Baby's First Listicle: The Podcast Post

By: Kristen P Ahern

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

People constantly ask for Podcast recommendations and it’s taken a long time to curate a list of Podcasts that I enjoy and find useful as a white, cis, bi, environmentally conscious, socially aware, history loving, character designing, theatre artist who is constantly striving to be better in both her work and her life.

General Theatre

1. Howlround: Theatre Commons: They rebroadcast other podcasts under the Howlround heading and amplify important topics. Some of my recent favorites are From the Ground Up (devising with an emphasis in Chicago) and Daughters of Lorraine, two of my former classmates discussing important black, feminist theatre through an academic and historic lens.

2. Broadwaysted: Drinking, theatre games, iconic Broadway guests, fun facts, and interviews. It’s great for staying in touch with what is happening in New York theatre (mostly musicals) though it sometimes has a narrow focus on performers and commercial musicals. I’ve often looked up the shows mentioned here to stay in touch with what’s happening. UPDATE: I have unsubscribed, maybe it’s just during the pandemic but I wasn’t finding their conversation as enjoyable while the industry is pretty much inactive.

3. Off Book: The Black Theatre Podcast: I was reminded in taking an African American theatre history class in grad school how under-educated I am in black theatre history so I listen to make sure that I’m staying informed about what’s happening in theatre of color. Like other New York based podcasts, it has a clear New York focus but they get on a variety of creatives including performers, choreographers, directors, playwrights, etc... 

4. NEW The Smartist: Finally someone has created a resource for theatre people (and other artists) and business/finance! The Smartist is the podcast portion of Smartistry which was created to help artists have more sustainable careers instead of burning out.

Design/Costume

1. In 1: The Podcast:  The only podcast (that I’m aware of) that focuses exclusively on interviewing designers of live performance. It’s terrific to hear about how some of the best known designers got their start. Could it use more costume designers? Yeah. 

2. Frock Flicks: Terrific, often snarky, reviews of your favorite costume dramas. All of their social media is great and I’m only just getting into the podcast but definitely enjoying it. They work in the costume industry so they get why anachronisms get designed in, but that doesn’t stop them from being annoyed by it! 

3. Voice of Costume: A costume designer centered podcast. Unfortunately film focused rather than taking a broad spectrum look at costume design (and I personally think we are too siloed) but it is great hearing iconic designers describe their early career and process.

4. Dressed: The History of Fashion: They cover hot topics in fashion history and some underrepresented gems. Nothing groundbreaking here but a really fun listen and I’ve definitely learned some things even as someone with a solid foundation in fashion history.

5. NEW Dirty Laundry: Okay, I haven’t listened to this one yet….because no episodes are out yet and it was only announced a few days ago BUT I promise to update this post when I hear it. However I had to include it because it’s the intersection of costumes, environmental and ethical issues around costumes. Host Johanna Pan plans to tackle all the sticky topics like cultural appropriation, fatphobia, transphobia, safety, environmental impacts, labor issues and more in the professional costume industry. Can’t wait! 

Climate Change and Conscious Consumption

1. Mothers of Invention: Irish Feminist climate change solutions! What’s not to like? They highlight major issues and heros in climate change and feminism that’s increased my awareness on many topics.

2. America Adapts: The Climate Change Podcast: The early interviews are clunky and contain lots of leading questions. HOWEVER, I find the focus on adaptation for eventual climate impacts to be refreshing when so much media is still asking if climate change is real. He interviews experts already implementing projects to manage the impacts of climate change. I’m also impressed by the diversity of his guests! UPDATE: I’ve unsubscribed because I was pretty bored of climate coverage by a white, male on the science/policy side of the issue. See below for what I’m listening to now instead.

3. Conscious Chatter: Interviews with creators, designers, artisans, and entrepreneurs in the conscious clothing and “lifestyle” industry. There’s a wide range of perspectives here and it’s helping me find brands I can use in conscious designing. Kestrel Jenkins keeps it focused on us by asking what each listener can do in their everyday lives to be a better consumer.

4. Wardrobe Crisis: By the GODDESS Clare Press who does excellent interviews with visionaries all across sustainable or ethical design and production. It started with a focus on the fashion industry but definitely covers a wide range of topics and has opened my eyes. Similar to Conscious Chatter, but with an Aussie accent.

