I quit theater because ... amazon.

and I love theater.

**The best costume designer in the business is 93. Please, keep that in mind when you read the following.**

Last week I told you about my first online spending spree that ended me $500 over budget…on a $1,000 show. So, very over-budget because I didn’t think hard enough about return shipping and what is not eligible for return.

I learned my lesson and spent another decade under budget every time.

…until the last show I did.

Another, $1,000 budget, for a Shakespeare cast-of-kajillions extravaganza. I have designed 5 of these. They are not easy, but they are doable.

Online ordering generally did not make this show over-budget and bland - Amazon did.

The following email-essay is only worth $10 if you are ready to tweak the online ordering habits. I am. Because, I want

1. to stay on budget.

2. to make a beautiful show.

3. to work with happy actors.

4. to like my job.

I took a big break from design. Because the job became internet ordering. Shopping for tactile textiles on a light-up screen is not what I was trained to do. I didn’t grow up doing it either. So I’m bad at it.

25 year olds have grown up ordering online. Hire them.

The best costume designer in the business is 93. She still gets hired. Last year she made a cameo appearance in the Barbie movie and won an Oscar.

My people are not yet obsolete.

But! the impulse to buy the almost-right-thing (i.e. the wrong-thing) on Amazon is sooooooo entrenched at this point, that you have to get waaaaaay ahead of it. Let’s figure out how!