“The play is titled ‘Intimate Apparel’, which is an indicator that costumes are going to be very important,” Mary Hurd (TA), the costume director for the Brandeis Theater Department, said in an interview with the Justice. 

The play, produced by the Brandeis Theater Department, ran from March 3 to March 6 and featured costumes designed by Mary Lauve, the costume design assistant at the Huntington Theatre Company, and actualized by Hurd.

“Intimate Apparel” is the story of a 35-year-old African-American woman named Esther, played by Ashley Ertilien ’17, who works as a seamstress in New York.

 Set in 1905, Esther creates corsets and other intimate apparel for women. The show follows Esther as her client relationships develop and as her written correspondence with a Caribbean laborer in Panama develops into love.

“The costumes are incredibly important for the story in a practical sense, because they are scripted in — they talk about the costumes, so you have very specific needs to meet — but also because they help create an understanding of the world the characters live in,” Hurd explained.

Though in many cases Hurd is given a rendering (a picture drawn by the designer of a specific costume piece) to help her create the costumes, for this show, she was given what are referred to as research boards. The boards feature various images that are used to communicate the general design idea for the show. They help to give Hurd an idea of what to do to create the costumes.

Perhaps most unique to this show are the actual items of intimate apparel. Hurd created seven corsets to be used on stage. “Normally, corsets are just a white cotton fabric, really very basic and plain, but there’s a lot of talk about fabric in this show and specifically the fabric of the corsets [Esther’s] making, so it became really important that the corsets not be plain white cotton,” Hurd said.

To remedy this, Hurd put the corsets onto dress forms and created her own patterns. 

She created covers that would match the size of each and then assembled them onto each corset.

Ertilien was given an impromptu lesson by Hurd on how to lace someone into a corset for several of her scenes. “She is very good at it,” Hurd laughed. “I showed her once; she did it exactly right immediately, which is impressive to me. I told her, ‘Wow, you’re really good at this!’ and she’s like, ‘Oh, it’s easy.’ Not to everybody it’s not. She’s got a very good immediate understanding of it, and it is a physical thing. You either get it or you don’t. And she really gets it.”

Hurd’s connection to the physical is all part of her job. When considering Esther and her work, Hurd said, “It’s hard not to identify with her. There’s a physical connection, because the work I do is so physical. ... It’s a sculptural process in a very specific way, … and the physical, the tactile, is really important, because someone is wearing it — someone is touching it — because how it feels makes a big difference in how they communicate character. I mean, think about satin — satin is smooth, slinky and it changes how you move.”

Though Hurd’s official title is costume director, she takes on many roles. “I do a lot of different jobs, so in the context of making the costume, that’s a draper — someone who takes the rendering and makes it into the garment,” Hurd explained. “I also take the role of shop manager, because I manage the budgets [and] do the hiring. ... I also manage our rental space. We have a stock room that other people can use and come and borrow costumes from.”

Besides an extensive stock room, the costume department has a large workspace where the costumes are created. One of Hurd’s favorite tools is the industrial steam pressure iron. “It releases the steam so you get really high pressure, very hot steam, so the iron doesn’t have to be as hot, which is nice, so you don’t melt things or burn things as easily,” Hurd explained. The department recently acquired new industrial machines that Hurd is eager to teach students to use. “If someone wants to come in and do a project with me, I’m more than happy to work something out, depending on my availability. I’ve been trying to build those relationships, because [the workspace is] a great resource, and hoarding it to myself just seems ridiculous. So I’m trying to build those relationships and make all that we have to offer available to everybody on campus,” she explained. Hurd had a team of five student stitchers who worked on “Intimate Apparel” with her, as well as a “firsthand,” whom she hired as an assistant.

“It’s a really impressive department,” Hurd reflected. “And I’m lucky we have a really good staff. The people that I work with are incredibly talented and have a lot of knowledge. We all come from professional backgrounds so we all have a lot of experience. There’s a lot here for the students — a lot of opportunity.”

— Lauren Chin contributed reporting.