Old costumes never die, they just fray away

Five hundred Heidelberg student uniforms? Reading this in our recent newsletter made me wonder, well, where are they now? Where do all these old costumes end up?

Many of them, sadly, in dumpsters, but many more in private collections, and costume rental houses. Light Opera Works used some original costumes for My Fair Lady, and had vintage Broadway ones for Gigi. Others land in museums, including the Smithsonian. The National Museum of American History has costumes from The Lion King, Hello, Dolly!, Cats, Rent, and The King and I in the museum’s permanent entertainment collections.

Chicago designers have recently come into their own, with amazing award-winning costumes from Lookingglass, Chicago Shakespeare and other innovative houses; these have not found their way into collections or museums yet, but you may be sure they will. Our own designers strive to recreate the authentic look of classic productions, both by using actual vintage costumes from famous productions, and by recreating the look by building new costumes.

Some memorable Light Opera Works costumes include A Little Night Music in 2009 and The Merry Widow from 2005. We built (theater parlance for "made") a lot of the costumes for Carousel.

All of the student's costumes for the current production of The Student Prince were made for us. See what we've done to add to those 500 student uniforms in The Student Prince, opening this week, by purchasing tickets here!

What were your favorite Light Opera Works costumes?

Wordless Wednesday

Hats from Hello, Dolly!

Iconic costumes

A delightful find from last year's production of Gigi was the name "Karin Wolfe" stitched into the bathing costume. Who was Karin Wolfe? She was Broadway's first "Gigi" and the first person to wear that very costume.

Our My Fair Lady costumes have an equally good pedigree. Leased from Costume World in Deerfield Beach, Florida, they are primarily originals and exact reproductions of Cecil Beaton's designs from the original Broadway production and the 1964 movie staring Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison. Beaton’s designs won the Tony Award for Best Costume Design (1956) and the Academy Award for Costume Design (1964). Costumer for our production is Jill Van Brussel.

Natalie Ford, who plays Eliza Doolittle in the Light Opera Works production, also portrayed our Gigi last season, and has gotten the opportunity to wear these iconic costumes for two of our productions.

For more information about the show or to purchase tickets visit www.LightOperaWorks.com or call (847) 869-6300.

photos: copyright 2009 Chris Ocken, photos feature Nick Sandys as Henry Higgins, Natalie Ford as Eliza Doolittle, and Jo Ann Minds as Mrs. Higgins