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My role as a costume manager requires a lot of skills, knowledge and responsibilities to be able to perform my job role to the fullest, in my role as a costume manager im responsible for the overall costuming of a production which includes a list of jobs that I need to conduct in a professional an effective way to have an amazing costumed set of actors, as a manager im responsible for design, construction, documentation and cleaning of costumes.

The first duties as a costume manager is communicating with my team and ensuring that we produce well thought out plans and schedules, schedules are important because they make sure we stick to time limits and helps me plan jobs that need to be assigned to my members. This helps me ensure that all my members have roles and know what needs to be done, they can also point out any jobs that should be added to the schedule as there should be a physical copy.

In my role I ensure that the production goes smoothly that means I need to be able to solve challenges and issues that might come up which is highly likely, as a manager I ensure that we stick to those schedules, budget plans and the process of costuming is handled with patience and responsibility as costume involves a lot of jobs such as fitting, hiring, sourcing, making cast measurement sheets, garment construction which involves mocks and buying fabric and overall wardrobe like producing rails and preparing fitting rooms.

As a manager I need to ensure that fine details are communicated properly These are jobs like taking minutes of meetings, cast sizes, themes that the director introduces in their briefs and similar tasks that need to be researched into because we can't start hiring, sourcing or construction without knowing this information.

My role has many jobs that I need to conduct myself and assign to my team members, other than the general sourcing, hiring and construction of garments there's other jobs that need to be done such as making emergency sewing kits, preparing fitting rooms which means making signs, labels for rails, organising the costume rail and also maintaining costumes like washing, ironing and drying sometimes even fragrance sprays.

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As a manager I have a responsibility to take notes and then produce detailed documents that aid myself and my team in the production, these documents are really important because they ensure that important information isn't forgotten and can always be referred back to, with all the jobs and information provided notes and information can be so easily forgotten.

These documents are usually to-do lists (these can be done on whiteboards so they're more visible) google sheets, I use this app to process, breakdown and write down who we have measured, what costumes we have provided for each actor and used as checklists that approve of all the costumes we have provided, this makes it easier to see what we have and don't have for every actor.

Documenting information like receipts and other important details like emails and transactions such as budget plans or what we have spent budget on is also important, this allows me to show proof to others on what we have bought as well as demonstrating to my team how much budget we have and what we need to spend it on, as a costume manager this helps me in my role because it really helps me communicate with my team and it gives my team a chance to provide their own notes and ideas they have for costumes which I believe is healthy as it allows my members to get involved and create their own skills and experiences.

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In my manger role it's my responsibility to look over any designing and construction to ensure that it's all going smoothly and if anyone needs help and support, it's important that I ensure that designs and construction goes well when myself and other begin those tasks because they're really important, designs influence the outcome and how the directors view and approve our artistic visions.

I need to make sure that everyone understands the themes and characters before designing anything, by communicating with my team and what characters they'll be designing, ensuring that they research the character properly is part of my role and responsibility. The designs are really important as they influence our out come and how well the director thinks we've grasped their concepts that they've discussed with us as well as this I need to ensure that my team can properly present and discuss their designs in a professional way this means that I can do it for them which means I would need a detailed description of what their design is trying to achieve or they could do it themselves which would mean I need to check how and what they will present to ensure that they're doing it to the best of their abilities.

When constructing garments its my responsibility that my team know how to use all the equipment in the costume room as well as this to support them in their creation and to provide advice if they ask for help, not everyone is skilled and has the knowledge to create everything it's in my role to be able to help them and guide them in the right way. As well as this I will need to observe what they're doing and what I'm doing myself to make sure we aren't making any mistakes and staying on theme.

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As well as ensuring that designs and construction go well it's also my responsibility to ensure that sourcing and hiring is handled properly, this job will only be handled by the manager as it's a really important task to get right.

When sourcing and hiring I need to have a budget approved this means finding out the price of all the costs that we will be spending our budget on, ensuring we have some contingency left over in case we need to buy anything in an emergency whilst also having enough budget for all our costumes, when creating a budget plan I will write where all our budget is going and it's being spent on before showing it to the tutors to be approved, once approved we can start spending on costumes.

When sourcing I will approve where we are spending our budget, ensuring the site or shop we are buying from is the cheapest and most reliable source and we will be able to get it delivered within time (sometimes sites can buy from china which can take months to arrive) this is my responsibility to ensure that everything is checked over and good to go.

When hiring I need to find out who we are hiring from and how to contact them, I will be the one to call or email and set up an appointment and then taking anyone that I need with me to go find costumes and make a reservation rail, after this it will be my job to take back the price and inform the person handling the budget how much it will cost. I will also be the person as it's my responsibility and role to go collect those costumes, this means setting up any travel and travel costs and a day to go collect the costumes as well as a day we take back the costumes.

