Additional Information
Costume designers need at least a high school education. A college degree
isn't a requirement, but in this competitive field it gives a sizable advantage.
Most costume designers have a bachelor's degree.
Costume designer Rae Robison agress that a college education may not be
essential for a costume designer. However, she recommends it. "I think the
skills you get as an undergraduate are invaluable. You can't replace that,"
she says.
Studying your craft for years and gaining the necessary practical knowledge
will come later.
Robison notes that business training may come in handy. She and her mentors
in the industry "are extremely business savvy....You have to be because you're
essentially your own business."
Courses at San Diego State University include period dress and decor, research
and bibliography, esthetics for the stage, collaborative studies in design
and seminars in lighting, costume design, theater theory and scenery design.
Student designers also work on college productions and professional theaters
in the area.
"Explore all aspects of theater," says Janis Martin, a costume designer
and professor at Marshall University in West Virginia.
"Because theater is a collaborative art, it means that each person must
communicate effectively with all the others. That means a costumer must know
how it feels to be an actor, and what a scenic designer's concerns are, and
how to understand a director's choice. The best way to know these things is
to do them."
Costume designer Robert Doyle advises the studying art history, clothing,
applied arts and social behavior, and reading and viewing plays, ballets and
operas.
"Learn to draw," says Penny Dunlap Ladnier, a costume designer and teacher
in Richmond, Virginia. "I see so many students in the theater who can sew
but don't draw. No matter which direction you go, you better know how to draw."