We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Abigail Mansfield Coleman a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Abigail, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

When I was 16 years old, I heard about an internship of some kind being an option for a class credit. Eager to do less biology and more things I enjoyed, I sought out the local costume shop to see if i could work there a few days a week. While I thought it would just be fun to play with and sew clothes two days a week, what I found was an intentionality behind the clothes I hadn’t ever conceived before. Each garment was created or chosen with specific colors, textures, and style in mind. It was there I learned costume history, how the shape of a sleeve or skirt changed over the decades, how to make that change happen on a budget for a theatrical production. I learned how to take thrift store curtains and bed sheets (a very cheap and sustainable alternative to yardage at the fabric store) and turn them into a late 19th century walking suit. The community in the costume shop, the sense of ownership over the garment I was working on, and the artistry behind these choices I had never thought of intrigued me. Costume design became my hobby and an easy way to earn a little money on the side.

After that internship experience, I helped make costumes for every show I performed in through high school, and on through undergrad, even earning lead designer credits,

To answer the actual question though, “when did I know…” I would say my senior year of undergrad. I was a musical theatre major and I was thinking about life after school and the endless auditions, the body shaming I had already experienced being a petite, curvy woman at auditions and in costumes shops when I didn’t quite fit into a stock item. I decided then I would pursue costume design (partially to spite the people who made me feel bad about my body) because I knew I could be someone who helped those curvier people, the people who weren’t model slim, and give them a garment they could be comfortable in onstage and proud to wear. I want people to feel beautiful and seen in my costumes.

And then I made my entire senior showcase about how I was quitting performing :)

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m Abigail Mansfield Coleman: costume designer and lover of all things textiles currently based out of Iowa City, Iowa. I have a Master’s of Fine Arts from the University of Iowa in Theatre Design, specializing in the areas of Costume Design, Makeup Design, Masks, and Puppetry. I also work as a style consultant for music videos, film, album photoshoots, and general special events.

I’ve designed over 50 productions, including Anything Goes; Carousel; My Favorite Year; Tuck Everlasting, The Musical (2018 KCATCF Region IV Faculty Costume Design Nomination); Exit the King (2017 KCATCF Region IV Faculty Costume Design nomination); Into the Woods (3 times!); Annie Get Your Gun; Shrek: The Musical; Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night; Henry V; As You Like It; Much Ado About Nothing; & Hamlet.

My work has taken me from the southern United States all the way to London, U.K, where I had the privilege to spend part of Summer 2022 working on costumes, large structural elements, and walking in the Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee Parade in partnership with Mahogany Carnival Designs.

I’ve worked on shows with the Mahogany Carnival Designs (London, UK), Iowa Conservatory (Iowa City, IA), University of Iowa Department of Theatre Arts (Iowa City, IA), Riverside Theatre, (Iowa City, IA), Nolte Academy (Coralville, IA), Sigmon Theatrical (Charlotte, NC), The Children’s Theatre of Charlotte (Charlotte, NC), Shorter University Theatre & Opera (Rome, GA), Rome Shakespeare Festival (Rome, GA), Rome Little Theatre (Rome, GA), Gaston School of the Arts (Gastonia, NC), Encore Theatre Guild (Gastonia/Belmont, NC), and The Abbey Players (Belmont, NC).

Currently, I am on the Design and Production faculty at Iowa Conservatory (ICON). I am the Costume Director, Production Costume Designer, and teach all things costume and makeup design. I feel this job is my way to give back to the universe and show the future artists how to create costumes like I was shown at age 16 many years ago.

I just finished my first ballet costume design, The Nutcracker, in partnership with Nolte Academy and I fell in love with dance costume design.

In my limited spare time, I love cooking, traveling, making music, knitting, and trying to read the mountain of books I continue to accumulate from local bookshops.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

This will probably tell you more about my personality more than anything else: I was unhappy at my job a few years ago and looking for my next move. I sent out so many applications all over the country, and got to the final interview process for a handful. The last three I was interviewing for told me that they liked me and my work better, but I didn’t have a master’s degree so they had to give the job to another candidate that had the degree. I started applying for graduate schools the next day.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

One of the most rewarding parts is seeing something you dreamt up in your head becoming a reality. It’s a little cliche, but there is nothing better than being able to say, “I thought of that” and see it, for me, on another person’s body moving in space. Doubly rewarding is the happiness in the eyes of the person wearing the garment and their reaction to it. I will never get tired of performers in their costume for the first time and hearing, “the costume just really helped me feel and become the character.” That’s how I know I did my job well.

Contact Info:

• Website: abigailmansfieldcoleman.com

Image Credits
Photographers: Jamie Ellis, Kaelen Novak, R. Eric Stone, Miranda Meyer, Rob Merritt