Moulin Rouge! The Musical

Preciosa: How does designing garments that are meant to be seen from a distance affect your creative process? How do you ensure that the details, and especially crystal details, translate to the audience?

Catherine Zuber: You might think the answer depends on where you are sitting in the theater, but my job is to make the show a satisfying visual experience for everyone, all at once, no matter where they are seated. The costumes must appeal to guests in the very first row—which, with Moulin Rouge!’s immersive set design means that the costumes are almost directly above them—as well as the viewers seated in the very last row of the highest balcony. It is a kind of balancing act. For those seated up close, the details are extremely visible, so we make sure that everything is very finely done and executed with utmost precision. However, the overall design itself needs to be bold enough so that the details are just as impactful when viewed all together from a distance, as they are when viewed individually up close. Unlike in a film with close-ups focusing on the upper body, in theater you always see head to toe. So, it is also important that everything from the wig and millinery to the crystal placement on the shoes are in proportion and work together to create a cohesive ensemble.

CZ: There are two costumes that are particularly crystallized, the first being the “Diamonds Reveal” costume, which is what Satine wears for her grand entrance. This one takes around fifteen to twenty hours of a skilled artisan hand-placing all the stones in a very precise manner. We have patterns of how the crystals should be applied according to size and color, and if it is not done exactly right you can see it immediately. And then there is our “Green Fairy” costume, which is done in India. There is a woman here in New York who supervises a highly specialized team there who hand-embroider everything. This one is probably the most intricate and takes the longest to create, certainly upwards of twenty hours.

Preciosa: Which is your favorite costume or ensemble of costumes and why?

CZ: I absolutely love Satine’s opening costume, the “Diamonds Reveal” costume. She is lowered on stage from a swing wearing an embellished black velvet corset. It is quite elegant and understated, not too flashy. The “reveal” comes mid-way through the number when a pin is discretely pulled from the bottom of the structure, causing it to fall away and reveal another, fully crystallized corset underneath. In the same scene, the ensemble women come out in what appears to be a tailcoat and top hat—which is an homage to Marlene Dietrich in The Blue Angel—and then, suddenly, all their clothes seem to disappear to reveal different costumes underneath that are covered in sparkle.

Preciosa: What do the crystals bring to the costumes?

CZ: I think the costumes are beautifully made and they have a magic to them, but it is not until the Preciosa crystals are on that the costume really takes off and becomes truly spectacula