Costume designers are instrumental in the creation, construction and purchasing of costumes and accessories featured in tv, film and theatre performances. Costume Designers share the same knowledge and skills as conventional fashion designers, but must also meet the particular demands of theatre or film production.
Costume designers begin their work with a careful reading of the script and a thorough review of the theme, tone, and time of the story told. After detailed consultations with the writers, producer and other members of the creative team, the costume designer will start investigating the style background and developments of the particular time and setting. They can assemble a list of visual guides for particular fabrics, styles or items of clothing that they choose to draw on while creating their own final products. In designing garments, the designer must ensure that each outfit expresses the age, social class and dramatic role of each character successfully, keeping in mind that this will alter over the duration of the story. Every individual costume design is assembled into what is called the costume plot, which chronologically follows each character through the storey and records the changes in their clothing. Plots are usually made up of hand-drawn drawings, photos or digital files. When the director and the production staff have signed up for the costumes, the designer will focus on getting them together.
Costumes are one of the many resources that the director uses to convey the plot. Costumes express the details of a character’s identity to the viewer and allow actors to turn themselves into new characters on film. There is also confusion between costume design and fashion design; however, these two disciplines and their purposes are somewhat different. Fashion designers have brands and market their clothes, while costume designers have no labels and concentrate on making real characters in a plot. Costume designers make both gorgeous gowns for a glamorous entrance and daily wear, as dictated by the plot.
Before the shooting begins, the director, the costume designer, and the actor call the character’s attitude, obstacles (e.g., Anxiety, depression, financial issues or alcohol problems) Dramatic cycle (emotional and psychological changes the character goes through the film). They together, determine the most appropriate way to communicate the personality of a character, reflecting his or her personality at that moment in the play/movie.
Ellen Mirojnick- Costume Designer
Ellen Mirojnick was born and raised in New York City, and her early interest in fine art, photography and modelling led to the renowned High School of Music and Art. After graduation, she continued her education in architecture at the School of Graphic Arts and the Parsons School of Design.
It did not take long before Mirojnick set his sights on Hollywood, launching a career spanning three decades. As a famous Hollywood costume designer, Ellen’s love for modern fashion has had an influence on the style of film. Mirojnick’s film work has been a sophisticated approach to contemporary fiction which has created iconic characters that have become cultural references.
She also won an Emmy and was nominated for the BAFTA and CDG awards. In 1998 she won the Saturn Award for her work at Starship Troopers and was awarded with the Cutty Sark Menswear Award for her sartorial performance on Wall Street. Her design has been seen in the exhibition “50 Designers/50 Films” at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the 1998 Florence Biennale, the 2011 and 2012 FIDM Annual Exhibits, and the prestigious “Hollywood Costume” at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum.
She has recently worked in some of the biggest shows and movies such as, ‘The Greatest Showman’, ‘Maleficent’, and Netflix’s 2020 series; ‘Bridgerton’. In Bridgerton, Mirojnick transformed the style of the Regency period into the Wardrobe Wonderland of Empire-line dresses with low, scooping women’s necklines and majestic, stiff-necked men’s suits. It has been revealed that during the show, Ellen created and displayed 7,500 unique costumes.