5. NEW Stories from Home: Living the Just Transition: From the Story Snapshots series by the Climate Justice Alliance. This is a new one but I’m already pretty hooked. Each episode does a deep dive into a Story Snapshot which are first hand accounts of “those living on the frontlines of the economic, democratic, and climate crises.” I’ve stopped listening to “America Adapts” because I was getting really tired of the dominance of white, academic voices dominating the climate conversation and this is definitely the antidote to that.

6. NEW Hot Take: This one is pretty new to my listening list also but it’s another attempt to replace “America Adapts” with something more inclusive. I wanted a social view of climate and environmental issues...not a scientific or policy one. So glad I’ve found this feminine lens on climate change issues!

Self Help and Inspiration 

1. Hidden Brain: This is a podcast my therapist recommended. As many in the arts, I’m no stranger to mental health struggles (anxiety, OCD, depression), and Shankar Vedantam interviews experts who explain why I feel the way I do. Not only do they explain why/how the brain works the way it does, but also how to adjust your thinking/actions to overcome some of that programming.

2. Help Me Be Me: I’m a little addicted to self help, approaching a variety of difficult situations and the episode notes are well labeled so it’s easy to pick and choose the most useful episodes from the archives.

3. Call Your Girlfriend: I’m not *great* with female friendship but this series makes me try harder. I love listening to Anne and Aminatou discuss….anything, they are delightfully passionate and pragmatic and just make me feel happy and fired up at the same time. Fuck the patriarchy, listen to them.

4. Heroine with Majo: Majo interviews femme identifying badasses and their stories are so inspiring and energizing. I’ve learned so much and it’s one I listen to often when I’m feeling disheartened.

5. The Overwhelmed Brain: I don’t like this one as much as Help Me Be Me, sometimes Paul Colaianni loses focus and the advice is definitely distributed from a place of male, financially-secure, privilege. However: I keep listening because he covers hard topics, and often has useful thoughts, and is always rooting for his listeners to succeed.

6. Creative PepTalk: Let me start by saying Andy is weird, he meanders through topics and takes a while to get back to the point. That said, I love his energy, his positivity, and his weirdness. Sometimes Andy just talks on his own ideas and sometimes he interviews creatives across the creative fields, mostly visual arts. Great tips for making goals, being a creative and a business person at the same time, and pushing through lulls in work and self doubts. Another one I’ll listen to on bad days.

7. Bad with Money: This one is my new OBSESSION. Money always terrified me, I used to wait LITERAL MONTHS to submit receipts, racking up credit card interest, because I just didn’t want to deal with it. Host Gaby Dunn is equally terrified but tackling the topic of personal (freelance artist) finance and the greater economy. I’m about a year behind right now, but we’re sharing a crisis about how impossible the system is so that’s….comforting? She challenges her guests who give routine advice to really consider people in impossible holes of systemic poverty who can’t just give up avocado toast to buy a house. Love this show.

8. NPR Life Kit: Relatively short episodes that each center a basic life “thing” and tips for how to navigate that situation. They cover a wide range of topics including diet culture, socializing as an adult, and parenting. It’s pretty easy to skip around on these and just cherry pick the episodes that interest you.

9. Hurry Slowly: Jocelyn K. Glei interviews a variety of experts on being more productive by being more mindful. There are tangible, actionable ideas for creatives, freelancers, and entrepreneurs that also dives into the science or theories behind those ideas.

Food

1. The Splendid Table: I liked this show when Lynn Rossetto Casper hosted it, but I ADORE Francis Lamb. Now it’s centered on the STORIES that food and food traditions tell. Sure we’ll chat about an ingredient but we’ll spend longer on the chef’s grandmother or the national event that inspired a dish. Food=stories, that’s why I love food. If you tried it before they changed hosts and didn’t dig it, try it again. 

2. GastroPod: This one explores a specific food each episode and the science and/or history of that food. It’s often the “why” of a food.

3. The Sporkful: I’m a nerd for food, if I ever leave the theatre world, it will be for food anthropology. This one covers more about history or dining than cooking or food science.

