Interview: Paper Bag Fabric at the Lexington Children's Theatre
Recently, i interviewed Eric Abele, the Director of Design and Production at the Lexington Children's Theatre, about an inspired digital printing process that their costume shop pursued for a new play, The Paper Bag Princess.
The play calls for a dress made out of paper bags, for which they had fabric printed at Spoonflower to mimic the look of grocery bags. What i found most fascinating about the process was that they didn't make up a fake grocery store logo for their paper bag dress--instead, they reached out to the grocery chain, Whole Foods, to become a corporate sponsor.
Here's our conversation on how that process worked out well for all involved.
LB: Tell us a bit about the play--how did this costume design come about?
Abele: The play, The Paper Bag Princess is a new-work based on the picture book of the same title. It’s been a story I have loved for many, many years, so I was THRILLED to get a chance to design it into real life. It’s one of the benefits of running a production department: I can pick which shows I want to design the most on our season.
Once we got early drafts of the script I realized this play couldn’t be exclusively in a fairy tale world (as we have Pringles [potato chips], paper grocery bags and other anachronistic items) nor could it be a totally contemporary story, since the characters live in castles and caves. The design team then hit upon using silhouette inspiration from Tudor-era England juxtaposed against strongly contemporary fabrics and patterns. This approach allowed us to tell our OWN fairy tale: a tale that celebrates the princess as the heroine and the prince as a vapid narcissist.
In the story, a dragon burns down Princess Elizabeth’s castle, clothes and all. The only thing that survived was a paper bag that she then wears on her quest to rescue back her prince. So going into this thing, I knew I had to find a solution to wearing a paper bag as a dress.
Illustration from the original book by Robert Munsch and Michael Martchenko
LB: Did you ever think about using real paper bags, or was that never on the table? Why?
Abele: This was never a possibility for me. This particular show is part of Lexington Children’s Theatre’s touring program, where we send out three actors with two complete and distinct show packages on the road for up to four months. They will usually perform twice a day with as little as thirty minutes between shows. We make our shows self-sufficient, sending out no technicians other than the performers themselves. They will also not return to Lexington at several intervals throughout the tour. All of these circumstances told me instantly that this dress had to be incredibly durable.
In the research phase of the design, I uncovered a world of fan-based costuming for this story. Who knew? There are a lot of women out there who have really liked Elizabeth’s story over the years. I was totally impressed with their versions of the paper bag dress, all of which pushed the boundaries of traditional garment construction. So I chose to make the dress extrapolated from an actual paper bag rather than the literal version we see in the book.
One of Abele's inspiration images for his design
LB: How did Whole Foods get involved?
Abele: In my first rendering, I had the inspiration to use a store logo. I didn’t want to make one up, because of how strongly the play already referenced the actual Pringles brand. I assumed if they have potato chips the audience recognized, then they would shop at a store we would know as well. As you can see in the sketch, I first used Kroger, mostly because that’s what’s closest to my house and, well, their logo was simple to draw.
Then it occurred to me that we could use this to perhaps gain a show sponsor. Working with our AMAZING Development Director, Rachel Ray (no, not the celebrity chef), she and I decided to approach Whole Foods, because we have a board member who is their local Marketing Director. Rachel did all of the hard work from there: she pitched the idea, the board member got corporate approval, and it was a done deal. They offered me any of their logos I needed to move forward and I hit the ground running.
Abele's preliminary sketch with the Kroger logo
Abele's final design rendering amended to reflect the Whole Foods logo
LB: How were they involved in the textile design process, and what was the calendar for that like in terms of your production calendar in the costume shop?
Abele: Whole Foods has been remarkably hands-off in the entire dress production process. They asked for no approval rights. However, Rachel and I have strived to keep them in the loop at every stage. When the final rendering was done, we sent that in. When the fabric samples came in, we passed those along. When the mock-up was ready, we shared. Other than that, it has been a totally unrestricted experience.
In terms of calendar, I had about a month to nail down the design from the time I had the sketch approved and the shop began production.
LB: How was the costume designer (you) involved in the creation of the print art?
Abele: I did all of the work on the print art. I went through about six iterations of the print before I was confident enough to order samples. Even after I ordered the samples, I changed it two more times before I went into yardage.
This is only the second time I’ve done custom fabric, so my learning curve was a little steep. I had no idea how to engineer a repeat without major lap lines at first, so that’s primarily why I ended up going through six proofs. But with a little patience and a lot of Photoshop, I was pretty happy with the final look.
LB: How much yardage did you wind up using, and what is the base fabric on which the bag repeat is printed?
