Fittings for La Ronde

The fittings for La Ronde took place in the same room as the fittings for Tender. The actors attended individually. In attendance was myself as costume designer, wardrobe supervisor and wardrobe assistant as the fitting room was next to the rehearsal room for La Ronde the director attended ad hoc throughout the day. Because the designs were so specific most aesthetical decisions were made on the actual costume worn by the actor, as apposed to referring to the design throughout the fitting. The designs were out on the side however and referred to at times but a great deal of time had been spent by the supervisor getting the costume prepared for the fittings. As a designer I knew what I wanted the costume to look like.

The actors knew the characters well at this point and could explain how they would perform in the costumes This was helpful from a technical point of view. The play demands a great deal of technical performance from the costumes as the actors take off and put on their costumes during the action. The fittings addressed the technical side as well as the aesthetical.

Some interesting comments were made by the actors for example: ‘I didn’t realise period costume was so heavy’, a fair point as this is not necessarily portrayed in the designs. Similar comments echo that of the Tender fittings such as ‘I feel the part in this outfit’.
The director intermittent attendance was welcomed to reduce any confusion later in the production process. The director was elated and joyous about the costumes being fitted and though some had changed slightly from the designs due to sourcing issues the essence of the design presented to the director had not swayed and at this stage to director was delighted with the results.
One costume which had changed quite a bit from the original design was the costume for the character The Young wife. Though we had looked both at in the ArtsEd store, the National Theatre Hire Departments and Haslemere costume hire we could not find something in the same colour. The timescale and budget would not allow for a costume to be made so we had to consider alternatives. We did find a very similar cut of costume which fitted into the colour scheme for the production. I was pleased with the dress and felt it worked with the concept and the director seems not to be bothered at all. A previous point which I observe here again is during the design process though a designer can take into consideration how the production will be sourced it is impossible to consider all eventualities and a flexible is approach is needed in these situations.