Costume Design Course Encourages Experimentation

If you’ve ever interacted with Lower and Middle School Drama Teacher Brady Frome, you’ll remember his sweet greetings and thoughtful conversation. This semester, students were able to witness his technical theater skills through his Costume Design course. Students have learned the fundamentals of costume design, including how to work with various materials and use a sewing machine, but also how to imagine garments through unusual materials like recycled items and duct tape.

“They go from sketching to imagining other shapes. They can do whatever they like,” shared Brady during a recent visit to his class in the Innovation Lab. “A lot of these students have never even had experience on a sewing machine before or hand sewing. So this is very new for all of them, but they’re doing a really good job. Now they’re pretty much experts.”

Students learned how to break down the sewing process piece by piece before they became more comfortable. Projects lined the room including pillows stuffed with fluffy cotton and statue-esque duct tape outfits. Brady mentioned the class turns into “Project Runway” as students bargain over and share supplies to build their dream costume.

“There’s a lot of freedom in this class,” said Lily-Rose G. ’26. “Brady tells us what to do, but we can do whatever we want with that. He told us to make pillows, but we could make super weird shapes with that.”

In the future, Brady hopes to bring the class to more grade levels as a way to encourage creativity and explore design. During class, students request materials like latex and water bottles as materials, imagining futuristic costumes from another time.

“I found it was a great way for students who don’t necessarily want to be on stage to see the work they created on stage. They still get that applause because people applaud for the show as a whole, and they get to see their work being shown,” said Brady.

The Costume Design students’ showcase is on Friday, May 13 during FLEx from 10:30-11:40 a.m. where they’ll be strutting their stuff on a runway.
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