Skylight Music Theatre welcomed a special guest costume designer for its production of My Fair Lady. “Project Runway” alumnus Chris March endows the show with scintillating visual appeal. Speaking about his overall concept, March says, “The basic structure of the show is that there’s a lower-class world and there’s a very high-class socialite world in London in 1912, and we had to make sure that we defined that really well with the costumes. Eliza, our main character, goes from being the lowest of the low class to the highest of the high class so we need to make sure that we gave her somewhere to go.”
Regarding the style Skylight chose for the production, March says the costumes emphasize “that this is a whimsical, slight fantasy kind of world that we’re visiting.”
Nowhere is this whimsy more apparent than in the famous “Ascot Gavotte” number, in which, as March puts it, “Women at Ascot try to outdo each other with their fashion, with their couture, with the size of their hat, with who has the best outfit.” Among the hats, look for everything from an immense clock face to a ship and a three-and-a-half-foot tower of plumes. It is great fun to see March’s designs trotted past in this theatrical manner, a pitiable waiter chasing after each supercilious woman who orders a drink and then dismisses it.
Even by the standards of this opulent production, Eliza wears focus-grabbing ensembles. March taps into “a little floral symbolism since she grows and blooms and explores her full potential as a woman in 1912.” In the Ascot sequence, she sports time period-regulated black and white but her outfit is accented with pale pink flowers that set her apart. Later, during the “Embassy Ball” number, she is the only woman in a light-colored gown. Her final ensemble—red plaid dress with ruffled collar and fitted navy overcoat—well matches her character’s transformation into a self-possessed woman, a rose in full bloom.
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No Feeling Quite Like It
The costuming demands of Skylight’s production were steep to say the least. The strict sartorial regulations of 1912 London society meant March had to consider, “Do women wear hats at tea? What’s a proper color for having tea? Should you take your gloves off while you’re handling the cup and saucer?” The sheer volume of the show’s wardrobe is likewise daunting. March notes that the show (which has a cast of 17) features more than 100 costumes, with 30 alone in the Ascot scene. This means that some quick changes are allowed only 10 seconds. “The changes backstage are just as choreographed as what’s happening onstage,” he remarks.
The self-taught March has an impressive background spanning television, music, high fashion and commercial retail; his clients include Beyoncé, Lady Gaga and Meryl Streep and, this past Halloween, he sold a madcap line of headdresses to Target. Asked what’s uniquely rewarding about working in live theater, he says, “I think there’s nothing like the impression you can make on an audience in person. Film and television, of course, are prevalent in our society, but the theatrical experience is still unique and it always will be and there’s no feeling quite like it. I love the idea of sitting in the dark in a seat watching something live unfold before your eyes because you never know what’s going to happen.”
If you attend the show, remember to purchase raffle tickets for a chance to win an original hat designed by March in full-blown “Ascot Gavotte” style.
