Tips for a Costume Designer (especially one in Club Med)

When I bagged my first job as costume designer for Club Med in early 2014, I’d never been to one of the resorts, seen a Club Med show, or done any work in theatre – only in fashion. During the two months awaiting my work permit, I scoured the internet for advice to prepare myself with, and found none. Two years into the job and in my final month with Club Med, I feel compelled to share what I’ve learnt with anyone in my first-season shoes.

• Make your costume shop your own. That’s exactly what it will be – your work space wherein you will spend most of your time, albeit just for 6 months or 1 year. In your first week, take the time to clean the place out, arrange things the way you like and realise all that you have. Feel comfortable when you walk into your space in the morning. Sweep every week. Put up a picture from home. Label each rail of costumes. Keep it tidy. Remember that others need to be able to walk into the costume shop and ask, “Hey, do you have this?” and you know whether or not you have it and exactly where it is.

• When designing costumes for a new show, throw diligent fashion college procedures out the window. You will have very tight deadlines – I’m talking one week for an entire new show, regardless of how many GOs on stage or how many numbers each. Figure out what you want to make, and then just do it, the fastest way you know how. Elaborate sketches, intricate pattern-making, fine stitching details on the costumes – none of this will get 80+ costumes sewn up in a matter of days. The routine I figured out somewhere amongst the 15+ shows I did for Club Med on how to survive the madness of premiere week is as follows… Allow yourself a day to plan out the costumes, according to the brief by the choreographer and/or animation manager. Make some quick sketches, note the fabrics you’ll need, realise what you have and what you’ll need to order. Run this by your choreographer to save your ideas being changed when it’s too late. Next, plan a list of what to get done for each day leading up to the premiere and stick to that. For example, during the making of the Manhattan show we did here in Club Med Turkoise last year, I had assigned one day to sew up the 15 dresses I’d designed for the finale. A tough task, but every other day that week had been as tight on my short deadline. I would’ve managed – had I not designed something with more detail and fit than necessary. As hard as I tried, each dress still took me almost an hour. I worked right through the day, skipping lunch and dinner, performed in the show that night, and returned to my work room with hours left of work to do at 11pm. But – the daily plan said the dresses had to be done. And so I sewed through the night, assisted by friends delivering drinks and snacks (bless their souls). By 4am, I had but a few dresses left but couldn’t keep my eyes open. I set up a makeshift bed of circus mats and old sheets in the wings of the theatre, and slept for two hours. I continued the dresses and they were done by the time our morning meeting started at 10am. Not my greatest night to say the least, but had I not stuck to my daily plan and completed those dresses, they would not have been ready for the premiere. And oh, how those dresses stole the show.

• If you are like me and you are bringing a fashion design background to a costume design job in Club Med, I’ll share some quick technical tips with you to save you time:

1. Zips and buttons are now a thing of the past. Elasticated waists and velcro are your new friends. Your costumes will be stripped off and yanked on in quick changes – think this through when designing. Also, they will be worn by lots of different people as the show continues to run while the seasons change. Consider that they will need to be altered to be larger or smaller over time.

2. That said, something that remained important to me was creating costumes that fitted the performer relatively well. Many of the costumes I’ve seen in Club Med costume shops are shapeless, one-size-fits-all dresses that could be used for many different events on many different bodies. Create something that the performer feels good in. When this happens, they aren’t thinking about what they’re wearing on stage – they are fully dedicated to performing. It takes extra effort but it’s do-able. When a new show is being planned, at the first rehearsal call a full-cast measurements-taking session afterward. Have an organised sheet printed out with all measurements you need per person. This will speed up the process. Work roughly according to these as you create the costumes – even if it’s not perfect. At the general rehearsal the night before the premiere, call a full-cast fitting. This leaves only one day for the alterations – if you work comfortably with creating clothes according to measurements, this will be enough. If not, have fittings throughout the week show number by show number. Having set times for fittings with the GOs also holds you accountable to get the sewing done on time.

3. Stick to the pre-production pattern-making. Some designers work with patterns, some are more comfortable with draping or, oh I don’t know what they do, guessing? If you do know how to make patterns though, even if they are basic, do it. In a typical Club Med show you are creating 5-20 of the same costume at a time. Create a rough-draft pattern relative to your design, make one costume from it, fit it, adjust your pattern accordingly, and voila – the next however-many costumes you need to make on a short deadline will take you half the time.

