How to become Costume Attendant in 2024

Costume Attendant Select, fit, and take care of costumes for cast members, and aid entertainers. May assist with multiple costume changes during performances.

Costume Attendant is Also Know as

In different settings, Costume Attendant is titled as

  • Costume Draper
  • Costume Seamstress
  • Costumer
  • Draper
  • Dresser
  • Wardrobe Assistant
  • Wardrobe Attendant

Education and Training of Costume Attendant

Costume Attendant is categorized in Job Zone Two: Some Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Costume Attendant

Some previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is usually needed. For example, a teller would benefit from experience working directly with the public.

Education Required for Costume Attendant

These occupations usually require a high school diploma.

Degrees Related to Costume Attendant

Training Required for Costume Attendant

Employees in these occupations need anywhere from a few months to one year of working with experienced employees. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Costume Attendant in different industries are

What Do Costume Attendant do?

  • Distribute costumes or related equipment and keep records of item status.
  • Arrange costumes in order of use to facilitate quick-change procedures for performances.
  • Return borrowed or rented items when productions are complete and return other items to storage.
  • Clean and press costumes before and after performances and perform any minor repairs.
  • Assign lockers to employees and maintain locker rooms, dressing rooms, wig rooms, or costume storage or laundry areas.
  • Design or construct costumes or send them to tailors for construction, major repairs, or alterations.
  • Purchase, rent, or requisition costumes or other wardrobe necessities.
  • Check the appearance of costumes on stage or under lights to determine whether desired effects are being achieved.
  • Inventory stock to determine types or conditions of available costuming.
  • Collaborate with production designers, costume designers, or other production staff to discuss and execute costume design details.
  • Monitor, maintain, or secure inventories of costumes, wigs, or makeup, providing keys or access to assigned directors, costume designers, or wardrobe mistresses/masters.
  • Create worksheets for dressing lists, show notes, or costume checks.
  • Direct the work of wardrobe crews during dress rehearsals or performances.
  • Examine costume fit on cast members and sketch or write notes for alterations.
  • Review scripts or other production information to determine a story's locale or period, as well as the number of characters and required costumes.
  • Recommend vendors and monitor their work.
  • Study books, pictures, or examples of period clothing to determine styles worn during specific periods in history.
  • Provide managers with budget recommendations and take responsibility for budgetary line items related to costumes, storage, or makeup needs.
  • Participate in the hiring, training, scheduling, or supervision of alteration workers.
  • Care for non-clothing items, such as flags, table skirts, or draperies.
  • Provide dressing assistance to cast members or assign cast dressers to assist specific cast members with costume changes.

Qualities of Good Costume Attendant

  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
  • Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
  • Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
  • Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
  • Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.

Tools Used by Costume Attendant

  • Combination pliers
  • Commercial dryers
  • Commercial washing machines
  • Data input scanners
  • Dry cleaning equipment
  • Electric irons
  • Fabric pressing equipment
  • Garment steamers
  • Hot glue guns
  • Labelmakers
  • Laptop computers
  • Measuring tapes
  • Mobile radios
  • Multi tools
  • Multipurpose sewing machines
  • Personal computers
  • Portable electric fabric cutters
  • Portable ironing boards
  • Sergers
  • Sewing needles
  • Tablet computers
  • Thimbles
  • Walking foot machines

Technology Skills required for Costume Attendant

  • Database software
  • Garment tracking software
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Office software
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • Microsoft Word
  • Web browser software