Costume Design Masterclass

Join Cassandra Lehman in a dynamic and creative workshop that teaches you how to plot out the costume construction process. Work from a design sketch to achieve a finished design plan to make a performance-ready costume. Cassandra will assist you in breaking down your design into the appropriate materials, and guide you towards choosing the best manufacturing processes. Learn how to estimate and source the right quantities of materials.

Cassandra is a wealth of knowledge and experience, and in this workshop she will share specialised artistic finishing methods and some industry secrets. You will experiment with a variety of tools and materials such as fabric swatches and samples, paint, dyes, stains and wire. There will be some unexpected and surprising techniques to learn as well!

Using her experience working in costume design, Cassandra will help you to think creatively and come up with practical solutions. Distance deceives the eye on stage, there are some clever tricks of the trade to transform materials. Cassandra knows how to make a new costume look old, a cheap fabric look expensive, a clean one look dirty or wet…these are the stories and examples which she will share on the day.

Aside from being experimental and a fun opportunity for skills development, you will achieve a step-by-step set of guidelines towards realising your idea as a finished and functional costume.

What is provided:
- Scissors and tools
- All materials
- Tuition with an industry expert

What to bring:
- At least one of your own costume drawings. Please bring a concept that you’d like to realise from the page to performance!
- A blank sketchbook and a pencil
- Please wear closed shoes
- Optional: any examples of swatches or fabric samples

Experience level of participants:
This Masterclass has been specially conceived for beginners and students, creative practitioners, visual and performance artists, and those wanting to explore costume as a medium. Participants just need to be able to bring a rough costume drawing or series of drawings. Established designers could also participate as an opportunity to expand their skills.

About Cassandra Lehman:
Cassandra Lehman has over two decades of experience in theatre production and design, and visual arts. She worked as the costume finisher, wardrobe department buyer and design liaison for the Australia Ballet, Victoria State Opera and Cameron Mackintosh Australia. Her personal art practice incorporated elements of textiles, costume and performance.

Cassandra has an extensive background in visual arts, art gallery management, photography and theatre production. Interests in Australian Indigenous and South East Asian contemporary arts, cultural studies and museology inform her research and arts practices. Previously the Galleries Coordinator at the Queensland College of Art, Director of the Woolloongabba Art Gallery and Senior Consultant to the Alice Springs Town Council where she authored the Public Art Policy.

Image: Courtesy of Cassandra Lehman, 2019