For my first week, I’ve just been at the studio for 3 days. I had a little tour and met the other people working in the space. Kelsie is Kingsley’s full-time assistant, then he has a few people working on a casual basis sewing; George, Sarah, and Katie. Another costume maker Katy Adeney also uses the studio, they each have half of the room and split the rent + business rates.
The studio is very chatty and everyone has known each other for a long time. George and Kelsie met at uni then Katie and a few others worked together for a season at Dorset Theatre. In contrast, the work is very professional and made to a specific standard.
As a freelancer working for costume supervisors, the costume quality are being judged by costume designers and supervisors, not just by audiences watching them in a show. That means all work produced needs to be of a certain standard of quality, inside and out.
For Kingsley to gain an understanding of my skill level and for me to learn the standard methods used at the studio, I repaired some old corduroy trousers and made a twill pair from scratch. I was at first worried about “failing the test” but quickly realised I’m confident enough in most of the processes and it was completely fine to ask for clarification on preferred methods for specific tasks.
