Vin Burnham may have been born to parents who loved to be on the stage, but her passions led her to a career behind it, designing costumes for film, theatre, TV commercials, opera and the ballet. She's taken part in everything from big Hollywood productions (The Fifth Element, Batman Returns) to designing the fantastic, space-age The Living Dress for Lady Gaga's Monster Ball tour. Burnham will speak at the Toledo Museum of Art on Sunday, January 20 and at the Fashion Show Extravaganza at the Pinnacle on January 25. We talked with Burnham about everything from her Toledo connections to Gaga's ability to withstand the weight of her crazy costumes.
Costume design and fashion design both involve creating a character — what drew you to one over the other?
I think it was because my family was in the theatre. My father was an actor, my mother was an actress. It was in the blood really. I remember quite distinctly, when I was quite small — only probably about 6 — when we moved to the country, and there were these wonderful rhododendron bushes. I remember picking a flower and thinking that it was the most fabulous ball gown for a fairy, so I suppose I saw costumes in other things from quite an early age.
Where do you find inspiration? Do you ever find yourself creatively taxed?
No, I don't. I don't know, it's just from anywhere and anything. I get inspired very easily. And if it's not easy, not instant, in a way that makes it more interesting.
What have been some of your most memorable costume design projects so far?
Well, [that's] difficult to know because they're all memorable, for one reason or another. Recently, designing for Lady Gaga, that was amazing, because I hadn't really done music business stuff before. And I did find that actually incredibly exciting.
What was working with Gaga like?
She was very, very cooperative. It was a difficult dress to wear, you needed to be strong, and very motivated, which she was. There's a picture of her that was taken of her in the dress running around backstage and she looks like a fairy. It looked like it doesn't weigh a thing, but it weighed a lot.
You were the visual and technical costume effects supervisor for Batman Returns — a film that featured, in my opinion, the best-designed Catwoman. What was it like working on
that film?
Basically I was part of the team. The costume designers were Bob Ringwood and Mary Vogt. Tim Burton being Tim Burton, he can never stop drawing. So he did a lot of drawing himself of how he saw Catwoman. Also Michelle Pfeiffer played quite a role in it and how she saw it, and what worked on her, which was quite critical. You know her body language was absolutely wonderful, and she was in fantastic shape. The worst thing was getting in and out of it. I don't know whether you know, but getting in and out of latex is really hard. It takes quite a long time and a lot of talcum powder.
What do you think of when you hear the word Toledo?
Nigel Burgeoine, who runs the Ballet Theatre of Toledo. We worked together when he was a dancer in what was then the London Festival Ballet, that's now the English National Ballet. I made costumes for him. I remember I had to do a live cast of him, which involved covering him in plaster, and it was terrible because we forgot to put the release agent on so it would come off very easily, so we pulled all the hairs off his chest. [Laughs] So he didn't forget me, and we stayed in touch.
For more information on Vin Burnham, visit www.vin-burnham.com, or view her recent project, The Little Costume Shop, at www.thelittlecostumeshop.com.
