By Daysi Cardenas
Staff Writer

Aiden McFarland in the theatre dressing room. Photos by Jackson Smith

Each term, a new play enters the spotlight at Clackamas Community College. Lots of designing and practice goes into the production, including costume designing. 

Aiden McFarland, an instructor and costume designer at CCC, uses design and techniques to teach and create costumes for each and every actor in the main-stage production. They use their expertise to teach upcoming costume designers and share their passion for learning and creating. 

During the production of the spring play, “American Idiot”, McFarland teaches the following classes: Costuming I, II and III here at the college. 

Before working as a costume designer at CCC, McFarland was a curious high schooler who was intrigued by the characters and costumes used in films and TV shows.

“It started out with just loving the costumes I saw on TV and films and then just figuring out how I can do this for myself,” said McFarland.

Once McFarland learned that they had a strong suit for designing and creating their own costumes, they decided to chase that passion throughout their schooling. Eventually, this would become their full-time career. 

“From there, I started working with professional theaters, theme parks, and other things with costumes and I just kind of ended up accidentally making it my full-time gig,” said McFarland. 

Sewing machines used in the dressing room.

Even though McFarland knew they had a love for creating costume pieces, they didn’t start out with all the skills necessary to grow the trade. Before learning to sew, McFarland was taping and gluing construction paper onto clothing to bring their vision to life. Later on, they taught themselves to hand sew and slowly learned how to use different sewing machines. 

While learning new skills has been important for McFarland, the skill of putting an entire costume production into play comes with more challenges than you may think; like outfits fitting incorrectly or accessories executing poorly, “you never know what to expect,” McFarland said. 

McFarland said, “You kind of have to become a jack of all trades, it’s constant learning.” 

In the two costuming rooms, located in the Niemeyer center on campus, you see fabric hanging off racks, wigs and accessories throughout several shelves, and of course tons of large mirrors covering the walls. 

Theatre dressing room.

McFarland says the most rewarding part of production is seeing it come together, as putting so much energy into a performance for others can be daunting.

“Seeing an actor put on their costume for the first time and how it influences their performance, I think that part really is my favorite.” said McFarland.

Even with tons of preparation, last-minute corrections have to be made. Before the opening weekend, most plays use a dress rehearsal to tie together all parts of the play. This helps actors notice what needs to be fixed before the big day. 

“Sometimes there’s not enough time,” McFarland said.

In a sticky situation, days before the cast becomes their characters, McFarland and their team work for hours to correct any errors noticed by their crew. With only a short amount of time, they must learn to improvise with what they have. 

“The hardest part about the week before the show is, you’ve had this vision, you’ve accumulated and set it up, and then seeing it live and going, ‘I have to make some changes’,” said McFarland. 

A dress used in the “American Idiot” production.

One piece of advice McFarland gives to anyone looking into a career in costume design is “Don’t be afraid to play. The more you experiment and learn, the closer you’ll get to finding your niche”.