If You Have Claire Scavone’s Sweatpants, Please Give Them Back

On Designing for Student Theatre

Graphic by: Agnes Lee

Claire Scavone, she/her, School of Comm ‘23

During the spring quarter of Claire Scavone’s first year at Northwestern, she picked up a new hobby in the theater community to fill up her free schedule. When she saw a post asking for costume design assistance for a student film, Scavone decided to reach out. Though she warned the production team that she had no previous experience, the older students had her jump right in, costuming designing the entirety of the film –– with no budget. “It was all my and their clothing,” Scavone says. While this seemed strange to me, theatre projects at NU often beg the use of the costume designer’s closet.

(Joanne Haner/The Daily Northwestern)

I watched the latest production for which Scavone helped with costume design, Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing,” put on by the student theatre board Lovers and Madmen. In the production, I noticed a cast member wearing a matching two-piece set in a funky print which I recognized as something from her personal wardrobe. Scavone says that lending her clothes to productions can sometimes be frustrating if she never sees the piece again. “Giving my clothes to shows, I love. Not getting them back, I don’t love.”

Claire’s outfit on a Much Ado cast member (Joanne Haner/The Daily Northwestern).

But the practice is out of necessity, as even the biggest costume budgets are still severely limited. Scavone’s enthusiasm for sharing her wardrobe with productions comes from a desire to help the actors transform into their characters through clothes and make the production the best it can be. One of Claire’s favorite designs she worked on was the citizens of the world costumes in last year’s production of Dance Nation. The pieces were meant to be costumes made by characters within the show for their dance competition, she recalled the fun of getting to create what was supposed to emanate what “a low budget middle school dance troupe would put together at the last minute.” She described her enjoyment while making the purposefully cringy costumes with co-designer Jasmin Ali-Diaz, out of sheets of fabric Scavone had thrifted. While due to COVID-19 capacity protocols Scavone was unable to make the first performance, she was ecstatic about receiving the intended reaction from the audience.

In addition to Scavone’s own closet, she and the other costume designers source from the actors’ closet and local thrift stores. Scavone can’t sew, so she relies on a variety of stores to supply each piece of the wardrobe. For Scavone, Village Discount is always her first stop despite it being the furthest away because she notes that she always gets the bulk of her pieces there due to the sheer size and variety. She utilizes the Salvation Army store to collect statement pieces like wedding dresses, and then finally one more expensive store which is reserved for when she is looking for targeted pieces in particular. Scavone and the other designers run all around Evanston and beyond trying to curate the best selection possible.

 She adds that there is still a lot of room for students to get involved at any level of experience. Sewing not necessary!