Expand mobile version menu

What To Learn

High School

What high school courses should you take if you're interested in this career? Get your answers from the Arts, Audio-Video Technology and Communications cluster Visual Arts pathway.

Insider Info

Additional Information

Costume designers need at least a high school education. A college degree isn't a requirement, but in this competitive field it gives a sizable advantage. Most costume designers have a bachelor's degree.

Costume designer Rae Robison agress that a college education may not be essential for a costume designer. However, she recommends it. "I think the skills you get as an undergraduate are invaluable. You can't replace that," she says.

Studying your craft for years and gaining the necessary practical knowledge will come later.

Robison notes that business training may come in handy. She and her mentors in the industry "are extremely business savvy....You have to be because you're essentially your own business."

Courses at San Diego State University include period dress and decor, research and bibliography, esthetics for the stage, collaborative studies in design and seminars in lighting, costume design, theater theory and scenery design. Student designers also work on college productions and professional theaters in the area.

"Explore all aspects of theater," says Janis Martin, a costume designer and professor at Marshall University in West Virginia.

"Because theater is a collaborative art, it means that each person must communicate effectively with all the others. That means a costumer must know how it feels to be an actor, and what a scenic designer's concerns are, and how to understand a director's choice. The best way to know these things is to do them."

Costume designer Robert Doyle advises the studying art history, clothing, applied arts and social behavior, and reading and viewing plays, ballets and operas.

"Learn to draw," says Penny Dunlap Ladnier, a costume designer and teacher in Richmond, Virginia. "I see so many students in the theater who can sew but don't draw. No matter which direction you go, you better know how to draw."

Contact

  • Email Support
  • 1-800-GO-TO-XAP (1-800-468-6927)
    From outside the U.S., please call +1 (424) 750-3900
  • North Dakota Career Resource Network
    ndcrn@nd.gov | (701) 328-9733

Support