Abele: When I ordered samples, I picked four of different weaves for testing. I ended up liking the cotton/linen canvas the best. It had a stiff hand, wrinkles beautifully (which helps it look even more like crumpled paper) and it was 58” wide. This got me three repeats of the bag in one yard. I believe I ended up ordering four total yards for the dress, but we ended up only needed 2.5. I’m glad I went over, though, just in case we had trouble in the piecing.
The dressmaker, my outgoing costume design journeyman Magda Guichard, had a lot of artistic liberty in the piecing. She’s an incredibly gifted artist, so I had no doubts as to the success of the dress. I gave her total freedom to piece it as she saw fit and then I approved the final look. I think she made fantastic choices!
Sample swatches and fat quarters of the print from Spoonflower, for color/art approval and fabric texture tests before printing of the yardage.
LB: Can anyone buy this fabric on Spoonflower? Why/why not?
Abele: No, I didn’t open this print up to the public. Mostly, I didn’t want people yanking my design for their own projects when Whole Foods had been so generous to us. I’d hate to have them see the print used for purposes they didn’t approve.
LB: Any advice for working with corporate sponsors in terms of costume production projects like this one? It's rare you can trace such a direct line from a donor to their participation in a work as this case, but it may be an opportunity which presents itself for other productions at other organizations.
Abele: It’s pretty rare indeed, but I think it’s a hallmark of why I love working at Lexington Children’s Theatre. The community truly supports and loves this theatre and cares deeply about our success. As a small organization, we try to maintain board contact throughout all levels of the theatre, so that someone like me can and will feel comfortable initiating an idea like this. I admit this has been a point of pride for me: I’m pretty darn good at spending the theatre’s money but it’s rare for me to earn them this much so directly.
For advice I’d say just to try: you never know what the response might be. Be choosy about your projects, don’t just try to stick a logo on any old thing and expect to be handed a check. I believe this project was successful because of our close ties to our Board of Directors here at LCT and their willingness to use corporate contacts to benefit our organization. This was just the right dress, in the right show, at the right time.
The finished dress on a form in the shop.
The "newsprint" layer is made from a commercially available cotton print from a fabric store.
Deidre Cochran as the title character in the finished dress
LB: Eric, thank you so much for sharing this insight into the production process for this very unique costume with such fascinating fabric provenance. What a wonderful example of how a theatre with such open communication within can reach out to the community and also bring corporate sponsors on board so creatively.
The play calls for a dress made out of paper bags, for which they had fabric printed at Spoonflower to mimic the look of grocery bags. What i found most fascinating about the process was that they didn't make up a fake grocery store logo for their paper bag dress--instead, they reached out to the grocery chain, Whole Foods, to become a corporate sponsor.
Here's our conversation on how that process worked out well for all involved.
LB: Tell us a bit about the play--how did this costume design come about?
Abele: The play, The Paper Bag Princess is a new-work based on the picture book of the same title. It’s been a story I have loved for many, many years, so I was THRILLED to get a chance to design it into real life. It’s one of the benefits of running a production department: I can pick which shows I want to design the most on our season.
Once we got early drafts of the script I realized this play couldn’t be exclusively in a fairy tale world (as we have Pringles [potato chips], paper grocery bags and other anachronistic items) nor could it be a totally contemporary story, since the characters live in castles and caves. The design team then hit upon using silhouette inspiration from Tudor-era England juxtaposed against strongly contemporary fabrics and patterns. This approach allowed us to tell our OWN fairy tale: a tale that celebrates the princess as the heroine and the prince as a vapid narcissist.
In the story, a dragon burns down Princess Elizabeth’s castle, clothes and all. The only thing that survived was a paper bag that she then wears on her quest to rescue back her prince. So going into this thing, I knew I had to find a solution to wearing a paper bag as a dress.
Illustration from the original book by Robert Munsch and Michael Martchenko
LB: Did you ever think about using real paper bags, or was that never on the table? Why?
Abele: This was never a possibility for me. This particular show is part of Lexington Children’s Theatre’s touring program, where we send out three actors with two complete and distinct show packages on the road for up to four months. They will usually perform twice a day with as little as thirty minutes between shows. We make our shows self-sufficient, sending out no technicians other than the performers themselves. They will also not return to Lexington at several intervals throughout the tour. All of these circumstances told me instantly that this dress had to be incredibly durable.
In the research phase of the design, I uncovered a world of fan-based costuming for this story. Who knew? There are a lot of women out there who have really liked Elizabeth’s story over the years. I was totally impressed with their versions of the paper bag dress, all of which pushed the boundaries of traditional garment construction. So I chose to make the dress extrapolated from an actual paper bag rather than the literal version we see in the book.
