William Ivey Long Costume Symposium

Amy Quinn, Graduate Student

William Ivey Long

On September 30, 2007, students and faculty from North Carolina State University piled onto two charter buses early in the morning, not knowing quite what the day would hold.  The buses were heading for the Cameron Art Museum in Wilmington, North Carolina, where costume designer William Ivey Long was holding a Costume Symposium in conjunction with his exhibit: “Between Taste and Travesty.”  The students from North Carolina State would join other universities from across the state to see Mr. Long’s costumes and hear about their creation. The symposium was particularly exciting for North Carolina State, as the College of Textiles and College of Design have had a long-standing relationship with William Ivey Long, and are currently working with him in his efforts to establish the Seaboard School of Fashion and Costume in his hometown of Seaboard, North Carolina.  Mr. Long is a five-time Tony Award winning costume designer, with four shows currently running on Broadway. Having the opportunity to learn about the process of costume design from such a successful and creative designer was a tremendous privilege. 

The morning began with a presentation by William Ivey Long, himself, on his life and entrance into the world of theatre and costume.  Mr. Long is a native of North Carolina and grew up with both of his parents heavily involved in the theatre, specifically the Lost Colony production in Manteo, North Carolina.  He holds a BA from the College of William and Mary, studied for a time at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and then procured an MFA from the Yale School of Drama. After finishing his degree, word of mouth brought Mr. Long work as a costume designer, despite only having had one course in the field.  Mr. Long also showed a video exhibiting clips and stills from the 50 plus shows on which he has worked.

The second part of the day was divided into three workshops, each presented by either Mr. Long or his colleagues.  The attendees were rotated through the different seminars.  Mr. Long gave a walk-through of the exhibit, talking about the inspiration for the costumes as well as the layout for the display.  There were at least a hundred pieces in the exhibit.  Some of the more notable pieces include Mr. Long’s innovative lace body suit for the show Nine, and the yellow dress created for Contact, which Long describes as, “so simple but so powerful.”  Included in the room with the yellow dress were two yellow costumes from Hairspray; the contrast between the garments truly demonstrated the range of Long’s work from taste to travesty.  Another highlight from the walkthrough was the room of “pearl girls” from The Producers, which were displayed in a closed room and viewed only through a small window.  The effect was quite dramatic.  Lastly the display of his pieces for Roxie in Chicago and the hall of costumes for the Sigfried and Roy Las Vegas production were quite innovative and amazing.

The second seminar was given by one of his Vice Presidents, Donald Sanders.  Mr. Sanders has been associated for over six years with the William Ivey Long Studio in many show productions.  He spoke about the process of creating costumes for Mel Brooks’ newest Broadway show, Young Frankenstein.  He began by speaking about what happens once a costume designer gets a show.  Mr. Long was gracious and allowed the hands-on examination of actual examples from the show to help explain the process.  Mr. Sanders described how the show is diagrammed into a costume plot, which is a spreadsheet that keeps track of the characters in and descriptions of each scene.  The plot helps the designer to estimate the costume cost for the producer of the show.  The next phase in the costume design process is research.  For Young Frankenstein, in particular, Mr. Sanders explained it was vital to go see the progression of “Frankenstein” as a cultural icon, and to investigate how they could be innovative with the costume.  They also did research into turn of the century national costume to determine what kind of costumes the townspeople would have.  It was extremely interesting to see and hear about the process.  The sets of sketches for each scene and an original nineteenth century Romanian costume were some of the highlights of Mr. Sanders seminar.

Brian Mear, Mr. Long’s other Vice President and studio manager, lead the third workshop.  An associate of the studio for over six years, Mr. Mear spoke about how to begin a career in costume design and some of the business aspects of the industry.  The workshop was very helpful in explaining the way unions and contracts interact in costume design.  Mr. Mear also showed how a design is taken from concept to finished product and the cost involved, illustrating the process with a “costume bible”.  These “bibles” are essentially scrapbooks that specify elements of the costume design, including fabric, trim, and costs.  They also document the progression of the costume through photos at fittings.  Once complete, the costume bible is passed on as the show tours to ensure the proper duplication of the costume.  In this seminar, attendees were able to touch and inspect the construction of costumes, including bodysuits and shoes from Hairspray, the “pearl girls” in The Producers, and several costume “bibles."

As the workshops finished, students and faculty lined up to get autographs and pictures with Mr. Long.  The day had taken visitors into magical worlds created through costume, giving students a much more “up close and personal” look at costume design than anyone could have expected.  Mr. Long and his colleagues were extremely gracious and helpful in explaining every facet of the costume world. 

Links:
http://www.williamiveylong.com/SymposiumInformationPage.htm
http://www.williamiveylong.com/

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Last Site Revision:
August 28, 2007