Shelley tells us about running the costume department on Home and Away!
What’s a typical week like for you and your staff?
I’m out buying two days a week: Tuesdays and Thursdays. I go straight to the wholesalers and go the viewings for the upcoming season. What I buy is about three or four months ahead, so by the time it appears onscreen, it’s just coming out in the shops, which works for them. If you do retail shopping by the time it appears onscreen they’ve sold out! Right now I’m nearly finished buying for summer. I always buy two when I buy wholesale, so it’s like I’m getting two for the price of one compared to shopping retail. We shoot studio and location at the same time, and we have one set of clothes at both, so the actors aren’t having to bring their costumes back and forth – they can lose things. We also do lots of fights and lots of spilling things, so you’ve gotta have at least two. I’m here in the studio Monday, Wednesdays, Fridays: I don’t go to set very often. I have three assistants [who are called Standby Costume] who rotate week to week. It means there’s one person looking after one block each, which is a week’s worth of five episodes: prepping the clothes, being there onset and then washing all the clothes and putting them away. A big part of the job is continuity: making sure the characters are wearing the right clothes from scene-to-scene.
What’s the process of finding the right look for a new character?
We get a rough character breakdown from the script department, which has been discussed between the script producer and the producer. The executive producer will get involved sometimes. I’ll speak to the producer [Julie McGauran] and we’ll work out what the general look is. She’s pretty good, she’ll usually let me do whatever I feel is right. Sometimes if she’s a bit concerned about the character or wants a very specific look, I’ll take Polaroids or she’ll come down and we’ll discuss things. I’ll get the actor in for a fitting, usually a week before they’re onscreen in case we have to do more shopping for them. If the clothes don’t fit it’s easier to put them in excess stock, which we use for extras, rather than getting it altered. We do the fitting then I put their wardrobe together, then we add to that as we go. Sometimes they come across differently onscreen from how I think they’re going to come across – they might be acting differently to what I think they will be. Sometimes we’ll change things just slightly, sometimes we’ll change it a lot! The producers and the director might have ideas as well. For example, with the character of Diesel, when we saw him onscreen we realized we had been playing it a bit safe with him. We added a few more piercings and did things like break his wardrobe down more – that means we made it dirtier and more lived in!
How did you get into the industry?
I’ve been with Home and Away for seven years! I studied theatre design: costume and set design at Wollongong Uni, a BA in Creative Arts. I did theatre for about five years which was a really nice start into building character. I streamlined towards costume and then moved into television about eight or nine years ago. I definitely wanted to get into a creative field, I wasn’t interested in fashion at all, I was more interested in theatre, plays, creating more history-based things, which led to television. I was never really wanting to be in the fashion industry. Some people come from fashion into TV, and some people come from theatre – there’s two different ways you can come into it. A lot of our girls come from fashion industries. It depends on what you study.
What advice would you give to aspiring costume designers?
Do the textiles-based course in year 12 – Textiles and Design. Some designers say you don’t need to know how to sow which can be true but I do believe knowledge in garment construction itself is necessary just for fittings: to know how to fit somebody is imperative I believe, and just knowing basics of design, colour, texture, line all those things, whether it's through sort of design course… Those base elements are quite important.
Shelley answers your fashion questions! Click on the Fashion Q+A page and check it out!
