How to be a Costume Designer

Clearly I have been waiting for someone to ask

Costume Designer. Is that what I said when someone asked ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’

Last year a third grader in my kids class said costume designer. A year before that a friend’s kid changed her interest in costume design to ‘the performative aspects of fashion’ or ‘fashion as performance’. ….I think I know what that means. Something costume-y.

A local high school asked me what a costume design internship for a senior student interested in costume design would look like. The two big theaters in town have put their official apprenticeship/internship programs on hiatus - probably because of the industry-wide referendum on paid internships. So, I made up a city-wide internship that mimics the life of a professional designer.

Even putting it on the page looks hectic.

The ideal outcome of a costume internship would be 

1. Get to know all of the theater people that come through Boston or who work here year-round that are working on a national level.

2. Acquire basic constructio…