We recently connected with Danica Martino and have shared our conversation below.

Danica, appreciate you joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I studied costume design in undergrad and grad school, but worked in the industry for about 4 years in between. For me, this was the perfect combination of practical knowledge and personal artistic growth. Studying something like costume in a school setting allows for an exploration, and dedication that is sometimes hard to garner when you’re working on projects for money. Conversely, there are things like, paperwork, managing a budget and team, and interpersonal skills with actors and directors that you have to get from working and don’t really learn in school. This is not true for everyone though, there are many costume designers that don’t go to grad school or have an art degree for undergrad and only study costumes at a higher degree. It’s very personally. For me I’ve always loved school and was able to gain a lot of confidence as a designer from my graduate degree. I certainly could have gone to grad school earlier, or skipped grad school and risen faster as an assistant. But I think a career as an artist requires a lot of patience and following your gut when managing your career. If I had rushed things I don’t think would be as strong of a designer.

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 am a freelance Costume Designer, primarily for film and theater. I work with directors and producers to develop the look of individually characters and visual needs of a story. This means that I oversee the creation of costume designs from ideas and sketches to execution. Some projects I have team, including assistants and stitchers, and sometimes it is just me.

I always had an interest in theater, film, fashion, and psychology, and costume design is sort of where all of those meet. I first started to create my own costumes in middle school for local dance teams and school films, and then I continued on to study costume design in college.

Most problems that I end up having to solve come from figuring out how to create a certain vision under the constraints of limited time, money and resources. I am very good at working creatively within a budget to make sure we achieve what the director wants. On the a creative side, I care very deeply about the importance of clothing to create a character and try to keep the processes very collaborative with both the director and the actors. It is a creative process and lot of times I need to be able to pivot or change something. I can’t let my ego or personal style preferences get in the way of that. I need to always be working for the story and the character. That being said, I am very drawn to using color and texture in my designs and I love a project where I get to play with that.

I am most proud of being able to tap into a variety of projects. I work on a lot of projects that are very flashy, where the costumes are meant to stand out, and those projects are often gratifying because your work is immediately noticed. But I get just as much satisfaction from finding the perfect faded tshirt for a character or accurately researching uniforms from a very specific time and place. I think thing that I would be most proud of is letting myself be a little bit of a nerd about costume design, no matter the nature of the project.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

My “clients” are more people who will hire me for a project so directors, producers, and other costume designers. The best source for this is almost always word of mouth. When I work with people I like, even if they are not in a position to hire me, I try and keep in touch because you never know when they will be in a position to hire you or recommend you for a job. I just recently looked back at projects from 10 years ago and started reaching back out to people. It’s always good to reconnect and they have spent 10 years building their own network of people as well. I think also just being willing to connect with people even when it’s not about getting work. In times when there is not a lot of work I always find solace in speaking with other costume designers and sharing how we’re staying sane and reminding each other what we love about the job. It helps to build community and those people will have jobs in the future that they can’t do and will recommend you for.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I am sure this is a shared experience, but I ended up changing a lot of life plans during covid. I had planned to go to grad school in New York and end up deferring for a year and going to school in California. I plan ahead a lot, I’m a big fan of a five year plan but Covid was lesson in learning to let go and make the most out of unexpected changes. I ended up being able to work on a tv show for a year and save a lot of money to pay for grad school and now I have networks on both coasts. The universe messing with your plans can sometimes be a blessing in disguise

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.danicamartino.com/
• Instagram: Danica.Martino

Image Credits

Photo of the Girl in the red dress:
Photographed by: Rafael Hernandez-Ispache