangs himself). After this moment, she becomes an omen of death. At the beginning of Stay Alive, she carries a shot that narrowly avoids hitting Hamilton. In Yorktown, she helps Laurens kill a redcoat, shakes his hand, then Laurens is the next to die. In I Know Him, she’s the one bringing the message to King George about John Adams and symbolically heralding the impending doom of Hamilton’s political career. During Blow Us All Away, she’s the one who tells Phillip where to find George Eacker, (and flirts with him! Phillip is literally flirting with death!) then Phillip is the next to die. In Your Obedient Servent, she brings the desk on stage and hands Burr the quill to write the first of several letters that will eventually lead to Alexander Hamilton’s death. During the final duel, she again catches a bullet (fired by Burr), and if you watch her, she gets closer and closer to hitting Hamilton while he’s doing his soliloquy until Eliza pops onto stage. At this point, The Bullet is stopped by other members of the ensemble, the time freeze is abandoned, and we all know what happens‬ next. (soure: JC Payne)

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Dressers doing their thing!

What better way to work through the myriad of emotions about all of Broadway being shut down than to talk about work some more? Here’s the first of a photoset series I’m going to do about wardrobe life backstage!

It’s hard to fully encompass what we do beyond the quick changes, presets, costume maintenance and running our tracks because different shows and different performers need different things. Some shows have you packing your quick change baskets from the top of your preset all the way up to the half hour call and then your show is just that- non-stop quick changes.

I like this selection of pics because it’s a good variety of dressers in action at different paces. Getting into costume top of show is usually a pretty easy going endeavor because there’s time. Then you have your ten second quick changes and several other dressers (and wig people!) are involved to get the performer into their next look, and yes your track might just be the one in charge of “light exit, undo left shoe”

I’ve always liked this article from PlayBill because you get different perspectives from different people on wildly different shows.

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Backstage of newsies

I’ve never seen these before so in case you haven’t either- here they are!!

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Visit Original Link

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ok but this is incredible

source: https://mobile.twitter.com/jonnypurchase/status/951199965799505920

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A photo of the Brooklyn Newsboys’ Lodging House at 61 Poplar Street as it looks today. The building has been converted into high-end condos, but it still stands.