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You Need to Know These Things Before Becoming a Costume Designer

Who is a costume designer?

A costume designer creates costumes for movies, stage productions, and television shows. The costume designer’s job is to design, among other items, the characters’ outfits/costumes and to balance the scenes with texture and colour. The costume designer collaborates with the producer, scenery designer, lighting designer, sound designer, and other creative team members. Hair Stylists, wig masters, and makeup artists can also work with costume designers. The role is different in the European theatre, where the theatre designer is responsible for both costume and scenic elements. Designers usually use the visual design of garments and accessories to enhance a character’s personality and construct an unfolding storey of colour, shifting social status, or period. Within the director’s vision, they have the ability to distort or improve the body. The designer must make certain that the designs allow the actor to move as required by the role.

Becoming a costume designer is not that easy as it sounds, however here are some tips by JD Institute which will help you in your journey:

  • You should pester everybody you know to find work, and I mean everybody: Most people get their first job by networking and essentially pestering everyone they meet before someone breaks down and introduces them to someone in the industry.
  • The work entails more study than it does fashion: You must be able to design clothing, but most importantly, you must understand who wears them and why. If you’re working on a film set in France at the turn of the century, you’ll need to know exactly what people wore and integrate it into your designs. My designs for Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., a superhero drama, must provide every aspect of the characters’ abilities and personalities.
  • Your best friends will be the writers: You’ll collaborate closely with the authors to ensure that the characters can be identified based on their attire. When you get the script, sometimes the costume summary is right there on the list, and it’s your responsibility to help bring it to life. There are some current designs from the original Marvel comics for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.; for new characters, you can rely on the writers to have insight into who the character is so you can create a costume that makes sense.
  • You must be able to work with various designs: You don’t want to be labelled, so look for chances where someone can take a chance on you designing for a different genre. After working on a superhero film, it would be fantastic to work on anything like Downton Abbey.
  • It’s easier to come up with a new superhero costume or a period-specific outfit than it is to dress someone who is supposed to be alive today: The superhero suits are a lot of fun, but the real challenge is coming up with believable civilian clothes that still represent who the character is. You must balance the character arc in the script and tell a storey with the clothing, which can be more difficult than coming up with a cool, flashy outfit.
  • It’s a really “behind the scenes” career: This isn’t the glitz and glamour of a Hollywood career if that’s what you’re looking for. You usually arrive at the office between 7:30 and 8 a.m. and leave between 7:30 and 8 p.m. Every day, you’re in the office; sometimes, you’re on set, fitting the characters or assisting with the establishing scenes. The majority of costume designers aren’t well-known, so this isn’t the job for you if you don’t mind working long hours for the sake of the company display.
  • The days are long, and the work dictates how much time you have off: You work 12-hour days much of the time, but it can be much longer at times. The good news is that it won’t last indefinitely. For example, each season consists of 22 episodes on a show, followed by a two-month hiatus during which you can relax. It’s akin to a “summer holiday.” That’s when you go on vacation, visit friends and family, or unwind from the season.
  • You need to be willing to take any kind of risk: If you really want to succeed, you must be willing to take chances in entering the industry and in your own designs. The best way to stand out is to bring something new to the table, so if you come up with a crazy idea, go with it.

To become a costume designer, you will need education or the right type of training, which J.D. Institute Of Fashion Technology provides with its fashion designing courses such as BSc fashion designing and others. With each course being industry-based, students are prepared for the real world ahead of time, making it one of the best options to consider for fashion design in India. Due to their exemplary contribution to education, J.D. Institute has been awarded with various token of recognition such as the international glory award, the times’ power icon award, leaders in education award, best skill learning for fashion design in India at the Indian Education Awards and many more. Candidates are chosen based on their technical or artistic abilities as calculated by a department-developed general aptitude test (G.A.T.). Following graduation, the J.D. council will assist you in making contact with the college and other students, as well as offering useful guidance. It symbolizes the organization’s goal of assisting participants in expanding their business potential by offering a well-organized, supportive, and qualified referral network that enables them to form productive and long-term relationships with quality industry professionals. Enroll right now!

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