Intimate Apparel
written by Lynn Nottage
costume design concept by Jade Lo
Costume Design II, Spring 2023 Lynn Nottage’s 2003 play Intimate Apparel tells the story of Esther Mills, an African-American seamstress who makes a living sewing intimate apparel on the Lower East Side of New York City in 1905. It concerns themes of hope, loss, self-acceptance, and new beginnings as experienced through a niche community. My approach to costume design was inspired by the idea of a quilt on both a micro and macro scale– as a metaphor for each character’s individual journey, and the collective community they create together. The Lower East Side in the early 20th century was an incredibly diverse neighborhood, and I wanted to reflect this in the various layers and idiosyncratic details of each characters’ costume– what they each bring to the larger “quilt” that is the world of this play.