What you wear says a lot about you. It’s the first impression people get of you, what you like, what interests you. So, consider how important costume is for a character in a play, who has a whole audience trying to understand them from their first step on stage. Costuming which feels right, that feels like that character woke up and picked out those clothes themselves, is as crucial as good dialogue and performance.

This is something which is particularly important to the new Designer’s Representative at Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club (CUADC), Helen Lyster. Lyster describes her role as one of dual responsibility, both to speak for the interests of designers on the committee, and to provide support to anyone working on an ADC funded show. Yet Lyster seems most excited about is the ADC’s costume store. “It’s about five by five metres; it’s such a treasure trove. I remember when I first got Camcard access, I just went in there and shut the doors and spent a few hours just going through everything.” Lyster continues “I am passionate that everyone can and should use it, because first of all, sustainability, and secondly, there’s so many special and unique pieces in there.”

“I remember when I first got Camcard access, I just went in there and shut the doors and spent a few hours just going through everything.”

The costume store is open once a week for people to drop in to browse … that is if you can wade through an apparently humongous pile of black trousers which Lyster says is a categorising job “for next term”. Lyster mentions how she is “currently trying to revamp the costume store a little bit. I want to get in more essentials of basic things you need for costuming. So, safety pins, sewing needles, and thread.”

Lyster is also excited to bring light to the outstanding skill and talent she bears witness to through her involvement in the world of costume design: “I’m consistently blown away by how incredible some of the things I’ve seen here are… even the very small things that you can do like putting lots of safety pins on the back of a jacket like a cross, or wings.” She is keen to mention “the people who construct garments like Jessi Rogers in Meet Vera Stark or Abi Beton, who made six prom dresses for Carrie: The Musical”, which is the first show Lyster assistant designed.

“I had never made a dress before that point, so I was sort of just in awe of Abi sewing these things.” says Lyster. She is similarly looking forward to inspiring other newcomers to costume design, which in her opinion provides an accessible way to “creatively contribute to a show”.

“It helps me know how I can design something that the actor can truly authentically play the character in”

Lyster stresses the collaborative element of the creative process. “I like to speak to the director and producers first and see what they’re envisioning… it’s really lovely to get as many ideas as possible.” For the same reason, Helen loves to talk to the actors: “I had a really lovely conversation with an actor where I said, ‘You were just so brilliant on that stage’ and they said, ‘Well I felt brilliant in my costume.’ Yeah, that was special I think, to be able to give people that confidence, someone can step in that costume and the character just comes alive.”

Lyster’s current project is Pride and Prejudice in Week 7; she mentions that the costume store is always “growing and constantly expanding which I think is so cool! Stay tuned for lots more Regency dresses in there hopefully!” I have seen a sneak peek of one of the dresses currently being sewn, and it’s fair to say that even I am now tempted to raid the ADC costume store.

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