One of Abele's inspiration images for his design
LB: How did Whole Foods get involved?
Abele: In my first rendering, I had the inspiration to use a store logo. I didn’t want to make one up, because of how strongly the play already referenced the actual Pringles brand. I assumed if they have potato chips the audience recognized, then they would shop at a store we would know as well. As you can see in the sketch, I first used Kroger, mostly because that’s what’s closest to my house and, well, their logo was simple to draw.
Then it occurred to me that we could use this to perhaps gain a show sponsor. Working with our AMAZING Development Director, Rachel Ray (no, not the celebrity chef), she and I decided to approach Whole Foods, because we have a board member who is their local Marketing Director. Rachel did all of the hard work from there: she pitched the idea, the board member got corporate approval, and it was a done deal. They offered me any of their logos I needed to move forward and I hit the ground running.
Abele's preliminary sketch with the Kroger logo
Abele's final design rendering amended to reflect the Whole Foods logo
LB: How were they involved in the textile design process, and what was the calendar for that like in terms of your production calendar in the costume shop?
Abele: Whole Foods has been remarkably hands-off in the entire dress production process. They asked for no approval rights. However, Rachel and I have strived to keep them in the loop at every stage. When the final rendering was done, we sent that in. When the fabric samples came in, we passed those along. When the mock-up was ready, we shared. Other than that, it has been a totally unrestricted experience.
In terms of calendar, I had about a month to nail down the design from the time I had the sketch approved and the shop began production.
LB: How was the costume designer (you) involved in the creation of the print art?
Abele: I did all of the work on the print art. I went through about six iterations of the print before I was confident enough to order samples. Even after I ordered the samples, I changed it two more times before I went into yardage.
This is only the second time I’ve done custom fabric, so my learning curve was a little steep. I had no idea how to engineer a repeat without major lap lines at first, so that’s primarily why I ended up going through six proofs. But with a little patience and a lot of Photoshop, I was pretty happy with the final look.
LB: How much yardage did you wind up using, and what is the base fabric on which the bag repeat is printed?
Abele: When I ordered samples, I picked four of different weaves for testing. I ended up liking the cotton/linen canvas the best. It had a stiff hand, wrinkles beautifully (which helps it look even more like crumpled paper) and it was 58” wide. This got me three repeats of the bag in one yard. I believe I ended up ordering four total yards for the dress, but we ended up only needed 2.5. I’m glad I went over, though, just in case we had trouble in the piecing.
The dressmaker, my outgoing costume design journeyman Magda Guichard, had a lot of artistic liberty in the piecing. She’s an incredibly gifted artist, so I had no doubts as to the success of the dress. I gave her total freedom to piece it as she saw fit and then I approved the final look. I think she made fantastic choices!
Sample swatches and fat quarters of the print from Spoonflower, for color/art approval and fabric texture tests before printing of the yardage.
LB: Can anyone buy this fabric on Spoonflower? Why/why not?
Abele: No, I didn’t open this print up to the public. Mostly, I didn’t want people yanking my design for their own projects when Whole Foods had been so generous to us. I’d hate to have them see the print used for purposes they didn’t approve.
LB: Any advice for working with corporate sponsors in terms of costume production projects like this one? It's rare you can trace such a direct line from a donor to their participation in a work as this case, but it may be an opportunity which presents itself for other productions at other organizations.
Abele: It’s pretty rare indeed, but I think it’s a hallmark of why I love working at Lexington Children’s Theatre. The community truly supports and loves this theatre and cares deeply about our success. As a small organization, we try to maintain board contact throughout all levels of the theatre, so that someone like me can and will feel comfortable initiating an idea like this. I admit this has been a point of pride for me: I’m pretty darn good at spending the theatre’s money but it’s rare for me to earn them this much so directly.
For advice I’d say just to try: you never know what the response might be. Be choosy about your projects, don’t just try to stick a logo on any old thing and expect to be handed a check. I believe this project was successful because of our close ties to our Board of Directors here at LCT and their willingness to use corporate contacts to benefit our organization. This was just the right dress, in the right show, at the right time.
The finished dress on a form in the shop.
The "newsprint" layer is made from a commercially available cotton print from a fabric store.
Deidre Cochran as the title character in the finished dress
LB: Eric, thank you so much for sharing this insight into the production process for this very unique costume with such fascinating fabric provenance. What a wonderful example of how a theatre with such open communication within can reach out to the community and also bring corporate sponsors on board so creatively.