Q&A with Costume Designer and Illustrator WERIAM

Graphic by Grace Lougheed. Images via meriembahri.com

It’s been a fantastic decade for Meriem Bahri, aka WERIAM. After graduating with a doctorate in science from the Université de Lille in 2010, she moved to Chicago, devoting herself to her true passions for costume design and illustration. The French and Tunisian artist found success in the Windy City and has since worked with dozens of local and international productions. Her costumes have graced renowned stages that include the Haymarket Opera Company, Opera Lafayette and the Royal Swedish Opera, with which she is working currently. Last year her work went Hollywood, when Karim Sulayman wore a custom WERIAM-designed jacket to the 2019 Grammy Awards red carpet. The Chicago Tribune has celebrated WERIAM for her “sumptuous array of period-perfect” costumes, and The New York Times sums up her work as “gorgeous and evocative.” Most recently, she and her husband launched Arpeggiato, an online music school that helps connect new learners with expert musicians from around the world.

STITCH sat down with WERIAM to talk about her career and designs.

Photo courtesy of WERIAM.

A costume illustration by WERIAM.

STITCH: How do you approach designing a costume from scratch for a character?

WERIAM: For any project I’m working on, my motto is simple: it’s all about storytelling!  The costume design serves the story by easing the understanding of each character, or group of characters, by highlighting their roles in the story as well as their personality and their background.

I begin with the text itself: for opera, I often go back to the original language of the libretto to make sure interesting nuances were not lost in translation. After reading the script or libretto, noting carefully every costume-worthy detail, I discuss with the stage director what they want in terms of a general image. Then I collect pictures for each character and make inspirational boards for color palettes and styles from head to toe.

A bit further in the design process, other parameters are also taken into account, such as quick changes if it’s a live performance. After, I either collect fabric swatches or I draft the costume sketches before drawing the final costume illustrations. I usually don’t look at how the show was previously designed in order to not be influenced by their vision.

STITCH: How do you express the characters’ moods, goodness, evilness or symbolism with costume design?

WERIAM: It really depends on the project, if the goodness/evilness is obvious and caricatural, or more ambiguous, subtle, or unexpected. I design mostly for baroque operas — symbolic colors and accessories are keys for historically informed performances. The audience at the time would have recognized characters, mostly originating from Greek mythology, from their costumes alone. I try to do the same by researching the visual language used in the Baroque period and transmitting it to our modern audience.

STITCH: I loved the Grammy Award jacket you designed for Karim Sulayman! Is that the first time you’ve designed a piece to be worn off the stage? What was that like?

WERIAM: Thank you very much! Besides a few pieces I designed for friends and myself, yes, it was the first time. But not the last one: I’m currently designing a very original wedding dress!

The artistic process is quite similar to what I’ve described, but instead of reading a libretto, you’re trying to feel what type of shapes, colors and material would make your client happy. However, instead of a “story” being my guide, I design clothes to reflect my client’s personality made of their own path, history and taste. In the end, I’ll confess it was a bit strange to let Karim go to LA with the jacket I designed without being backstage or off-camera making sure everything was impeccable. I made him a little sewing kit with a mini-steamer, embroidery scissors and extra buttons and threads, just in case. I’m realizing how funny and motherly it was now! Seeing Karim on TV, walking up to the stage to receive his Grammy was really heartwarming and I was also a bit proud to see him featured in Vogue’s Red Carpet looks.

Image via Karim Sulayman’s Twitter.

STITCH: What are the design differences between costumes for the stage and those that might be worn in a film or performance with close-up cameras?

WERIAM: The challenge for staged costumes is to mesmerize the first row all the way to the back row, and since the audience is not supposed to see the performers from very close, we have more freedom to use the art of illusion. For instance, to create the illusion of embroidery, we can use paint, and for a very deep cleavage, we can keep it secure with a piece of nude mesh.

On the other hand, we have very quick changes so the audience might think a costume is composed of different layers while it’s actually a one-piece costume made of different items attached together to ease smooth changes backstage. Sometimes, the performers have to stay a very long time on stage, singing and dancing, and we might use more tricks to keep the costume falling perfectly at any moment, as we can’t “cut” to fix a wardrobe malfunction. Finally, for movies, details as small as hand-sewn stitches for period pieces are important, while in live performances it’s quite a luxury.

Photo courtesy of WERIAM.

Photo courtesy of WERIAM.

STITCH: What creative changes do you make when designing a contemporary piece versus a period piece?

WERIAM: If we are talking about a contemporary play, the audience should not feel they are wearing a costume: it’s just the “person’s clothes.” It should melt so well with the character and story that, if you’re not a costume nerd, the costume should feel natural and unnoticeable. However, when dealing with realistic plays or movies set up in another century, since nobody dresses that way any longer, the feeling that they are wearing a costume is more apparent. 

STITCH: How do costumes create icons? Why is it important to be iconic in opera?

WERIAM: Costumes can definitely create iconic looks but I don’t think it’s the only element. It’s more of an aura effect. The quality of the whole production itself has to be exceptional to make the costume iconic. Some mediocre movies have absolutely stunning costumes, but they don’t become iconic to the general audience because the story didn’t transport them. In most cases, when artists have an iconic look it’s first because they are incredible artists, I think. I don’t design thinking it’s a goal: I just try to do my job the best I can and if it becomes emblematic, it’s “la cerise sur le gâteau!” “The cherry on the cake,” as I would say in French!

Note: responses have been edited for length and clarity.

Photo courtesy of WERIAM.