4. Which tools are you comfortable using? Your Spartan-strength pair of scissors? Your tracing wheel for pattern-making? Your tape measure you’ve had since college? Your tailor’s chalk? Whatever it is, take it with you when you travel. You never know what the village you are arriving in will have. Some are remote and don’t often get shipments of supplies in. It’s not expected of you to provide all your own tools, but take it from me, bring what you work comfortably and efficiently with.

• Improve existing shows. For me the most thrilling work was when I had the opportunity to create a whole new show from scratch. But this will only happen 2-5 times throughout a 6 month period. Demonstrate and practice your skills by reworking what already exists – add an accessory to an outfit, mend that jacket that looks like it hasn’t seen a helpful stitch since the 90’s, remake a number that you imagine something better for. These works get noticed as much as, if not more than, the creation of one new show. The GOs will appreciate the new looks, and the guests will notice how the costumes have improved since the last time they visited the resort. It’s all about building your name. Here in Club Med Turkoise, we have many guests who return 2-3 times a year. I’ve received compliments from them such as ‘you are bringing class to this place one show at a time’, or ‘you know, I’ve seen that show running here for three years but this year the costumes looked the best’, or ‘you have such an eye for bringing magic to something that looked old’. These are as gratifying as the recognition for creating a new show from scratch.

• GO’s will ask you to do their personal mending. Of course, it’s not part of your job; it’s not expected of you. But you know what? Everyone is away from home and we take care of each other. Help them with their mending, because they are away from their mothers who know how to mend. Some will tip you, some will just walk out with a muffled ‘thanks’, with some it will be the start of a friendship. But at the end of the day, in GO life, help and you will be helped.

• Sometimes you will be the bad cop. You are responsible for the entire costume shop – every accessory, costume, wig, piece of equipment, the cleanliness of the space. It’s a pretty darn big job. The GOs are in and out of backstage all day and all night for the show, and they won’t all care about taking care of the space or the costumes. Sometimes, you will need to be assertive with them. This is tricky, one of the trickiest challenges about working for Club Med – balancing the professional and social relationships with the people you live, work and party with for 6 months. Sometimes you will need to be firm with your friends, or people who are older than you, or people who don’t speak your language, or people you don’t know. It’s not easy. But, it’s your job. It’s your responsibility. If something is missing/broken/not where it should be – it’s on you. The best way to do this is to make a solid first impression. I didn’t – when I began, I believed that everyone knew how things worked backstage because they’d been in Club Med longer than me. I always apologised, I let the GOs tell me how to run the backstage, I simply remade anything that was stolen or went missing. That’s not how it works – decide how you want to run the costume shop, and then that’s how it works. It’s YOUR office, they are visitors.

• That said, be the host of the backstage. The costume shop and the dressing rooms – that’s your office. But it is also where the GO’s come to spend time when they need a quiet moment away from the village and the guests during the day. It’s where everyone gathers like clockwork at 9.15pm every night, with drinks and stories of the day and excitement to perform a show together. It’s where friendships develop, where friends sit in neighbouring lockers and console each other after a bad day, where post-show escape-the-party drinking happens. It is the GO sanctuary and my personal favourite space on the property. It is also where most GO’s experience the theatre for the first time – 80% of GOs have never danced or performed before. Now, if you have the same passion that I do for the magic of the theatre – you will understand that this is your chance to instil that passion in them, too. Show them how fun the shows are, how much you enjoy creating costumes for them, let them imagine where they can take their talents. Make the backstage their space of fun and comfort and inspiration. For example, in the village I currently work in – Club Med Turkoise – there is a long-standing tradition that the costume designer ensures there are a couple bottles of shooters backstage for the Music Factory show on Monday nights. I’ll pour them out into little plastic shot cups along the make-up counters before the show, and before we all go on stage we’ll cheers to another show together. This is one of the most fun nights backstage. After the show, we’ll all go party together at the Glow party and then end up at the casino down the road or drinking on the beach. This is life in Club Med. As much as you are a costume designer and no matter how seriously you take that, you are also a GO living an adventure with crazy people. Let the backstage be the hub of that. Above all, let the magic of the theatre live in your little Club Med backstage.