Bedecked, Bedazzled & Bejeweled: Costume Ornamentation at New York City Ballet
By Robert Sandla
Power of Costumes
On paper, the descriptions are carefully neutral: “Tutu, classical: Dark grey silk bodice, heart-shaped neckline and beige tulle halter….Has matching headpiece.” “Dress: Peach chiffon dress, knee length, asymmetrical straps, faux lacing on back, jewels at left shoulder, bow at waist where skirt opens.” “Tutu, classical: Gold and pink lamé brocade bodice with jewels, blue satin sash over right shoulder; jewel brocade palettes, stylized sequin ‘flippers’ from waist.”
In photographs, the costumes bloom with a fierce poetry, products of wild imagination and painstaking industry. The tutus and tiaras, the grand gowns and flirty skirts, the formal men’s jackets and dapper vests worn by generations of New York City Ballet dancers can now be viewed here on the Company’s website – and it’s a dazzling display. Ballet is famously the most ethereal of the arts, and most of us only glimpse costumes as they move at high speed on a distant stage. New York City Ballet’s new online gallery gives everyone the chance to examine a treasure trove of costumes at leisure, and in ravenous detail. Balletomanes, dancers, artists, fashion plates, cultural historians, designers – anyone with eyes – will stare for hours.
For archival purposes, each photograph is accompanied by brief textual entries – the equivalent of a library’s file cards – that describe the outfit, name the designer and the costume’s most frequent wearer, and note its condition. Those just-the-facts descriptions, necessarily pragmatic, only hint at the magic behind the costume. That “dark grey silk bodice?” Designed by legendary NYCB costumiere Karinska for La Valse. The “peach chiffon dress?” Designed by Karinska, worn in Allegro Brilliante at different times by Heather Watts and Patricia McBride. That number with the “flippers?” Karinska, Ballet Imperial, McBride. An Elizabethan gown in gold spandex worn by Martha Graham is in the gallery, as are a “tutu, modern” worn by Allegra Kent in Bugaku and a dark green velvet vest, laden with emeralds and aquamarines and gold, worn by Conrad Ludlow in Jewels. The gallery is a crash course in ballet history.
All that Glitters
And speaking of jewels, there are lots of ’em on the site – tons of jewels, in disciplined array and reckless profusion, enough to make Harry Winston and Tiffany look dull. Not real jewels, of course, but paste, glass, metal, and plastic gems that glitter and flash. Tiny sparkles glint like dew atop fake roses; a few scattered brilliants provide just that bit of color; heaps of diamonds gleam.
It’s ironic that a company perhaps best known for its iconic black-and-white ballets – no sets, bright lights, the dancers clad in practice clothes of monochromatic leotard and tights – also has some of the most extravagant costumes around. But that’s a reflection of the Company’s repertoire, which ranges from the spectacular to the austere, and an aesthetic profile that honors tradition as it embraces new work.
“It’s like the difference between darkness and light, or when you are stuck in the heat of summer but can’t wait for winter,” says Holly Hynes, New York City Ballet’s Director of Costumes, of the surprising diversity of the Company’s costumes. “If all your costumes are very plain, or if you have the same level of pageantry all the time, it’s boring. If you are watching a program of mixed repertory, it’s healthy to have three different ballets: one elegant, one traditional, and one slim and modern – like courses in a meal, so to speak.”
Maintenance and Continuity
Maintaining the costumes is a challenge and an ongoing problem for a company of NYCB’s size and age.It is very costly and time-consuming to recreate a costume, but it is something that must be done – and with great care.” How are designs reproduced for the Company’s landmark ballets? A ‘bible’ with a file on every ballet is kept out of the light in a special drawer in the costume shop. There is a little swatch of every fabric, along with other information. For ballets older than 20 years that are not in the bible, the costume shop has to determine the original costume color, unaffected by dirt or dry cleaning or makeup. The trick to that is to take a garment apart on the seam or under a fold and check for the original color.
The expected life of a costume at NYCB is about 10 years, depending on wear and tear. Just as Karinska used to slip secret details into costumes that only the wearer would know about – a colorful bow, a strip of gold – so the NYCB Costume Shop continues the tradition. Hynes reports, “If we make a new frock, something we love to do is use some of the trim from the old costume and put it on the brand-new one. I tell the dancer that the diamond edging on your wrist is from Jacques d’Amboise’s jacket, that this flower is from Patty McBride’s costume. I love to find some little morsel to remember.”
Patricia McBride Remembers
During her decades as one of the Company’s most beloved principal dancers, Patricia McBride had the run of the repertoire – and her costumes ranged accordingly. “Costumes can really influence you,” says McBride. “If you feel wonderful in your costume, that quality shows onstage. Audiences can sense it. The costumes at NYCB were so beautiful, and they were done with love and care. They used the most beautiful fabrics. For Vienna Waltzes, they used silk chiffon of the best quality, which is lighter and moves more easily. And if your costume feels like it floats, you feel like you’re floating.”
As a dance student, McBride was impressed from the start. “The first ballet I saw at New York City Ballet was Serenade, and when the curtain went up, the effect of the lighting on those blue costumes was magical,” she remembers. “Firebird was gorgeous, too. The Chagall designs, those beautiful costumes, the pageantry of the wedding with the princess in that red dress – it evoked the opulence of the Diaghilev era. And that red tutu on the Firebird…well, as a young dancer you remember things like that.”
One outstanding costume – McBride’s soigné ensemble as the Pearly Queen in Union Jack – wasn’t quite finished on opening night. “Oh, many of those buttons weren’t sewn on at the first performance,” McBride recalls says with a laugh, “they were glued on backstage. People were gluing buttons just before we went on. My costume must have weighed a ton; the skirt went to mid-calf and I could barely do a relevé. But I loved that costume and the big long string of pearls. It was really fun to put that hat on – like getting dressed up for a party.”
What a Difference It Makes
Though current principal dancer Wendy Whelan remembers looking at photos of great NYCB dancers as a student, she wasn’t particularly focused on costumes when she started dancing with the Company. “When I was a kid I really didn’t notice what I was wearing, I was thinking about what I was doing,” she says. “But once I was around these costumes more, I realized that they are something special. There’s a level of integrity, an attention to detail that rivals couture.”
One of the most spectacular costumes Whelan wears is in the Diamonds section of Jewels. “That is probably one of my favorite costumes now,” says Whelan. “It’s very heavy. There are so many jewels, they weigh a lot, and they sit right on your chest. But when you put on a Diamonds sort of costume, you become a different person. You come in as a girl from Kentucky, and then you put on your makeup, put on eye lashes and beautiful blue eye shadow, you add this jeweled tiara to well-coifed hair, and you become something else. You walk differently. Then, when you get to put the costume on, you enter a whole other level and become a very special creature. I think that a costume like Diamonds, with all those jewels that radiate from your chest, helps you to radiate from your chest as a dancer. And that’s what you want to do in those ballets.”
Click here to launch the online exhibit, "Bedecked, Bedazzled & Bejeweled: Costume Ornamentation at New York City Ballet".
