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44 FALL 2025 Bill Hargate Costumes Bill Hargate Costumes was established in 1985 by award-winning Costume Designer Bill Hargate (known for his work on Broadway's Peter Pan with Sandy Duncan and his television work on Murphy Brown, My Sister Sam, and Ink). Upon his passing in 2003, the company was headed by Bill's manufacturing foreperson, Mary Ellen Fields, who subsequently oversaw work for hundreds of films, TV programs, commercials, stage shows, parades, and even animal costumes. Before she retired in 2018, current owner, operator, and Local 705 manufacturing foreperson Rory Cunningham tells us that Fields took Cunningham aside before their annual holiday party, told him she planned to retire and asked him to take on the business. "I had never, never, ever considered owning a business. In fact, I was hoping that she would keep working until she dropped dead, which will probably be another 30 years from now because people live really long in her family. I thought, 'I can just retire here. That'll be fantastic.' Well, that dream ended," he jokes. "She said, 'I'm taking whatever I want from the business. The rest is yours.' I had no idea of what to do or how to do it, and so I learned really fast, and I had to start up a new business entity." Fields had owned the business but the building at the old location in West Hollywood was going to go up for sale, Cunningham moved the business to the Hollywood Industrial District in the heart of Hollywood, close to several studios. The name of Bill Hargate Costumes Incorporated stayed the same out of respect for the late designer. "Its continuity totally made sense, but I want to honor Bill because I really, really loved the man. He was just an incredible, fun person." Cunningham joined the BHC team in the mid- '90s aer Costumer Philip Hayman introduced Cunningham to Hargate at Hargate's holiday party. "I had been working on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and whatnot, for five seasons. And when that came to an end, I bumped into Bill somewhere, and he said, 'Well, when are you going to come to work for me?' And I said, 'Well, when are you going to hire me?' 'Well, I'm hiring you right now.'" Cunningham's first projects at BHC were parade costumes for a theme park and the 1997 live- action TV film Cinderella, designed by Ellen Mirojnick. "Back in those days, and right now again, you're hired for a project unless there's a lot of work. And it used to be that in the costume house; you could work there your entire career. They would hire up when there was a project that came in, and then just the stalwarts would stay there and do the basic alterations and whatever else came in when that big project was gone. They'd crew up again when another big project came in." Aside from Cunningham's work, he aributes his career at BHC to being one of the people that made Bill laugh. "He always wanted people around him that made him laugh," something that Cunningham now also considers when hiring in his workroom. "When we are hiring, the two things that we look for most are a talent for sewing, cuing, and paern draing; and a personality that will blend with the existing crew, while remaining flexible to meet the ever-changing deadlines and challenges that are endemic in Hollywood." When Fields turned the business over to Cunningham, many of those that worked in the BHC workroom continued with the company, but when COVID hit, people le the industry or retired. "I've been thrilled to have been able to hire and get many people into Local 705. I think the number is somewhere around 20 people that we've goen into the Local here, especially during that rush at the end of COVID, where there was just so much work in Hollywood. I've been honored to have worked with some really talented young people who are going to go really far in their career because they're just incredible. Their Left to right: Rory Cunningham; Black Panther scene; zebra costume from You're Cordially Invited.