Costume Mania (read: Insanity)

I've spent the better part of the past week cleaning the costume rooms at the South Arkansas Arts Center. What a chore! Yet it was one of those things that once you started, you had to finish and finish well.

Anyone who has every worked a costume room knows that they need to built with expanding walls. Every play brings with it more costumes and well-meaning patrons are always providing donations. Both of which are appreciated. However any room only has so much of that -- room.

You would love to keep everything but it's just not practical. Some of the clothes that fit people so nicely 40 years ago, just won't fit most people nowadays. People have been gradually getting taller and broader. Those authentic WW II uniforms won't fit your average male now. And do you save them for that potential revival of South Pacific...even if said revival could be 20 years away? And then there's the seventies...how many shows are set in the seventies?

Here were the criteria I set?

What is the silhouette like? Styles do frequently repeat themselves. The trick is recognizing how silhouettes can be replicated by newer styles. An eighties prom dress can be transformed into a beautiful Restoration gown with a few adaptations. You have to see what can be; not what is.

How will the fabric "read" to the audience? Will the fabric look flat or have texture and a tactile reference point for the audience. Wild seventies prints will read but it's usually not a message we want to see. Sometimes, however the large amounts of fabric in those dresses can be recycled for recreation.

Will you be using it in the near (two year) future? If the answer is no...let it go.

Now hear are a few discoveries I made. NO WIRE HANGERS!. They clog up on the rack. They bend. They get on the floor and get tangled in clothes and in your feet and they are like Christmas lights when it comes to untangling the Gordian knot they can create. Try to start getting rid of those.

Do not hang with straight pins! EVER! They hurt! It's dangerous and not very hygenic! Have a good supply of clothes pins available. Even large paper clips will do better than straight pins. Safety pins will work but you have to work with undoing them and then where do you put them.

Tuxedos should always be saved! They are actually very versatile and MANY musicals require formal wear.

A certain amount of mess is to be expected. Hats just won't cooperate and it doesn't do any good to keep them if you can't see them. You have to understand that they will need a lot of room. Peg boards are an absolute necessity.

Be proactive in cleaning because costumes seem to procreate.

It's such a chore but organization can be so much more helpful when the time comes. Understand that unless you stay on top of it; a costume shop can quickly get out of hand. It's just the nature of the beast.