The Characters
Garments for Real People
No matter how cartoonish characters in a play behave, the designer has to see them as real people with real personality traits and tastes. Costume designers have to analyze characters just like the actors do, so that the costumes reflect the traits of the characters.
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So who exactly are the people who live in this play? Keep scrolling to find out more!
This graphic is an AI generated artwork created on picsart.com. I used the prompt, "can you make a line drawing of 6 characters in the 1960s - a playboy, a naive American man, an effeminate male housekeeper, an alluring Italian woman, a beautiful flirtatious German woman, and a shapely strong American woman" to reflect the basic traits of each character.
Bernard
The Playboy
The 60s were known for promoting the playboy image of bachelors. Some of the most well-known were Dean Martin, Tony Curtis, and Rock Hudson. They were all cast in the "playboy" role in multiple movies. Bernard is similar to them. He is a young-ish bachelor architect, living in Paris. He has a good-paying job, but as a creative person, he is probably a little looser than your average businessman. He is also an American.
Robert
The Wing Man
Cameron to Ferris. Watson to Holmes. Robin to Batman. All famous wing men. Robert, Bernard's American friend, acts as his wing man, enabling him to keep his fiancees from meeting. Robert is newly arrived in Paris for the first time and finds the whole experience outside of anything he has ever encountered in his much more conservative home state of Wisconsin. He doesn't reveal much about his background, other than he hopes to find a woman to marry in Paris and he is in some sort of business. His wide-eyed naivete is reflected in his fashion choices.
Bert
The Disgruntled Housekeeper
The comic role of the sassy, passive-agressive assistant/servant is familiar to everyone. Carmen Ghia from The Producers, Albert Goldman in The Birdcage, and both Jack McFarland and Karen Walker in Will & Grace are all examples of this type of character. Bert is passive-agressive, a bit grumpy, and more than a little put-upon when asked to do anything. Bert was originally Berthe, a female housekeeper who "came with the apartment," but Ariel chose to cast a gay man in the role instead of a female. They jointly decided to play up the flamboyant, comic elements of the role. That interpretation guided all the design decisions for Bert.
Gloria
The American
Free-spirited. Strong. Not afraid to speak her mind. These phrases describe Gloria, the American flight attendant. She has taken charge of her own life in an era when there weren't many women doing that. Some other similar characters are Uhura from Star Trek, Merida from Brave, and Elle Woods from Legally Blond. All of these women do what is needed to get what they want. Uhura and Ella, in particular are like Gloria, because they play within the rules but aren't held back by the rules.
Gretchen
The German
Blonde bombshell. Flirty. Plays by the rules...as long as they are HER rules. That's Gretchen, the German flight attendant. Think of Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, or Barbara Eden in I Dream of Jeannie, or Goldie Hawn in pretty much anything. These women charged through the doors opened by their good looks and flirty natures, just like Gretchen.
Gabriella
The Italian
Gabriella has a typical Italian temperament -- riding a rollercoaster of emotions from joy to despair to confusion, all on display for everyone around her. She is patterned after Italian beauties like Sophia Loren or Gina Lollobrigida. There is an obvious language barrier at times, but Gabriella doesn't let it stop her from going after what she wants -- which is Bernard!
