Costumes, Wigs & Shoes: How to Use Them to Improve Your Performance

Just as you can be recognized at a distance by your friends because of the clothes you choose to wear, so should any character you play inhabit its clothes in the same way.
Study clothes carefully to gather what character would want to look like this or want to feel like that when wearing those clothes.
Actors are invariably at the mercy of designers and costumiers.
How often has an actor carefully worked out a piece of business or an idea for his character, only to find that the set (or even costume) makes this impossible or at the very least incredibly difficult?
Because the actor only fully gets in tune with the part after some study and rehearsal, the results of this ought to be reflected in the costume, and that is where you should work with your designers to achieve harmony between image and performance.
An actor ruefully pointed out recently, as he looked at a costume and design that were completely opposite to what he, after his research and study, thought his character would look like, These days the actors’ imagination is an increasingly underused resource.
When giving information to the wardrobe department, always be current with all your measurements and never lie about your size.
When you turn up for your fittings, it is embarrassing if they have got the costume in the size you said you were and you try to squeeze the size you actually are into it.
Always wear underwear at a fitting (men especially take note!), as the clothes you are trying on might have to be returned to the store if they are not suitable.
When dealing with advance information to the production team, always make sure you have informed them if you have any allergy or sensitivity to a particular makeup.
If you have any such allergies, it is wise to bring some suitable makeup with you.
You should also take your own base and powder if you have any unusual skin tone, to make sure you will always be looking your best.
You might be challenged with a ten-foot train to manoeuvre or with corsets, wigs, tights, high-heeled shoes, long gloves, sword belts, buttons and buckles, high collars or ruffs, heavy hats or crowns, and so forth, so make sure that the problems they present are tackled early on and not left to the dress rehearsal.
Get a facsimile of the clothes as soon as possible, so that you can incorporate into rehearsals any character input from the costume.
In particular, try to wear the shoes as soon as possible, because different types of shoes make you walk in different ways.
If you are in a long run, it is unlikely that the shoes will last the whole time.
Ask the designer to purchase a matching pair (or matching the pair that you already own that fit you well), and alternate them with your own until they are comfortably broken in.
If you are wearing your own clothes, please make sure they are clean.
It is amazing how well a ring round the collar or a stain will show up on the new high-definition cameras that are rapidly coming into our business.
The reason the various armies of the world march in different ways is because their distinctive uniforms put varying pressures on them and the way they must move.
The German army’s goose step is a direct result of soldiers’ wearing boots with no give in the ankle, so the soldier has to throw his foot forward to move.
The British army marches the way it does because the soldiers have to wear heavy boots, so they stamp loudly as they turn a corner.
Just as you would wear such a uniform in rehearsals to get used to it, so should you replicate whatever you will be wearing in performance, whether it is a tight-fitting costume, an enormous wig, or strange clumpy shoes.
If the final costumes are available to wear in rehearsal, wear them, so you can break them down to look as if they have belonged to your character over a period of time.
We are often very annoyed at a performance when an actor wears very noisy shoes, and the dialogue is sometimes even drowned by this clatter (this is equally annoying in rehearsals, too).
You can easily avoid this by gluing felt to the soles and heels of the offending shoes.