Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1529398
12 WINTER 2025 into character. "When we were working on World Trade Center (2006) for Costume Designer Michael Dennison, I spoke with a lot of people who were there on 9/11, including the firemen that drove all night from Wisconsin, the Chief of the Port Authority Police, and so many people involved with that day's events. They spoke with me about how they were dressed. Through clothing, people were able to speak about the truths of that day." Garland's passion for learning from others was instrumental in forming Local 705's Heritage Project, a commiee that works to preserve our oral history. "I just loved hearing the stories of all the old Costumers, and now I am one! A man named Bob Pecina, a prey famous Costumer and true gentleman, had Alzheimer's, but I was able to sit with him before he passed. I kept meeting all these unique characters and their stories were disappearing. I took a class at UCLA on oral history and started talking to them about who we are. Archiving is such a big expense, and they wanted to get involved and help. They thought that our stories were important to the big, big story of Los Angeles. Which it is. Costume has been one of the most important career pathways for women, immigrants, and the LGBTQ community to find paid work. So, it's an important story for Los Angeles, for the film industry, for everybody. I wanted it to be told." Throughout Bobi's years at Western Costume, she was mentored by many Designers and Costumers in the industry. She herself mentored many students in the research library internship program. "The most valuable thing about the research library was having an internship program. Almost 100% of the time, the students got class credits. I had more than 200 interns in those 15 years. I felt it was successful because we worked to make sure that everybody got a job." Garland originally made an outreach to the local schools FIDM, Otis, Woodbury, and UCLA. The program grew from there with students reaching out to her from college programs throughout the US and Great Britain and programs outside of costuming. "I went to the UCLA Library Program to ask them if I could have librarians and they said no, because I wasn't a trained librarian. Then the library students found out about us and created a program where they could come work for me. I had great library interns. When I took over the Archive, I went to school to become a museum collections manager. Aer that, I started geing interns for archiving, so I had costume interns, archival interns, and library interns which was really fun for all of the students. My college classes are generally a mix of costume students and game designers, animators, all majors are welcome." Inspired by the interns, she began working with Valerie Laven- Cooper to develop a pathway to union membership for Costumers. PHOTOS: (LEFT) MICHAEL GARLAND; (RIGHT) JOHN M. HELLER/GETTY IMAGES (Left to right): Bobi at Western Costume; Bobi and Ned at Centennial Celebration of Western Costume at LACMA in 2012.