History

1. Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History: Dan never met a historical event for which he cannot envision a different outcome. This is a deep dive on subjects that you probably glossed over in twenty minutes in high school. I just finished a six episode series (at 3-5 hours per episode) on a selection of major battles of WWI, how they were connected and laid the groundwork for the second world war. Good for a long project or road trip, long form episodes help pass the time.

2. 50 Things That Made the Modern Economy: Short form episodes that each highlight some simple thing that has shaped how we live today, it makes you look at some everyday objects in new ways.

3. BBC History Extra: Interviews with experts on random events in history, they usually coincide with book releases or major exhibits but to the listener they’re random. Often reveals stuff I didn’t know, which is fun for a history nerd.

4. Great Leap Years with Stephen Fry: Stephen Fry has been one of my favorite personalities for a long time so I HAD to listen to this one. He discusses notable historical technology through the lens of how it’s important today. I’m only JUST starting the series but I’m already enjoying it.

5. Under the Influence: History of Marketing/Advertising. As someone who is interested in the history of consumer goods (like clothing), this is fascinating! It’s a scripted “…show about life through the lens of advertising.”

Storytelling and Games

1. This American Life: You all know this one, right? It’s storytelling on a theme. I love the blend of non-fiction and fiction, this is theatre, just in audio form.

2. The Moth: Short form, true, live storytelling, there are some amazing stories out there. Honestly it’s humbling and comforting to remember that other people have gotten through tough times. I love hearing about different childhoods and remembering that my experience is just one of many. Frequent tearjerker episodes.

3. Levar Burton Reads: Reading Rainbow for Adults! It’s weird hearing beloved childhood hero Levar swear or describe intimate scenes but you quickly move on and get sucked into the amazing story he’s telling. He often picks sci-fi or adjacent stories and frequently interviews the author. 

4. Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me: This one is probably also familiar. It’s news trivia with regular people, comedians, and celebrity guests. I listen to this one while driving or sewing, I like the interactivity, keeps me from going too stir crazy.

5. Ask Me Another: I actually like this one a bit better than “Wait Wait” because it’s more puzzles than trivia (one of my favorite games is “This, That, or The Other”). Also great for sewing or driving.

Science/Math/Information/Culture/Whatever didn’t fit in another category

1. TED Talks Daily: One or two TED talks a day, random subjects, frequently seems to match current events.

2. TED Radio Hour: Actually I like the Radio hour better than Daily because they combine different talks that are on similar subjects to give a broader picture of an issue AND do more detailed interviews with the speakers.

3. Freakonomics Radio: I attend the Podcast U School of Economics. They bill themselves as “examining the hidden side of everything” and I love that they delve into the economics of things that seemingly have nothing to do with economics.

4. Make Me Smart: This spinoff from Marketplace allows the creators to take a deep, nerdy, look at subjects they want to know more about. They respond to listener questions and input about the topic, frequently relating to the economy in some way. 

5. Science Friday: Lots of people work in the sciences and enjoy the arts as a hobby. I’m the opposite, I LOVE learning little science snippets each week, easy to digest, wide ranging topics, and great guests.

6. How I Built This: Interviews with founders of big brands about their early days. As someone trying to REINVENT the approach to costume design by making it more conscious, I’m joining a movement, managing a business, and defining a brand. It’s helpful to hear about founders living on sofas and eating ramen for 10 years before their idea was successful; that they just started running without actually knowing everything because it felt like the right direction. 

7. Fresh Air: Terri Gross is a brilliant interviewer, she gets great guests from all over the map of art, politics, literature, science, etc… They also frequently post “best of” where they’ll edit down two long form interviews to fit together in one episode. 

8. Code Switch: Honest and well balanced and researched conversations about various racial issues. Often tackling current events, doing in-depth conversations on big questions, or illuminating racialized history of mundane everyday things like certain foods or phrases. This helps me break outside the echo chamber in which I grew up.

9. On Being: Though this is a religious or spiritual podcast, I don’t consider myself either of those things. I’m wrestling with many of the philosophical and ethical topics on this show and each interview tends to boil down to the importance of being a kind, open, and giving person. It doesn’t matter what “faith journey” you ‘re on, that’s a mission I can get behind.

