Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-05-30
STAGE CosTUMERs TROUBLES.
It is Easy to Get Designs, but Hard to
Obtain Material

From the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Does the average theatergoer ever real
lie the immense amount of labor that is
involved in Theatrical productions even
before the curtain goes up for the first
time? Not the least difficulty the pur-
veyor of theatrical entertainment has to
contend with is proper costume.
OF course, in operate performances, cos
tunes cut a very much larger figure than
in ordinary theatrical entertainments. but
even they ofttimes present great diff
culties Where do the costumes come from
and how are they known to be correct, is
question very often asked. In every great
library, in this and other countries. there
are always a large number of works de-
voted exclusively to costumes and filed
with plates and designs. Some of the
plates are colored. some are not, but the
complete description is carefully given in
all it's details
The manager of a comic opera company
desires to put on production which calls
for costumes of bygone ages, in themselves
not particularly attractive, yet to please his
public there must be all the glitter that
silks satins. tinsels and limelight can
make. His first step after deciding upon
his opera is to go to designer, a man who
usually makes an extremely good living
doing nothing but drawing the designs of
costumes. Every city of Importance has
some one who makes a speciality of this
kind of work In New York there are five
or six. The artist II ne has no material at
hand goes Immediately to the library, finds
the authentic costume. and then modifies it
to meet the requirements Of the impresario.
The works on costumes are made up by
careful study of the great museums of the
world In almost every capital city in Eu-
rope one finds carefully preserved some
Dress armor and accouterments of by
gone ages.
In the Cluny museum in Paris there is
probably the finest collection of footwear
that is to be found under the sun. 1t en-
braces hundreds and hundreds of sandals,
slippers and shoes of all kinds and from
all countries dating from before Christ. up
to the high-heeled. round-pointed dainty
combination of leather which the fashiona-
bile woman of 1903 wears upon her pretty
feet At the Invalides there is a magnif-
cent collection of armor; In the Tower in
London there is also a beautiful collection
and the same is to be found in the national
museums in Munich. Dresden. Berlin and
Vienna. 1t Is from these sources that the
theatrical. armorer OF 1903 gets his models,
not only for the armor itself. but for the
lances arabesks. swords and all the other
accouterments and trappings which were
used hundreds of years ago in actually
but now serve only Tor decorative purposes,
either in homes or to enhance the value of
stage pictures AS a matter of fact the
original wearers Of these Iron pots must
have been very uncomfortable. 4s,2r
Another great QfiliCulty winch cOn1rOntS
the impresario even after he has got his
Costume plates. is the material from which
his costumer is to make up the garments.
1t is not possible In most instances for the
manufacturer of stage clothes to walk into
a dry goods shop and buy the material he
needs directly off the shelf In most cases,
very effective costumes represent the re-
suits of years of Accommodations on the part
of the costumer himself. An odd piece of
cloth here remarkable brocade there,
curious piece of satin that has been picked
up goodness knows where. all blend in to-
gether to make the effectively finished
stage costume which pleases the eye even
of the most critical. The wardrobe of
big operate organization is a great dry
goods store in itself. and it requifes the
services of many people to keep it in order
Costumes will get dirty and they will get
torn, so every large organization has it's
! force of women, all adopts with the needle
who do nothing but clean and repair from
morning tilf night. They are never heard
of beyond the curtain line and the outside
public never dream Of their existence.