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This past weekend i had the good fortune to attend the William Ivey Long Costume Symposium held in conjunction with the Cameron Art Museum's retrospective exhibit on his work.
Because our program's Costume Director, Judy Adamson, is a longtime colleague of Mr. Long, the UNC-CH delegation was invited as his guests to a Sunday night dinner at Henry's, an excellent Wilmington restaurant. This has nothing to do with costuming, of course, but i thought i'd mention it because our meal was delicious.
I'd also like to mention that the Wilmington Super 8 sucks like a Dyson factory, and i'd rather sleep in a cardboard box than stay there again. By "sucks," i mean, "dubious stains on the furniture upholstery and mystery hairs in the towels." Just to clarify.
Running a Design Studio
Our first seminar of the day was "Running a Design Studio" conducted by Mr. Brian Mear, one of the Vice-Presidents of William Ivey Long, Inc., Mr. Long's design company. This seminar was held upstairs in the museum's conference room around a long table covered with amazing stuff--some of the Pearl Girls from The Producers, costume renderings, costume bibles, several of Hugh Jackman's costumes from The Boy from Oz, a mockup and a final costume of Harvey Fierstein's from Hairspray--and we were allowed to inspect and handle them all.
Mr. Mear gave us a brief rundown of his background and how he came to work for Mr. Long, then began discussing a number of topics including budgeting for Broadway and touring shows, union information, what role an agent plays, information on health insurance, and contract stipulations. He mentioned that a designer receives only 88% of his/her fee--10% goes to the agent (who negotiates contracts for the designer but doesn't actively seek jobs the way an actor's agent does) and 2% goes to the union.
Regarding moving to NYC to work in theatre, he recommended waiting to send a resume until a week before you arrive--setting up a job far in advance is much less likely to happen than securing last-minute work. (This was my experience working in LA as well.)
I don't think i'm allowed to mention specific figures on specific costumes (we were shown the budget breakdown for Fierstein's "Welcome to the 60s" Hairspray costume, for example), but i do want to note that only around 8-10% of the total costs went toward fabric--the vast majority went to the production labor.
We broke for a catered lunch, then on to the afternoon sessions...
Young Frankenstein process and preview
The second presentation was conducted by Donald Sanders, another of the Vice-Presidents of William Ivey Long, Inc., and covered the recently-completed design process for Young Frankenstein, opening on Broadway this month. Mr. Sanders showed us renderings, sketches, swatches, photos and garments from the production. He discussed the entire design process from beginning to opening. In a fun coincidence, some of the costumes displayed were created this summer by one of our MFA candidates, Amanda Phillips, who spent her summer in New York working for the Broadway costume house Tricorne, Inc. This presentation was great fun--the show looks like it's going to be excellent! (Hello, Tesla coil onstage!)
Guided Tour of "Taste and Travesty" exhibit
Lastly, Mr. Long himself took us through the galleries, telling stories about the costumes and renderings, often stepping into the exhibits and lifting sections of the costumes to show us understructures and interiors. This was FAR superior to my previous tour of the exhibit with a misinformed volunteer guide.
WHQR's image set of the exhibit costumes
*Michele's image set of a tour of Long's studios, which feature a lot of the exhibited costumes and renderings
I'm so pleased to have had the chance to attend this symposium and exhibit, and should Mr. Long do anything similar in the future and you have a chance to attend, do! He's a fun, funny speaker, friendly and welcoming and enthusiastic and forthcoming, a fighter for wage parity for career costumers and an advocate for the art form.
Because our program's Costume Director, Judy Adamson, is a longtime colleague of Mr. Long, the UNC-CH delegation was invited as his guests to a Sunday night dinner at Henry's, an excellent Wilmington restaurant. This has nothing to do with costuming, of course, but i thought i'd mention it because our meal was delicious.
I'd also like to mention that the Wilmington Super 8 sucks like a Dyson factory, and i'd rather sleep in a cardboard box than stay there again. By "sucks," i mean, "dubious stains on the furniture upholstery and mystery hairs in the towels." Just to clarify.
Running a Design Studio
Our first seminar of the day was "Running a Design Studio" conducted by Mr. Brian Mear, one of the Vice-Presidents of William Ivey Long, Inc., Mr. Long's design company. This seminar was held upstairs in the museum's conference room around a long table covered with amazing stuff--some of the Pearl Girls from The Producers, costume renderings, costume bibles, several of Hugh Jackman's costumes from The Boy from Oz, a mockup and a final costume of Harvey Fierstein's from Hairspray--and we were allowed to inspect and handle them all.
Mr. Mear gave us a brief rundown of his background and how he came to work for Mr. Long, then began discussing a number of topics including budgeting for Broadway and touring shows, union information, what role an agent plays, information on health insurance, and contract stipulations. He mentioned that a designer receives only 88% of his/her fee--10% goes to the agent (who negotiates contracts for the designer but doesn't actively seek jobs the way an actor's agent does) and 2% goes to the union.
Regarding moving to NYC to work in theatre, he recommended waiting to send a resume until a week before you arrive--setting up a job far in advance is much less likely to happen than securing last-minute work. (This was my experience working in LA as well.)
I don't think i'm allowed to mention specific figures on specific costumes (we were shown the budget breakdown for Fierstein's "Welcome to the 60s" Hairspray costume, for example), but i do want to note that only around 8-10% of the total costs went toward fabric--the vast majority went to the production labor.
We broke for a catered lunch, then on to the afternoon sessions...
Young Frankenstein process and preview
The second presentation was conducted by Donald Sanders, another of the Vice-Presidents of William Ivey Long, Inc., and covered the recently-completed design process for Young Frankenstein, opening on Broadway this month. Mr. Sanders showed us renderings, sketches, swatches, photos and garments from the production. He discussed the entire design process from beginning to opening. In a fun coincidence, some of the costumes displayed were created this summer by one of our MFA candidates, Amanda Phillips, who spent her summer in New York working for the Broadway costume house Tricorne, Inc. This presentation was great fun--the show looks like it's going to be excellent! (Hello, Tesla coil onstage!)
Guided Tour of "Taste and Travesty" exhibit
Lastly, Mr. Long himself took us through the galleries, telling stories about the costumes and renderings, often stepping into the exhibits and lifting sections of the costumes to show us understructures and interiors. This was FAR superior to my previous tour of the exhibit with a misinformed volunteer guide.
WHQR's image set of the exhibit costumes
*Michele's image set of a tour of Long's studios, which feature a lot of the exhibited costumes and renderings
I'm so pleased to have had the chance to attend this symposium and exhibit, and should Mr. Long do anything similar in the future and you have a chance to attend, do! He's a fun, funny speaker, friendly and welcoming and enthusiastic and forthcoming, a fighter for wage parity for career costumers and an advocate for the art form.
