Photograph by Devyn Glista
Dress: Shein
Beret: Amazon
Shoes: Amazon
Nails: Katy’s Nail Salon
Occupation: UC College-Conservatory of Music costume shop manager
Style: Eclectic, bold, variable, like a chameleon
How does your personal style compare to your background in costuming?
I think that costuming is the perfect place for me because of my personal style. I don’t have a background in theater or in costuming—I actually have a background in art history and museum studies. I spent a lot of my 20s getting into the ethnic costume of different areas that I was studying for anthropology, and becoming the weird art teacher who wore all the big bangles and necklaces and all of the things, and thinking about the story that that tells. Then when I transitioned into costuming for theater, it’s all about storytelling with clothes, so I already understood the language of being able to tell the story with what people are wearing.
Would you say that your love of fashion led to your career in costuming, or was it that costuming led you to appreciate fashion more?
I think the two are really intertwined for people in my generation. I grew up in the ’80s. I was an MTV watcher. In all the music videos, I wanted to be Madonna or Tina Turner, and their costumes and fashion were sort of interchangeable, right? You would see them in something that was so wild and over the top, but you didn’t realize that it was a costume—it was just their fashion. I think that those two, for me, they’re inseparable. Every day we get to dress up. We are in costume every day. Those two things are the same to me.
Do you have any favorites in fashion right now—favorite pieces or brands you’ve been wearing a lot?
I am a huge fan of a jumper, like a one piece, a romper. I’m very tall—I’m almost six feet tall—and so finding something that I can just throw on and be done with is always really exciting. I love a few different companies for those. Wildfang is great for a romper. Mixed by Nasrin is also great for a romper. I do have to admit I shop fast fashion, still. I’m trying to break the habit, but I love me some Fashion Nova. I can’t stop, it’s an addiction.
Would you say that you approach your own personal style the same way you approach costuming?
I do think so, honestly. Every day is a chance to play dress-up and put on a costume, and it can be really helpful for our mental health, especially the way that things are right now, to dress up. To just get up, and when you don’t feel like it, put on something cute and pretend you feel like it, so you do feel like it.
Would you say it’s easier to style a character or to style yourself?
That really depends on the character. There are certainly some characters, where, for a costumer, we’re drawn to them, we’re drawn to some part of their personality, and it makes it easier for us to bring out their story in clothes. There are others that kind of hide from us. Sometimes it will take a while to figure out what you’re putting someone in. Also, it’s not just the character; it’s also the performer who’s going to play that role. Finding the right vibe for them can sometimes take a little bit longer. I think, for ourselves, it’s easier to put something together.
Going back to your own personal style, are there any pieces in your closet that have meaningful stories behind them?
I have a lot of vintage items that I definitely connect to the possibilities of where they came from, but I don’t really know where they came from. I think that’s part of the allure of vintage. Finding that perfect caftan and imagining the Mrs. Roper who wore it before you, I think that can be really fun. I don’t have any pieces that my mom made. My mom was a seamstress when she was younger, and she did a bunch of really cool stuff back in California in the ’70s, and I wish I had some of her pieces. That would be really cool, but she’s gotten rid of them over the years.
Would you say that working in a costume shop and curating your own resources has impacted how you view the fashion or clothing production industries?
For sure. Like I said, I wish I could break the habit of the fast fashion. We definitely are teaching our students the impact that that has on the world. We talk very much about the idea of trying to use what we have, trying to source only what we need, and trying to source that as locally as we can. Unfortunately, at the speed that we have to create theater these days, that timeline is so short that often it’s a very short process to purchase everything. We don’t get to be as ethical as I think we would like to. That’s the dream, that we could take the time to find everything really ethically.
Is there anything you feel that people misunderstand about your career in costuming and design?
Absolutely. Everyone always says, “That must be so much fun, that’s so glamorous,” and we spend so much of our time digging through big closets of clothes that have been crammed in there forever. We spend time cleaning up old shoes. We spend time sewing and snipping, and it’s dusty and it’s dirty. It’s not as cute as people want to imagine it is, but it’s definitely a wonderful place to be. I get paid to play dress-up and to help other people play dress-up, so that’s amazing.
Do you hope to inspire UC students or younger people to embrace their own personal style by embracing your own?
For sure. We have a really welcoming environment in our costume shop, and there are so many different styles. These days, we’ve got students who are very, very conservative to students who are really out there in their style. We try to make sure that it’s a safe place where everyone feels like they can express whatever that style is. And I definitely think that they see—in myself and some of my colleagues—that our personal style is accepted in our workplace, and we don’t feel weird being weird, no matter how wild we dress on a given day, or if we come in in pajamas on a different day. We have that flexibility, which is nice.
In your opinion, does someone’s personal style reflect who they are, or who they want to be?
I think, for most of us, our style is aspirational. That idea of faking it until you make it, get up in the morning, put on the clothes, make yourself who you need to be for the day. I do, oftentimes, think of it as armor. We’re going into battle every day, we have to get ourselves ready, gird our loins, as it were. I do think we dress up if we are trying to figure out who we are in our lives.
Photograph by Devyn Glista
Dress: Boutique in New Orleans
Bodysuit: Fashion Nova
Shoes: Birdies
Earrings: Clear Market
Bracelet: Pike Place Market
Nails: Katy’s Nail Salon
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