An Interview with a Costume Professional – Anna Houghton

Anna Houghton worked as a freelance costume maker. She graduated from Wimbledon College of Art with a 1^st class degree in Costume Interpretation in 1982 and worked for over ten years after graduating creating costumes for many theatre and film productions.

Anna how lives and works in Bideford, North Devon so on the 3^rd September 2016 I went to meet her to find out about her experiences of working in the costume industry and the sort of work she produced.

First of all she talked about her university experience, the work she produced there and how it lead to jobs after graduating.

1^st Year

Anna explained how Wimbledon had quite a big theatre production department including courses such as Technical Arts, Theatre Design, Costume Design and Costume Interpretation; because of this the 1^st year involved a lot of collaboration across these disciplines. There first project entitled ‘Episodes’ was designed by the design students which they then had to make the costumes for.

As Anna was a couple of years older than some of her classmates and already had a knowledge and experience making and sewing;  she said she found people looked to her for help, quite often and she ended up taking on too much in that module. However she expressed that the module was a positive experience in learning vital skills in communication between designer and maker, a skill only really learnt through experience.

It was also the year where she learnt vital cutting and construction skills per civically draping on the stand, a technique Anna has used to create most of her work since. Similar to myself, Anna struggled with flat pattern cutting but felt more at ease with draping. She explained how she had a friend who was very adept at the former and it wasn’t until she discovered draping that she realised people can have different means to achieve the same goal.

2^nd Year

The first project in second year culminated with a costume parade in November /December for which two costumes, one for a man one for a woman had to be made.  Anna chose two 18^th century ensembles a man’s suit and woman’s bodice with stomacher and dress with full pannier underneath.

Other costumes included a romantic tutu from a ballet costume workshop designed by Peter Hall and a show girl outfit from the film ‘Trapeze’ made in a workshop led by Paddy Dickie. Unfortunately the show girl costume was stolen so I didn’t get to see the original however it did sound wonderful; Anna hand embellished it with convex sequins to achieve the appearance of scales. As you can imagine it took many hours of dedication and patience to complete.

3^rd year

Again the first assignment was to complete a costume for the costume parade however this time they

were given the designs to interpret. These were black and white photocopies of fashion plates of court dancers from the court of Louis 14^th; they were also given a budget to stick to of £50 and were told they would be judged on the quality of the costume, choice of model and ability to keep within the budget.

A photo of the costume can be seen below. To achieve this Anna dyed the fabric (cotton drill), used techniques such as screen printing and embroidery; as well as making features such as the rosette flowers. Her most expensive item was the ostrich feathers which cost £30 but I think it’s safe to say it was worth the investment as it really completes the costume.

By her third year Anna knew she wanted to work in costume making for film and TV and her final garments reflect this in their high quality construction and level of detail. Her final garments were as follows:

A 1930’s Bias cut silk dress interpreted from a drawing of the dress on a postcard which was hand dyed and exquisitely constructed.

An 1880’s beaded carriage jacket and accompanying steel boned corset.

The jacket features dyed hand and tamber beading (tamber beading is where the beads are sewn on to net from the reverse side). Pleated silk taffeta which had to be cut and hemmed before sent off to be professionally pleated.  The lining was hand printed using a stencil and the jacket itself is tailored and boned inside with steel bones in each seam. The purple velvet fabric was given to Anna by Cosprop founder John Bright who was also Wimbledon Costume Interpretation’s head examiner.

The corset top fabric was a silky dressing gown procured at Brixton Market evidencing Anna’s resourcefulness in sourcing. It also features some standout details such as hand stitched eyelets, antique lace and ribbon.

As I’m sure you will agree these pieces really embody the level of detail and quality craftsmanship needed in costume construction for film; this has proven insightful for me as I intend to make my final costume intended for a film.

Another of her final pieces this time intended for stage and therefore a low budget costume was interpreted from a Van Dyke painting so around 1600’s in period. Once again resourceful when sourcing the costume was made for about £50 using old curtains; dyed brocade and just one stand out spend, this time the braid to give it impact.

Graduation and Finding Work

When I asked Anna about how she found work after university she said her graduate show was useful as well as contacts she had made throughout the three years. Through the course they had had quite a few visiting lecturers as well as regular tailoring and ladies cutting tutors. She explained how often she would find jobs through contacts tutors had; with opportunities arising in the holidays so she took people up on these and subsequently made connections. She also had a few people approach her having seen her graduate show as well.

However she said the majority of work was through word of mouth;  once people knew of her and knew she was reliable and capable to get the job done, people would call saying ‘oh someone told me about you’ . At this time she had about four designers who regularly came back to her. Anna explained how often once a designer finds you and you understand how each other works;  a relationship develops where they can communicate ‘shorthand’ perhaps with just two images and say ‘I want that piece from that and that piece from the other’ rather than having to produce whole drawings.

Anna has worked on and with numerous shows, films, adverts, designers, actors, directors.  Some examples include the following:

Bath Opera, La Traviata cutting and supervising all the costumes

18^th century reproduction dress for Cosprop now in their exhibition

Costume making for films Orlando and Elizabeth

Northern Ballet, male ballet costumes  

Titania, A Midsummer Night’s Dream for a touring theatre company

Regents Park Theatre

Childs Victorian coat for a TV advert which the producer liked so much she had a photo of the costume framed.

Costumes for actors such as Maggie Smith, Lolita Chakrabarti, many of the Monty Python cast and many more.

A lovely anecdote Anna told me was an occasion when she was working on a film set at Pinewood Studios and they had to be in very early in order to prep the costumes and have them in the actor’s dressing rooms for 7.30. The dressing rooms were a fair way from the wardrobe department as they had to be transported on a milk float! However one day something unusual happened, one of the actors turned up at the wardrobe because they had forgotten his socks. Anna said she felt this was quite sweet as he didn’t have to walk up to the wardrobe, he could have just called them.

She said that job gave her good experience of the film environment, both good and bad how some actors can be lovely others less so as well as many other new experiences.

Networking and Career Advice

I found so much of what Anna told me about her experiences helpful and insightful however she did also give me one good tip for networking, she advised me to use Instagram to follow and connect with people I admire and would like to work with in the industry as well as use it to promote my work. Therefore that is what I have done (you can find me as araminta_ pain ). So far I have found it quite useful for finding inspirational images and following people in the industry to keep in touch with what they are doing.

Conclusion

I really enjoyed meeting Anna she shared so much of value and inspiration, much of which will influence elements of my final years work at university and on into my career. Therefore I would lastly like to say thank you Anna it was very kind of you to be so welcoming and helpful.

The dress Anna made for Cosprop