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Maintaining backstage as a manager is my job to ensure that my team know what they need to do and look out for, backstage is a big job and its important, it involves preparing and maintaining a tidy and professional manor that can be hard to keep once we become friendly with the actors and getting into the groove of things.

It's my responsibility to ensure that my team all know what jobs they need to do this can be things like creating signs and knowing what I want as a manager to be on their signs, creating emergency sewing kits, preparing rails and tags, preparing living area (fitting rooms, bins, items boxes ect) and other jobs like knowing exactly when quick changes are backstage or being able to hold doors open and hold other peoples accessories for them to quickly put back on in between scenes.

As well as this it's my role to maintain these standards during the production, ensuring that my team know how to enforce rules and that they're always being enforced and who to let know if they aren't listening to us. It's my responsibility that the costume rail has costumes put away neatly and labelled properly as well as this that the actors and my team tidy up properly after every production to ensure we maintain a professional backstage room ready to be used again the next day.

I also need to ensure that emergency sewing kits are always on hand and also always fully stocked up, it's easy for the kits to become disorganised and messy. In my roles I need to ensure that my team have all been communicated with and know when quick changes are, when actors need specific accessories given to them and to be overall on hand in specific areas during production, I will also ensure that everyone can swap jobs so they stay motivated and not bored.

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In my role I'm required to ensure that costumes are maintained in a healthy and professional way that ensures that costumes are clean, neat and undamaged, it's my responsibility that this respected and costumes are always treat with care.

My responsibilities include multiple tasks, the most basic is washing and general ironing of costumes, costumes should be washed frequently of they're being used in a production and also after a production, it's advised by most to wash costumes before a production because when they're sitting around they can collect dirt and dust, it's also just a nice gesture to the actors who have to wear them. Usually we iron costumes before they're used to make them look well cared for, neat and tidy, letting an actor on stage with a creased up shirt wouldn't look nice and would reflect badly on me, it's my responsibility to ensure that we do do all the washing and ironing of costumes before, during and after the production.

Costumes can also be stained and damaged during a production, it's really likely actually due to all the dancing and movements that they do as well as this some costumes can be old or well used which causes them to more prone to damage.

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Working with the director begins at the start of the production, they're with you throughout and are here to demonstrate and communicate their artistic vision and theme of the production. They'll always know what they like, dont like and what they want from you, it's my responsibility in my role to be able to take the directors vision and turn it into reality.

The first part of my role is to attend meetings, in these meetings it's my responsibility to take minutes of meetings (notes) and then communicate those notes to the rest of the team, these notes can be anywhere from the director saying they don't like something, they want something being bought/constructed, they love an idea or a costume or they want a costume to be edited. It's also my responsibility to let the director know if what she's asking is possible or within our budget or when we'll be able to get it done by.

These meetings are also a way for us to communicate with the director, we can show them our designs and explanation for the designs, mood boards, fabric samples and present mock up costumes or finished costumes. This gives us the ability to discuss any issues at the time and take on board suggestions and advice, sometimes directors are full of knowledge and skills that they can give back to you or they have their own resources that they can share with you which can only ever be discovered if I do my role well with my responsibilities and communicate properly.

The director also helps with a very specific job, the costume parade, this parade is when the actors all gather and wear their costumes for the first time, this will determine if they fit or need altering, the director will then view the costumes and give back notes, it's my responsibility to ensure that I note down every detail the director shares with us whether if she wants something completely changed, adding or altered, in my role it's my responsibility to bring these notes back to my team so that we can get straight onto constructing, sourcing or adding any last details before they go onto stage.

The costume parade is very crucial and it's my responsibility that I ensure I write everything down because after we only have a finite time as a team to get everything in working order if not actors will be going on stage in costumes that don't fit the theme, fit properly or have missing details that make the costume the best it can be.

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It's an incredibly important part of my responsibilities in my role to create a well put together risk assessment of the equipment and hazards posed to my costume team and myself as well as any risks that put the actors in any danger as well, this duty is serious and if I don't do it I could be put into serious trouble.

When creating the risk assessment I need to first evaluate the production, this means that I need to pay close attention and check if there's any stunts that could pose a risk to the actors in their costumes for example will their dresses catch on stairs and cause a tripping hazard and I need to evaluate the equipment we will be using in our costume room. A couple of common themes that should always be in a risk assessment is fire hazards and now Covid poses a threat to a production, these are outside factors that sometimes is out of my control which makes it more important to write precautions and preventives so they don't pose to big of a risk.

Part of my role and responsibilities is to keep track of important information that could be forgotten or not spoken about a lot, this information can be anywhere from budget plans and what budget is spent on to keeping track of what costume and items we have for actors and what else we need to provide for them to go on stage. It's my responsibility to create documents like spreadsheets or checklists to ensure that jobs we are currently trying to complete is always written down as well as note, creating checklists for the team means jobs can hopefully be kept track of and completed without being forgotten. Documentation is a useful too because we can always look back on these spreadsheets and checklists to refer and refresh our brains with.