10. NEW Curious City: Now that I’m back in Chicago, I’m back listening to Curious City. It’s one of those “I’ve always wondered why” podcasts from NPR that tries to find the answer/history to common questions about Chicago area...stuff. As with anything from NPR, pretty good at being balanced and clear.

UPDATED ON 9/30/2020

Kristen P Ahern

Kristen is the founder of Conscious Costume and a designer, activist, organizer, and educator in the Chicago area.

February Conscious Hero: Beth Uber

By: Kristen P Ahern

Threadline Studios main workspace

For our first few features, I want to stay in my Chicago community which inspires me so much. February we are highlighting Beth Uber, an incredible local draper and a champion of shared resources for costume professionals. 

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. After a large contract for Lyric Opera that exceeded the capacity of her small apartment and led to MANY awkward red line rides, Beth realized how impossible constructing costumes without shop infrastructure is; she needed a real workspace if she was going to make freelance draping her full time career. It needed everything that her job at the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre shop had, but she did not need it all to herself and could share the resource. Thus both Uber Costume and Threadline Studios were born in a Rogers Park storefront that Beth passed each day on her way to the red line.

Many theatres in Chicago do not offer construction space for costumes, in contrast to many other design areas, so local designers and technicians previously had to build and store costumes in their homes. Having Threadline as a resource empowers designers to have labor equity with other design areas. “By using the studio and turning a bill to the production manager, a costume designer can easily show an expense...negotiating time at the studio into your budget is useful way to demonstrate that, while most sets are similar in terms of materials and construction process, when a theatre picks intensive costume shows there is an additional challenge that should be taken into consideration and compensated for.” remarks Beth.

Threadline is a member based organization with a low enough cost for membership that even designers working in storefont theatres can afford ($25/year) and gain access to free perks (like free fabrics, notions, pattern and reference book library!). However, the real treasure of this space is...well, the space. Threadline offers all the perks of a major costume shop with a “pay as you go” rate of $25/day, this includes eight foot cutting tables, well maintained machines, industrial irons, a huge variety of dress forms, storage space, fitting space, etc… However, as Beth points out: “we can't pay the rent with compliments...Threadline needs people to use it to stay open.” A loyal, routine user base is key to any successful membership community.

Beyond a workspace, Beth created a gathering space for costume professionals to build community. I’ve met more Chicago costume professionals at Threadline in the last few months of our partnership than I did for the first three years of working in the city. It is a community of costume folks who have decided ENOUGH with cutting fur and sequins on our kitchen tables and who want to separate work and home and it is so inspiring. If you live in or around Chicago, come check out the space by booking a tour or coming to one of our open houses. 

Beth and I met about six months ago as I began researching space for a shared costume stock. Conscious Costume Closet opened within Threadline Studios because Beth and I instantly saw a common cause in our individual missions: to serve Chicago costume professionals and be the infrastructure that small theatre companies do not offer. 

Sharing resources is one of the best ways to be more environmentally and ethically conscious in your costume production, it reduces waste and increases accessibility! I’m thrilled to work with her and this is why Beth Uber is the February #ConsciousHeroOTM! 

If you think work like this is important and want to see more of it, please consider becoming a patron for as little as $2/month and gain access to exclusive content.

Threadline Studio’s private fitting room complete with the most comfortable couch I’ve ever napped on!

Kristen P Ahern

Kristen is the founder of Conscious Costume and a designer, activist, organizer, and educator in the Chicago area.

Positive Practices in Costume Survey Results

Graphic by Michael J Gibson

Text “Positive Practices in Costume Design, a survey by Conscious Costume. Out of 114 Respondents in 5 countries, 67.5% are Costume Designers, by role. 62% work with budgets between $1000-$5000, 40.3% consider themselves “Actively Interested” in Positive Practices, 43% of respondents work in Educational Performance, 32.5% of Designers say environmental impact is “Always” considered, 1.7% say they “Never” consider it, Pre-production is the most common time to project the impacts of a design, 48.2% say that’s when it’s most considered”

In 2017, I began laying the groundwork for what would eventually become Conscious Costume’s little online community and resource guide. Before diving into creating resources, I wanted to gauge the status of the costume industry at large and get an understanding of what people already knew and cared about when it came to sustainable production. The survey was completed in late 2017, and I planned to publish this article not long after, but life sometimes gets in the way and my partner was diagnosed with stage IV cancer and underwent emergency surgery at the same time, so this passion project was put on hold. Life is finally back on track and I’m ready to share the results with all of you! 

