Costume Designer for Toronto, Richmond Hill, Brampton

If you love clothes and want to work in the entertainment and arts business than you might be wondering about a career as a costume designer. Everything from a big budget musical to a commercial need to have someone there to decide what people will be wearing. And there are even some designers and dressers who go to Los Angeles to help with special events that might need a hand with outfits. Here is a guideline to how you might start down the road to being a costume designer.

Before you can start turning those dreams of Victorian dresses and space uniforms into reality you're going to need to learn how to sew and how to draw. These are the fundamentals of customer design and you will need these skills whether you're working on a commercial for diapers or a movie set in the Middle Ages. Remember that you will always be working with a director and production team that will want to see what you have in mind for the designs before you start building actual costumes.

Start looking at different examples of costumes that are out there. You could take an afternoon to watch some films that have been nominated for their costume design or could take a tour of a costume room at one the major theatres in the country. Everyone from real estate agents Toronto based to engineers in Texas find out a little about the workings of their business before they decide to make it their own and you should do this as well. There are lots of interesting tricks that will show you how to make subtle differences between characters and really capture a place and period in time.

This is when you can start sketching your own designs and building up a portfolio. If you're living in a place with a community theatre or where there is a film school than you might have a chance to work on some amateur productions. You could put together what a Richmond Hill dentist might be wearing for a play or just help some students pick out their clothes for the yearly musical. You likely won't be building many of these costumes but will rather get them from secondhand stores or storage with the company.

The last step is to apply for some sort of training program. Some costume designers will come straight from the world of fashion designs while others will have more of a background in theatre and the performing arts. Coming from either side of things could help you create a wardrobe for a group of prisoners making custom license plate frames in jail to lush costumes for the next big fantasy film. You just need to find the right program to get you started.