Costume designing is a tough business, but Christina Sinosich believes that someone has to do it.
A New Westminster resident and award-winning costumer, Sinosich has been creating for more than 40 years.
"When you see it on stage and it looks right for the actor, and it fits the part in the show," Sinosich said about the best part of her job.
Theatre Under the Stars has worked with Sinosich since 2000 on and off, and consecutively for the past five years.
designe This year it's featuring 1950s fashion for Bye Bye Birdie and 1930s spunk for Anything Goes, which overall meant 250 to 300 costumes had to be pumped out by Sinosich and her small team.
"It's really fun to put it together," she said. "It's pretty organic, you have your basic design, but it evolves . . It's really cool."
Sinosich has a workspace for her company, Sebastian & Co. Costumes, in New Westminster for her team of cutters and sewers who help amalgamate the fabric together into beautiful outfits fit for a stage.
"We have a team of six and some extras, it can go up to 10 people," she added. "We also have some volunteers."
Work days for the team can go up to seven days a week at 12 hours a day.
The 63-year-old's first foray into costume designing was due to her mother, who was a costume designer herself.
"I was a ballet dancer," she said. "My mother was a costume designer. . I have no formal training."
When it was Sinosich's turn to be a mother, she began to teach ballet while her children attended dancing classes.
"It seemed that nobody else could understand what the teacher wanted except for me," she explained. "My mom and I made all the costumes for them."
In 1990 she moved to Burnaby from Vancouver Island and had a short-lived career in real estate, but she was quickly pulled back into costume design.
She's been doing it ever since.
The only challenge Sinosich said her line of work faces is financial constraints, which every theatre is experiencing right now.
"It's really hard to get money through the arts," she said. "We don't do this for the money."
Sometimes Sinosich said she asks her employees why they stick around.
"They always say, 'We like what we do,'" she said. "We're here to create something, and that has more rewards than financial ones."
What it comes down to for the veteran costume designer is creativity.
"We really enjoy doing it," she said. "It's nice to be able to contribute something."
Sinosich, who has lived in New Westminster since 1996, was a recipient of the Ovation Award for best costume design in 2008.
To find out more about the 65th season of Theatre Under the Stars, visit www.tuts.ca.
As far as advice for anyone looking to get into the costume design trade professionally, Sinosich is to the point.
"Be prepared to work hard and make little."
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