A few notes about my approach before we dive in: 

• Every question was optional to make the survey more accessible to people with time constraints, or who feel a question didn’t apply to them. As a result, most questions have slightly different response rates, but each has been checked for statistical significance. 

• Responding to the survey was completely voluntary, with no incentives to answer one way or the other. 

• At the time of the survey, I was connected to a higher-ed institution (University of Maryland), and I shared the survey with the staff there. 

• Questions were either multiple choice, ranked scale, or short answer and multiple responses were permitted. 

• A total of 114 professionals responded, with a wide geographic spread concentrated in the following areas:

  • NYC 14 (16%)

  • Chicago 7 (8%)

  • International (EU 4, Can 1, Aus/NZ 2) 7 (8%)

  • Houston 6 (6.8%)

  • Southern California 5 (5.7%)

  • Pacific Northwest 5 (5.7%)

The Positive Practices survey was created to understand and test some assumptions I had about the costume industry. Calling these “Positive Practices” was some early terminology play as I honed in on the word “Conscious” to describe how I try to engage with design, but we’ll dig into that more later. 

One assumption I had is that people simply aren't informed about the impact of the textile industry and how they as costume professionals can engage in “Positive Practices” around that knowledge. This appears to be true given that 55.3% of respondents self reported that they do not consider themselves to be knowledgeable about the topic of the environmental impact of costume production and 42.1% only have a basic understanding. This is an aggregate response based on seven ranked choice questions about different areas of the environmental and human rights impact of the garment industry. 

Another concern I had when I began this survey is that people simply don’t care about being more sustainable or ethical in their costume production. Here, the results were pleasantly surprising with 40.3% reporting an active interest, and a whopping 36.8% reporting extreme interest. Thankfully, only around 23% responded that they are either passively interested or actively disinterested. I do wonder if people who have an existing interest in the topic would be more likely to voluntarily respond than people who don’t, so I believe these numbers could be skewed based on the pool of responses we were able to gather.

Knowing how informed and interested costume professionals currently are was the first step but the next step was to determine what they see as barriers to more sustainable or ethical practices. No shocking information here: Time and Money. 98 of the 114 (or 86%) saw money as the biggest barrier to positive practices. All too regularly, sustainability is simply seen as too expensive to tackle. While it’s true that many environmentally conscious brands fall into the category of expensive luxury items (like Eileen Fisher charging nearly $200 for a pair of culottes) there are many new brands making a mark at an affordable level (like Pact Organic’s organic cotton pocket legging currently on clearance for $15 but regularly $35). A designer or shop can save money by sourcing some items second hand and divert the saved budget to slightly more expensive but more consciously sourced garments, fabrics, and other supplies.

Time is the more challenging barrier to overcome. 71.9% of those surveyed saw time as a barrier to more sustainable practices. However, when taken together, 40% of respondents felt they only needed 10% more time or money to find more environmentally friendly or ethical solutions to their costume production. That’s achievable! This is where Conscious Costume is working to create solutions to make positive practices more affordable and efficient. I’m currently working to create a resource list (a working document can be found here) for commonly used costume items like garments and fabrics. Once that is finished, I will begin working on a sourcing flowchart that can suggest how to source and item depending on what it is. Another document currently being drafted is a series of best practices for costume professionals to provide a guide for more conscious costume production. These tools should make sustainable sourcing faster and more achievable.

Interestingly, local availability was seen as a huge barrier to sustainable choices. While we use many specialized products and lament the loss of major retailers carrying supplies we need, I was still surprised that 67.5% of respondents felt that local availability is one of their most common barriers, and this included costume professionals located in major cities like Chicago and New York. I connect this to education and people not always being aware of what resources are available in their city, rather than actual limited supply. It’s true that most sustainably manufactured clothing is available online but there is a growing trend towards brands carrying a “green” line in stores. The sourcing documents mentioned above should help this issue. In the meantime, there are many local resources like the Broadway Green Alliance, the Chicago Green Theatre Alliance, and We Are Albert, among others, who provide lists of local resources in those cities.

