Burda Style For people who sew

Imagine your creations have to convey the personality of certain characters and the mood of a script; have to perfectly fit their wearer so as not to hinder his or her movements and accord to the aesthetic ideas of yet other people; have to be visible and transmit their meaning even from far away and harmonise with the stage setting and the props; and of course, have to be affordable given a tight budget. In short, as a costume designer you need much more than only creativity and craftsmanship to satisfy all the various requirements and demands of a play and its production.

All this and much more is what Sarah Booth, twenty-two year old costume designer, explains to me on the phone. Although the phone has to bridge the immense distance between Mexico and London, there is no way not to notice her brimming enthusiasm. She is so excited about her first really big production after just having graduated from Exeter University, and the opportunity of designing the costumes for Maurice Ravel’s childrens opera L’Enfant et les Sortileges (The Child and the Spells: A Lyric Fantasy in Two Parts) and the world premiere of O’Saci, a dance theatre by the Brazilian composer Miguel Kertsman; the first is about a rude child whose toys one day retaliate as they come to life; the second about a cheeky Brazilian folklore character who gets blown to England and falls in love with a Welsh Water nymph after helping to put out a burning village.

Sarah seems to thrive on these challenges, the constant development and dynamics, and the openness of those colourful plays. She has come a long way from the first concepts and the costumes as they stand today: an energetic composition of prime colours and fantastic shapes. In between lies a process in which she has studied the actors’ movements and interpretations of the characters; has listened to and understood the ideas of the director; drawn manifold sketches to convey her own ideas of fabrics, form and flow of the costumes back to the group; searched for materials in various London markets, thrift shops and the internet; fitted and refitted, conceptualised, discarded and reinvented; all the time conscious about the tight budget that is at her disposal. Yet, even if it might be sometimes a little frustrating having to say no to some grand ideas, ultimately and much more important, Sarah has experienced that a limited budget drives her to improvise, and to discover her resourcefulness and the most creative solutions.

So, if you are in the London area, do go and see what Sarah, director Alexander Medem and the team have made out of this play, that will be staged as double bill three times in the evenings at 7h30 between 27th and 29th August and on the 29th as matinee at 2h30pm in St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden, Bedford Street, London. For more info visit here.

And if you are not in London, check out all costume designers and theatre aficionados on BurdaStyle like crafterati, Que_Sara_Sara, or OMGroar to name just a few of the many.

Photos and drawings © Sarah Jane Booth