January Conscious Hero: Elsa Hiltner... Again!
Elsa’s work in labor equity began as concerns about labor surrounding the clothes that she buys and wears. Elsa searched for information specific to the costume industry, recognizing how the gendered and exploitative pay in the garment industry was reflected in theatre but couldn’t find any resources so she took it upon herself to begin writing…
December Conscious Hero: Kaitlin Stewart
Kaitlin brings a sense of joy to finding and using second hand clothing, she has a passion for social justice issues, and sees Eco styling as a way that combines all of her different loves and passions. When she is performing, she identifies most strongly with her character when she gets into costume, she doesn’t fully feel like the character until that moment…
November Conscious Hero: Lauren Gaston
Lauren is a freelance costume designer, costume technician, and co-author of the Sustainable Production Toolkit. Early in her career, Lauren worked at a major opera house where she found herself in awe of the beautiful costumes but saddened seeing fabric waste in the trash bins. This issue is not unique to Lauren’s experience but all production processes create an amount of overage at scale…
June Conscious Hero: Tristan Raines
Vintage clothing is always present in the life of Tristan Raines both personally and professionally. He finds that vintage clothing can be a window into exploring how fashion repeats itself and defining the look of a design. Handling the physical pieces helps really understand the detailing, silhouettes, and fabrics of the clothing…
May Conscious Hero: Felicia Young
Felicia Young’s participatory art demonstrates how the arts can bring people and partner groups together to have powerful, tangible impact on their communities. Following Hurricane Sandy in 2012, the NYC gardens that Earth Celebrations helped save are now seen clearly for their role in climate resiliency, absorbing flood water and sequestering carbon…
March Conscious Hero: Elizabeth Wislar
Elizabeth highlighted that pushing back against wage systems can have disastrous financial impacts. Similarly there is privilege in living a sustainable lifestyle, both sustainable choices in costuming and in life can be more expensive. By building a more financially stable theatre community, more people have the option to make healthier choices for themselves and the environment.
February Conscious Hero: Beth Uber
While many people have discussed the need for shared studio space, in 2014 Beth took the leap and launched Threadline Studios to fill that need. She was fascinated by the sharing economy which worked well for industries like transportation or conventional office space. Beyond a workspace, Beth created a gathering space for costume professionals to build community…
January Conscious Hero: Elsa Hiltner
Elsa motivates me to examine my process and she inspired me to really explore environmentalism in costume design. Her knowledge and passion for human rights encouraged me to dig deeper, beyond environmental impact, to pursue advocacy for more holistic conscious costumes that consider the people and the planet impacted by the creation and disposal of each costume I design…