Another barrier to more conscious practices could also be that many people feel that they are already doing “good.” 56% of respondents report “Always” donating used costumes, and almost 75% of respondents use biodegradable or eco-friendly laundry detergent (24.5 always and 49.1 sometimes). I find costume professionals to be some of the most resourceful people I know. They save fabric scraps, find ways to repurpose mock up muslin, use pattern pieces multiple applications, and more. While these are important steps towards sustainability, there is often room for improvement. Feeling good about producing less waste and being resourceful can lull people into a false sense of virtue, rather than allowing them to confront less ideal choices they are making. We as an industry have blindspots for “the way things have always been done.”

The final question I asked was if respondents had any comments. I found those responses to match conversations I’ve had with theatre professionals all across the board. We all feel powerless. Producers don’t want to spend more money than they have to, drapers and craftspeople don’t get to weigh in on budgets or calendars, shop managers have to do what designers want, and designers don’t want to ask the shops to do things too far outside their comfort zone.  One person replied

“I would love to spend more money and time on this, but sometimes it's not in my power to do so at my companies, and I end up doing what I have to do in order to finish the job with less-than-ideal time and money, or I don't feel that I am able to take the risk of using a new less-toxic product/etc if I'm not sure it will work or hold up for the run of a show.”

Another person shared

“most costume designers are consistently forced to be more concerned with time and money because of production restraints.” 

Recently I had a conversation with someone employed in a costume shop in a major regional theatre. She’s in a position of some authority in the shop but felt powerless to have a more positive environmental impact because the designer is usually the one making decisions whereas I had the opposite experience. Shops where I was working as a designer seemed disinterested in my environmental efforts because they were time consuming or created other potential problems like not being able to reorder fabrics. 

The reason I choose to focus on language such as “Positive” or “Conscious” in my artistic practice is to keep the emphasis on the effort or desire to minimize environmental impact. This survey clearly shows that people have a high level of interest but aren’t necessarily sure where to begin. I believe those individuals are still engaging in conscious costume production because of their good intentions.

Gathering information through this survey helped legitimize some of my perceptions but also expanded my view of how and why the costume industry has the relationship with environmentally friendly practices that it does. Time, money, and availability of resources are challenges that even the most conventional design faces, add trying to source from sustainable and ethical sources and it becomes that much more challenging, I know this from personal experience. The institution of performing arts encourages a certain way of doing things, audiences want to walk into experiences they understand and the whole industry is shaped around trying to fulfill the expectations of patrons and artists. While many of us individually care, there is a perception that we are each alone. I believe that by having more of these conversations openly, constantly asking “Could we make a more conscious choice?” at each step, we will find solutions that work within our different branches professional costume production.

A full graphic breakdown can be found on the Conscious Costume Patreon page. If you think work like this is important and want to see more of it, please consider becoming a patron for as little as $2/month and gain access to exclusive content.

Kristen P Ahern

Kristen is the founder of Conscious Costume and a designer, activist, organizer, and educator in the Chicago area.

January Conscious Hero: Elsa Hiltner

Photo by Jude Beck on Unsplash

By: Kristen P Ahern

New in 2020! Let’s focus on (because it’s 2020...get it?) some of the heroic work already happening in creating more Conscious Costumes. Each month I will feature one person who I consider a Conscious Hero relating to the creation of Conscious Costumes.

To launch this series, I’m starting close to home with an activist in the local Chicago theatre community who has a voice on the national level. She is a friend, mentor, and personal hero of mine: Elsa Hiltner.

I assisted Elsa early in my career and learned so much about the problematic textile industry right out of the gate. Then, in 2016, Elsa shared the depth of her activism for better working conditions for costume designers by writing a compelling (and controversial) essay featured in Howlround that called out lack of labor support for costumes in many theatres and the relationship with the gendered history of theatrical design fields and sewing as a craft. In the article she calls for sweeping change in budgeting and hiring practices by small and midsize theatres who often require costume designers to recruit and pay for their own labor. 

Elsa’s defines herself as a storyteller, her “costumes speak about the characters, relationships, the plot, and environment all while looking as natural on the surface as if the characters had dressed themselves.” Add to that her dedication to raising up her fellow designers, women, and textile workers and you can see why she was the obvious choice for my first #ConsciousHeroOTM!

