The Woman Behind the Costume

Acclaimed costume designer Marilyn Wall bestowed her time upon the SJVP groups Saturday about her extensive and extravagant design past, present and future.

As one of the original founders of the Hippodrome Theatre, Wall shared that she did not have prior costume design experience. She divulged with us that she learns the best when she fails, including when she had to glue fabric together before she learned the trade of needle and thread.

From there, Wall’s sketches also took a leap forward, from 2-D to 3-D. She could take paper towels, linens, or anything that could cause inspiration and incorporate it into her plethora of sketches.

Wall enjoyed sitting at her office at home looking into a bin of textures she had and eyeing some kind of inspiration. Even when throwing out trash, she saw how beautifully paper towels absorbed color and used it in a sketch she presented to a director for an idea of a nymph costume.

Among the many colors, textures, and materials strewn across her work bench, she showed us some of the most intricate and prized designs she’s transformed into costumes. He fantastic eye for detail and texture was plastered everywhere with costumes of the past draped, hung, and showcased all over her workshop. One of the items particularly challenging, as Wall told us, was a costume she had done for a siren during a mythological production; the head piece was formed from a hardened doily, with large holes cut out for eyes and wet feathers along the top to give a sort of modern, ethereal look.

She keeps within her little nest of fabric, several different costumes that were particular intriguing over the years. She has over by her desk hanging on the wall an original sketch of a large, dark cloak she made (and even created her own fabric for), with a photo of the cloak in action during its production with its ends billowing over fans (Wall also still has the cloak hanging next to her door in the costume room).

Wall also feels that out of tragedy can come some of the most inspired work, such as her work with Macbeth. The labyrinthine of materials blending together to create such masterpieces, each surprisingly better than the last and more fervently thought out as well. With a love and passion for her chosen path, Marilyn Wall continues to design costumes, not only at the Hippodrome, through the future.




-Cori Orcasitas