{"id":6780,"date":"2019-01-09T15:08:05","date_gmt":"2019-01-09T23:08:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/?p=6780"},"modified":"2019-01-10T10:42:22","modified_gmt":"2019-01-10T18:42:22","slug":"golden-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/2019\/01\/golden-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Golden Goddess Costume – Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ShalimarAfter taking a month off in December of 2018, I’m now diving back into a project that I began last summer.\u00a0 I sometimes am asked why I need so much “lead time” to make a costume, and the answer is simple.\u00a0 Everything takes time.\u00a0 From designing the initial concept to meetings, fittings, patternmaking, and sewing, there’s simply a lot to do for each garment.\u00a0 In this blog post, I’m going to map out the steps that I take when working with a client to design a custom costume.<\/p>\n

Last year, I completed this lovely ensemble for Bay Area professional dancer, Shalimar. I was thrilled that she was happy with the performance and audience response to this costume.\u00a0 She commissioned a new costume that we are calling “The Golden Goddess.”<\/p>\n

Shalimar’s Idea<\/strong><\/em>: A head to toe gold and rhinestone costume suitable for close-up performances in dark restaurants.\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Design Brief<\/h2>\n

When I’m working on a project with a customer, it’s a good idea to create a design brief and project contract.\u00a0 This can be a formal negotiation with a contract or an informal goals list.\u00a0 Every designer is different, but at a bare minimum, you want your contract to include budget, timeline, and costume summary. For more detail about the design brief, check out this blog post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Initial Sketch<\/h2>\n

Once you have hammered out the fine points of your contract, it’s time to design. For the Golden Goddess costume, I did these initial design sketches.<\/p>\n

I generally have some ideas on the types of materials we are considering for use in this costume.\u00a0 For the Golden Goddess, we choose a micro-sequin base with individual rhinestones, rhinestone chain, and sequin on string.<\/p>\n

This type of sketch is called a flat, and I like to draw in pencil on gridded paper to help maintain the proportions of the costume.\u00a0 These initial sketches are a point of discussion and development when working with the customer.\u00a0 Often these designs will be refined and adjusted as the project progresses.<\/p>\n

Budget<\/h2>\n

Agreeing on a budget is always an important part of the contract between designer and client. In my business, the budget is broken into two parts.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Cost of Materials<\/h3>\n

When calculating the total cost of a project, I always begin with materials.\u00a0 The materials, fabrics, and trims that you choose to use in your costuming project play the biggest role in determining how lush or sparse a costume will appear.\u00a0 Often, more expensive fabrics are so spectacular, they require less work to craft into a show-stopping costume.\u00a0 As a designer, I always have estimates of what each element in the costume will cost when budget planning.<\/p>\n

Cost of Labour and Time<\/h3>\n

The second part of the budget is my labor and time. My time falls into three categories.\u00a0 The first is design services<\/strong>, and that’s the time it takes to sketch the designs, source materials, project planning and set up. The second category of the budget is time<\/strong>. This includes meeting times, fitting, and shopping and sourcing time. The third section is sewing and construction<\/strong>. This is simply the time I spend during the build of the costume.\u00a0 With experience, I’ve learned how much time it takes to design, source materials, and construction, so my estimates are accurate, barring design changes.<\/p>\n

Sourcing Materials<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/a>Once my client and I have decided on a design, set a budget, and tentatively chosen the materials and supplies needed for a design, we begin sourcing materials. Sometimes my clients arrive with fabric and all we need to buy are the things we need to complete a garment. Often my customers like to buy their\u00a0materials on their own.\u00a0 For this Golden Goddess costume, my client authorized me to make all the purchases necessary to complete the costume.<\/p>\n

For the Golden Goddess ensemble, we are using gold micro-sequin cloth<\/a>, individual rhinestones<\/a>, and rhinestones on chain<\/a>.\u00a0 For speed and convenience, I wound up purchasing most of the materials and supplies from Amazon.\u00a0 I do not have a great selection of fabric stores in my area so I will frequently resort to internet shopping to get the price and quantities I need to craft my ensembles.\u00a0 We had to allow time for all the materials and supplies to arrive before beginning the costume.\u00a0 Sourcing took about three months last summer.<\/p>\n

Create a Project Box<\/h2>\n

As we gather the materials and supplies, I create a project box that will contain all of the design elements in one convenient location.\u00a0 I will label it with the customer’s name and place it on a shelf in my sewing studio.\u00a0 When it’s time to work on a costume, I can easily pull down their box and dive into the project with a minimum of hassle and running around.<\/p>\n

All of these steps are part of my design flow that helps me move from a rough concept to finished costume.\u00a0 Every designer, costumer, or seamstress will have a different process.\u00a0 I hope that this process break down inspires you!<\/p>\n

Happy Costuming and Dance,<\/strong><\/em>
\nDawn Devine ~ Davina<\/strong><\/em>
\nJanuary 9, 2019\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"<\/a>

After taking a month off in December of 2018, I’m now diving back into a project that I began last summer.\u00a0 I sometimes am asked why I need so much “lead time” to make a costume, and the answer is simple.\u00a0 Everything takes time.\u00a0 From designing the initial concept to meetings, fittings, patternmaking, and sewing, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6790,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Shalimar-Pink-BorderPrint.jpg?fit=360%2C439&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2YZtR-1Lm","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6780"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6796,"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6780\/revisions\/6796"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}