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. 

Right now, Elsa serves as the Director of Development for Collaboraction, “an ethno-diverse theatre company using art to dismantle oppression and transform Chicago,” and designs costumes for theatre and commercials. Her work will continue to inspire me to be a more considerate artist and I am so grateful to know her!

If you think work like this is important and want to see more of it, please consider becoming a patron for as little as $2/month and gain access to exclusive content.

Kristen P Ahern

Kristen is the founder of Conscious Costume and a designer, activist, organizer, and educator in the Chicago area.

My "Street Scene" Conscious Budget

by: Kristen P Ahern

Photo by David Andrews

THE MATH:

Total Budget: $14000

Total Spent: 12229.36 + some additional shipping unaccounted for

Conscious Sources: 5507.95

Total percent on Conscious Sources: 45.04%

For the second #MyConciousBudget post, let’s talk about the elephant in the room when it comes to conscious sourcing: SCALE. It’s relatively easy to source from conscious sources on a small scale:

Cast and director understand the budget restrictions and manage expectations accordingly

Constructing yourself means more control over materials

No need to comply with union rules or expectations on new items

Time is the biggest one. Sourcing 10 pairs of shoes second hand in 2 months is still a big undertaking but I can do it. Sourcing 50 pairs of shoes in the same time period becomes almost impossible.

The ongoing question I have been asking myself for years is how exactly do we successfully scale more conscious sourcing to bigger, more institutionalized, productions? On Street Scene at the Maryland Opera Studio, I explored some possible solutions:

SHARING ECONOMY:

Photo by David Andrews

The “sharing economy” needs to transition to performing arts production in a much bigger way. There are now many internet sources to consider, I’ve seen huge success sharing materials in local Facebook groups. One company is getting rid of materials, another is looking for a hard to find item and then reach out to each other. What if there were a way to reach outside your immediate network and find the perfect item anywhere in the country/world? On Street Scene I made use of existing costume sharing economy sources like major rental houses.

What if there were a way to reach outside your immediate network and find the perfect item anywhere in the country/world?

REUSABILITY:

Photo by David Andrews

Designing costumes with their next use in mind is a significant part of scaling conscious costuming. One advantage shows with more resources has is the time and money to make choices that could extend the lives of the costumes.

A big component of the Street Scene design was distressing. The characters needed to appear poor, their clothes were old but well cared for. In executing the distressing, the craftsperson and I chose to focus on non toxic forms of distressing like washing and sanding to create a sense of age on new clothes. We also used dry clean removable distressing pigments, particularly those from Patin-a. This meant that we could distress brand new clothes, including built items, and put them back in stock clean to be used on future productions where the distressing may not be a part of the design.

SMALL BUSINESS SOURCING:

Beyond second hand, which I discussed extensively in my breakdown of Be More Chill, I also made an effort to patronize small businesses. Simply buying zippers from the locally owned fabric store was enough to know that my production was helping my community.

This mentality goes to costume design and sourcing before the advent of the internet. Small specialty stores, until very recently, were the lifeblood of the costume industry and supporting those types of stores can be an important part of more conscious sourcing. In the above math, I did not count major New York Garment District fabric stores as conscious sources. Though I did use Mood, NY Elegant, and B&J’s for fabrics for the show and tried to only purchase natural fibers, I wanted to focus this evaluation on better sources like deadstock fabrics in Stella Dallas and FabScrap.

Photo by David Andrews

Scaling this type of design was a gentle reminder that money and labor aren’t everything in conscious sourcing. Having access to more of both did not make sourcing more consciously any easier because of the additional voices in the conversation on sourcing. In considering the scale of future productions, I think transparency with the production team is important. A designer needs buy in on all levels of the team from the rest of the creative team to the shop staff to successfully execute on conscious design.

If you think work like this is important and want to see more of it, please consider becoming a patron for as little as $2/month and gain access to exclusive content.

Kristen P Ahern

Kristen is the founder of Conscious Costume and a designer, activist, organizer, and educator in the Chicago area.

