A Day in the Life of a Costume Designer

I recently had the opportunity to visit Prague where I had the chance of a lifetime to hang around TV show producers like Kelly Manners, amazing make-up artists and crew members who have worked on TV shows we cannot stop watching like ‘Game of Thrones’.

What an experience to hear them talk about the back end of scenes and episodes that were epic to us, the viewers.

Whilst there, I had the chance to prod people on their jobs. Being a designer, my main aim was to really find out what costume designing is all about. I will tell you off the bat that it’s no cup of tea, and no nine-to-five job, but then again, what creative job is? Although I joined them pretty late, costume designer Charlotte Morris was happy to let me shadow her and members of her team.

Her job is to literally know what every character on the show wears, which requires them to breakdown the script and identify the wardrobe and how it transitions from scene to scene.

That might seem easy enough but it’s not. Establishing what each character will wear means understanding each character; what they do, where they live, how much they make and based on that, what they would wear at any given time to portray all those characteristics.

Imagine doing that for a show like ‘Game of Thrones’. It requires someone meticulous and an indepth knowledge of the storyline too. I personally almost couldn’t deal with the fact that I was out shopping with one of the buyers for four hours and only managed to get half of each character’s outfits for a specific scene.

It is rewarding when you find the items, just as the costume designer envisioned, but that is after countless hours of searching through stores. Moments that really stand art are those in which I spent 30 minutes looking for ties! We also spent a lot of the time measuring pants to make sure they would fit the actors. You can imagine the frustration. Now I know the detail that actually goes into this sort of thing.

Depending on where we went, we had to make returns of previously bought items only to find that they only exchange and do not refund, which meant we then had to find something else for another character… If we were lucky enough to find anything at all.

One of the buyers explained that when garments cannot be returned or exchanged, the show simply keeps it. Any garments costing over US$100 would be counted as an asset so it would just be used for the next season or another show. Not to mention that we were shopping for autumn looks in summer, so finding anything remotely close to the textures and colours needed was practically impossible. We had to do some serious digging.

Being a buyer, what I learnt had more to do with patience and vision than it did with style. Finding the right clothes for the right character is most important. As crazy as all that sounds, it is a fun career choice for a fashion design major. You get to travel the world and meet creatives who will help you broaden your horizons.

In the Namibian setting, wardrobe designers don’t have it that great but it’s an industry that has potential for growth. Cynthia Schimming, a renowned fashion designer and lecturer, says that if you can get the contracts, movies are where the money is. “It’s not as lucrative as in other countries but when you do get to work on a movie, there’s a chance of making big money.” To be sought after as a costume designer, Cynthia agrees that knowing the script extensively and researching the era you are working on are keys to doing your job well. Having worked on films like ‘Beyond Borders’ starring Angelina Jolie and Namibian films like ‘Where Others Wavered’, ‘Everything Happens For a Reason’ and ‘Try’, you can be sure she knows what she’s talking about.

–Instagram @LMLAMODE

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