| By Veronica Wong Diffa
GWEN RUSSELL
“Creating period costumes feeds my soul.”
Photography: DREAMGIRLS @Dreamgirlsthemusical.com
“I mean, you have to be certifiably insane to do this job!” [laughs]
Gwen Russell, lady’s Period Costumier, has spent enough time in the industry to tell Motion the ins and outs of costume making. With an incredible 35 years spent within the industry, Gwen has worked on films such as Dangerous Liaisons, Wuthering Heights and Harry Potter as well as spectacular theatre productions such as The Lion King, Les Miserables and Dreamgirls to name a few. Gwen takes a moment from her packed schedule of cutting and sewing to speak about her journey through the trade, the obstacles she has faced and her real thoughts about the future of costume making.
“I was making costumes before I even became professional; I’ve been making my own clothes since I was about 10. After secondary school, I studied for three years at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, now called the Scottish Conservatoire, and became a drama teacher. I made a lot of costumes when I was there, and that’s when I decided I wanted to become a Costumier. I began working at Glasgow Citizens Theatre for a season, but due to a lack of work in the city I decided to go back to teaching as a speech drama teacher. I taught drama for three years but my heart was always thinking of the theatre and costumes.
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After deciding to step away from my teaching career, I discovered a 9-month period costume cutting course in London at the London College of Fashion. I managed to get little grants from various private charities and moved to London in 1983, living on £50 a week to pay for my travel and food... just as well I knew how to cook [laughs]. I studied at LCF under one of the top period costume makers in the world, Jean Hunnisett, and graduated with a diplomaship in period costume cutting, as well as a life-long business partner, Janette Haslam.
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Jean Hunnisett’s course was for people who had been in the theatre and could sew. We learnt to cut costumes from the medieval period right through to the 1950s, learning how to construct the undergarments, the frames and silhouettes for each period. We worked on various shows with Jean, like the Metropolitan Ballet, doing Romeo and Juliet with one of the greatest ballet designers at the time, Nicholas Georgiadis. We also worked on Arabella, designed by Julia Trevelyan Oman, for the Amsterdam Opera - it was a great experience for us.
Photography: Michelle Pfeiifer in 'Dangerous Liaisons' @ GwenRussell.com
Jean Hunnisett was the one who encouraged Janette and I to freelance together. The first job we did when we came out of college was Die Fledermaus at the Northern Opera, making for semi principle artists, which was amazing. Five years later, Jean put us forward for a costume job on Dangerous Liaisons, where we made all the costumes for Michelle Pfeiffer. That was our first Oscar-winning film. I think of all of the costumes I’ve made, and there’s an awful lot of them with 35 years in the business [laughs], my favourite is Dangerous Liaisons. Janette and I love doing the 18th century, and Michelle Pfeiffer was just a delight to make for.
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As a Costumier, my job consists of working with the designer, interpreting the design, and interpreting that design in such a way that it will fit the artist.
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You could have a drawing that looks like Audrey Hepburn, but an opera singer that has a completely different figure. It’s important that you make your artist feel the best that she can be. You are essentially manipulating a designer into a slightly different mindset because the design may not work for the artist’s silhouette. It’s all got to do with communication.
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It’s always important to consider silhouette and fabrics when working on stage or film. When I get a design, I do a lot of research so that my eye is absolutely right. You need to be able to look at a design and know exactly where that inspiration has been taken from. You build up this huge amount of memory and knowledge of history; you never stop learning. A lot of this is in my head because I’ve done it for so long, but it doesn’t mean I don’t go back to my books. I always go back to my books - you need to know your history.
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You also have to think about what the artist is doing on stage; are they moving a lot, do they have to get themselves in and out of a costume on stage, or is there a quick change off stage? Again, you’re working as originally as possible to the design and period but you still make it so that they can stick their hands up above their heads and high kick. You have to consider so many different things and that’s why I love creating costumes. I love getting a design and I love building the toile. I like to create from a piece of paper that’s got a few scribbles and transform it into a 3D silhouette that looks exactly like the design and better. I just love doing that.
Video: Disney's THE LION KING
Amongst the many costumes I have made, Janette and I have worked on The Lion King for the last 20 years making the same set of costumes for the theatre production. We make the jungle scene costumes in the second act where the two cubs meet as adults; it’s a big love scene while they sing ‘Can you feel the love tonight’. These are very much prop costumes, which is not our usual purview, and when we saw the designs originally, we thought ‘Oh I don’t want to make those’ [laughs]. Nobody wanted to make them because they were just so complicated [laughs]. We have been patterning and making these 5 designs right from the original production that opened in London in 2000. We additionally make for the German, Madrid, Amsterdam and Paris shows which should be showing again in September.
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In May 2020 I will also be working on a new production of Beauty and the Beast; I will be making the costumes for Belle. The designs are very different from the original production I worked on 25 years ago - they have a far more international feel about them because they want to have many productions all around the world. It’s going to be very exciting.
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I honestly don’t know if quality period costume making will always be a staple accessory in the industry. There have been huge changes afoot because of money. A lot of modern shows, within the stage and film industry, buy ready-made costumes because it is cheaper. You’re always going to have stage shows that want bespoke costumes, but unfortunately some new designers and production teams are really not interested in quality. They’re interested in quantity and getting something on that stage. A lot of the time they don’t care what it looks like - as long as it looks right on the outside, they don’t care about the fabric or construction. I find that a little difficult.
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I come from a time where quality mattered. The production companies want so much more back financially that they become very short-sighted and some will ask you, ‘Can’t you make it cheaper?’. Well sure, I could make it cheaper but it will last for a year instead of five. They have to spend the money on the production because at the end of the day, if you don’t buy quality fabrics, they’ll start to shred and fall to pieces, and then they have to be made again. These costumes have to be able to withstand eight performances a week for at least two years. Having poor quality costumes for less time is false economy.
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Being a Period Costumier is absolutely not a rich profession [laughs]. I always say this to my students: If money is your motivation, this is not the career to have.
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You choose this career because it’s something you want to do; it’s something you love doing. These motivations are the only way you will ever get through the hours and hours of work. I mean, you have to be certifiably insane to do this job! [laughs] You really do have to be a little bit nuts! When you see your work on stage and screen, and you know you have nailed it, it is such a buzz and that’s enough for me.
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It’s not an easy job, I meet people who look at all the artists I have worked with – like Michelle Pfeiffer, Nicole Kidman, Robert De Niro, Tom Cruz and Brad Pitt - and they comment, ‘Oh wow. How amazing.’ But it is not glamorous when you’re working at 3am in the morning and you’ve been doing it for five days straight [Laughs]. But the thing is, I enjoy and love what I do. A designer said to me, ‘You can always tell which costume is one of yours because there has been so much love put into it’ and that’s exactly how I feel about it. It’s like being an artist, you can’t help but want to create something that looks the best it can be and more. It feeds my soul.”