Undressing the Field of Costume Design
For those who have wanted a behind-thescenes look at the field of costume design, Holly Cole and Kristin Burke have created the complete “how-to” guidebook. “Costuming for Film: The Art and the Craft” provides an in-depth study of costume design including character development and the technical aspects of costuming a film.
The book is a step-by-step guide to the craft and includes everything from how to size a costume to how to handle fittings with actors and deal with members of the film crew. The profession has only been taught at a handful of colleges and is more often learned through apprenticeship, so the book represents a breakthrough for the industry. It provides comparative pricing for costumes, budgeting outlines, and a complete breakdown of how to prep, shoot and wrap a production.
For the newcomer, suggestions are also offered on how to find work and on dealing with the reality of working on a set, which includes long hours. The book is the product of an eight-year collaboration between Cole, an associate professor of costume design at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, and award-winning theater costume designer, and Burke, a Los Angeles–based feature-film costume designer with more than 30 film credits. Since publication in September, the book has received positive reviews from top costume designers, including Ruth Myers, Lizzy Gardiner, Albert Wolsky and Deborah Nadoolman Landis, president of the Costume Designers Guild.
“My goal in this book is not only to educate costumers and people who work in the costume aspect of this industry, but to educate filmmakers about what we do and how we do it,” Burke said, explaining that producers and directors often don’t realize how much it actually costs to do the job. “Hopefully, it will be the gateway for more understanding and more respect for our craft.”
The book has received international interest from Bulgaria, Israel, Turkey, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Iceland and Russia, according to Burke.
The author, who recently designed costumes for a film that was shot in Prague, Czech Republic, recognized the challenges of working with international film crews. “My goal is to be able to go to any film set anywhere in the world and open up a set book and know what they’re doing,” she said.
“Costuming for Film” is available at bookstores nationwide. Burke has also written a survival guide–style follow-up book called “Going Hollywood: How to Get Started, Keep Going and Not Turn Into a Sleaze,” which is available at Amazon.com.
—N. Jayne Seward