My "Be More Chill" Conscious Budget

By: Kristen P Ahern

Photo by RJ Pavel, Be More Chill, Monumental Theatre Co., Directed by Izzy Smelkinson, Scenic Design by Simone Schneeberg, Lighting Design by Helen Garcia-Alton, Sound Design by Jordana Abrenica

The Math:

Total Budget: $1000
Total Spent:  $1022
Total Labor: $125
Total spent on materials: $897.88
Non Conscious sources: Amazon, Burlington, Beauty Supply stores, JoAnne: $109.91
Conscious Sources: Value Village, Unique, Poshmark, Community Forklift: $787.97
Total percent on Conscious Sources: 87.8%

Beginning each project, I try to plan out where I can purchase each item. Some things lend themselves obviously to purchase from quick and easy sustainable sources like thrift stores (yes, I know resale is problematic but let me have this win, okay?) When designing Be More Chill, I was struck by simply one thing: the show is F-ING HUGE. Well, bigger than I’d expected at least. Fifty-six looks at first pass with a budget of just one thousand dollars. With a tech week contingency plan of ten percent, that left just sixteen dollars per look, a tight budget for anyone but even harder when considering my goals for sustainability.

Photo by RJ Pavel, Be More Chill, Monumental Theatre Co., Directed by Izzy Smelkinson, Scenic Design by Simone Schneeberg, Lighting Design by Helen Garcia-Alton, Sound Design by Jordana Abrenica

Fortunately, there are now more sources than ever for online clothing resale that help find just the right item. My best friend for accomplishing the build of BMC was Poshmark. This isn’t a sponsored post or anything (though that link does lead to my store), I just found it to be a terrific tool for finding items that were really specific or out of season. I was able to purchase a lightly used faux leather jacket for just $15, a sequin mini skirt for $9, and the perfect sneakers for $12.

In addition to these low-cost, second-hand costume pieces, I took advantage of every opportunity I could to find materials for free. As with any production, I look to my community for potential sources. In this case, I was able to borrow from two local companies with great success! Fortunately, they do not charge for rentals so I was able to get some fantastic costume pieces for free. My network is absolutely essential for creating sustainable costumes on a tight budget.

Photo of Squip ensemble “shoulder pads,” eventually these were cut.

Next place I was able to find free materials was looking at found objects. Again, here I reached out to my community but in this case it was to the cast, Freecycle, and Craigslist in search of electronic cords or anything “techy” looking to help bring cyborgs to life. The cast and creative team obliged, and I was gifted a huge bag of old chargers, ethernet cables, and other cords. These were used on the Squip costume primarily. There were originally a series of costumes that required cables as a part of ensemble costumes but those were cut early in the tech process so it turned out that I’d acquired far too much in the way of cords and tubes. These costume pieces for the ensemble characters also made use of other found objects around my studio. I used some old heavyweight cotton as the foundation and glued that to pieces of Tyvek mailing envelope for support instead of purchasing and using more expensive, and brand new, interfacing.

Photo by RJ Pavel, Be More Chill, Monumental Theatre Co., Directed by Izzy Smelkinson, Scenic Design by Simone Schneeberg, Lighting Design by Helen Garcia-Alton, Sound Design by Jordana Abrenica

I was able to use in stock fabric for many different costume pieces, this saved me budget on this very tight show but also used fabrics in my stock rather than buying new. Many of these fabrics had been sourced second hand in the first place or were leftover from other costumes I’d made in the last 10 years. Another unusual object I used was vinyl bedding bags, the big clear zippered ones that new comforters or “bed in a bags” come in. Rather than buying new vinyl, my draper took apart these bags which were purchased for only $1.50 a piece and created vinyl yardage to be used in the Squip’s skirt.

Please join me in examining the percentage of your budget that is spent on more conscious sources. This could include natural fibers where you might have used synthetic in the past, it could be organic cotton, recycled polyester, second hand, US made or anything else that just moves the needle in a slightly better direction. Tweet or Instagram your results with the hashtag #myconsciousbudget with your percentage so we can all try to do better! This one was an outlier for me, soon I will be posting about a very different project in every way and I don’t think I was nearly as successful in my percentage!

If you think work like this is important and want to see more of it, please consider becoming a patron for as little as $2/month and gain access to exclusive content.

Kristen P Ahern

Kristen is the founder of Conscious Costume and a designer, activist, organizer, and educator in the Chicago area.