Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/933080
48 The Costume Designer Winter 2018 2006 2005 2006 2008 I think the hardest thing I've ever done as a Costume Designer is the last year of my life when two jobs, Fantastic Beasts (the sequel is called The Crimes of Grindelwald) and Dumbo, overlapped much more than they were meant to, and they were both gigantic jobs. It turned out very positive for me, but the process of designing and managing two giant shows at the same time was a very difficult process. While you have a huge, amazing support system, you still have a life and people at home that need you and need your support. It's a very challenging part of a designer's life, balancing life with work when work is sometimes so overwhelming. To me, working in London is as comfortable as working in LA. I have really good people there and it's been the place where I work more during the last four years of my life anyway. I have a special-needs daughter at home. It's been really great, but she's a young adult. Worrying about her while I'm working is always there when I'm far away. It's really hard and you know what you give up, but it's the life we choose. I do think that having a personal life is really important for being a Costume Designer. I think it makes you better, happier, and gives you a more interesting perspective on the process. The hardest thing I've ever done is to become a Costume Designer. And it doesn't get easier! The idea of producing, and producing every single time, designs that are true, brave (and that's probably my favorite word) can tell each different and nuanced story, and add to the scope and life of each production at the same time as negotiating the worlds of the director, producer, and actors to achieve your vision can be terrifying. For me, and I think many other designers, I also probably need the adrenaline that comes with this to jump-start. The rewards of seeing your dreams and designs become a living, breathing reality is truly the best feeling in the world. I cannot imagine going into this world, let alone staying in it, without incredible passion and resilience and a mad propensity for ridiculously hard work and long hours. As we all know, this is an all-embracing, 24/7 job, but also an obsession and not for the faint hearted. It's also the best job in the world. I think what I really should talk about is mindset, which is kind of finding pleasure in the challenge of trying to get work, and remaining very patient and very persis- tent at the same time, which is almost an oxymoron, but not quite. It's being patient and yet always reaching out, trying to make a connection, trying to go about it in a positive way. Looking for someone to perhaps be a mentor, a more experienced designer who's out in the world and will give you a hand up. And as we know, that's not every designer, that's not every person in the world. Some people don't want the responsibility of doing that. I understand. But for me, those are the things that have kept me going. Of course, the other part of Costume Design is wanting to do the art, and having the art part remain as big a percentage of the entire job as you can. Each job is different, some jobs require you to be eighty percent political, ten percent psychological and another ten percent then is the art. But if you get the art quotient bigger, it's a much more interesting thing to do. Right now I'm in one in which the art part is really about fifty-fifty. I'm very lucky right now. Ruth Myers Robert Blackman Colleen Atwood I think The Last Starfighter is one of the favorite things I've done. I thought it was quite ingenious and it had a good, wide-ranging sense of humor and I thought that the leading man's performance was marvelous. Bob Preston was one of the nicest, most accomplished actors I've ever worked with and I found the costumes amusing. There was an entire congress of aliens. That was a lot of fun. I'm still working as a matter of fact with a very good company here in Kansas City. I've done many, many things with them. The last gig I had before I "officially quit" was working as a sketch artist for April Ferry on Game of Thrones. The last thing I designed was some new costumes for Grease for the Starlight Theater here and a ballet to be inserted in The Wizard of Oz, "The Snow Ballet." It's after they lay down in the poppy field ... My advice to young people is don't stop. Just keep on and have faith. Robert Fletcher