Designing for Dance

Scholastic Art: What is your job?

Pauline Smith: I work in the costume  shop at the Pacific Northwest Ballet.  I build costumes designed by other designers, and I design and build my own designs. Recently, I designed the costumes for a ballet called Sum Stravinsky.

SA: How did you design the costumes?

PS: First, I met with the choreographer to discuss his vision for the ballet, because the costumes have to convey the mood and movement of the ballet. I made sketches of several designs. The choreographer picked three of them—one for each of the ballet’s three movements.

SA: How did you build the costumes?

PS: I made paper patterns based on the sketches. Then I used the patterns to cut the fabric to build mock-ups of the costumes. I tweaked the mock-ups until they were exactly what the choreographer and I wanted. Then I cut the real fabric and sewed the pieces together to make the costumes. After that, the costumes had to be adjusted to each dancer’s body.

SA: How do you care for the costumes?

PS: The wardrobe department is responsible for the care of the costumes. So people from wardrobe are backstage during every production, waiting with needles, thread, and flashlights to make any needed emergency repairs. 

SA: What is most challenging about designing costumes?

PS: We have to think about how the fabrics and silhouettes create lines when the dancers move—because a lot of dance is about line. Working with the materials can also be challenging. With one ballet, the material for the skirts was so light and airy that it was like sewing water.

SA: What do you love about your job?

PS: Sitting in the audience and seeing my work onstage is thrilling. And to be a part of an art form that gives so much joy to so many people is very rewarding.