Our UCLA Costume Design Graduation Program is the best place on this planet to prepare for a career in motion picture and television. Our Program
UCLA’s three-year MFA Costume Design Program provides students with a strong foundation in dress scholarship and design education in theater, film and television. In the European tradition, we also provide students with professional training in scenograp
hy: set, lighting and costume design. Our curriculum offers master classes and individualized instruction in costume design for theater, film and television. Life drawing, painting and digital rendering for costume design are embedded in our course offerings, which also include draping, pattern making and period pattern making. Our students design 12-16 theater productions each year: musicals, cabarets, devised works, and a fully-supported opera in collaboration with UCLA’s School of Music. In addition to traditional costume construction courses we have added an innovative class in advanced historical costume interpretation and the evolution of menswear. Dr. Deborah Nadoolman Landis provides an in-depth exploration of the history and influence of costume design in her cinema studies courses, “The History of Costume Design in the Movies” and “Deconstructing Glamour.”
Each year, our designers collaborate with UCLA graduate student film directors on their productions. We provide our students with training in the newest costume continuity tools such as Sync on Set, Wardy and Costume Plot Pro. Our students graduate with a reel of film designs and a professional network of filmmakers. UCLA’s proximity to the entertainment industry has made it possible for our classes to regularly host costume designers from classic and current productions such as Mad Men (Janie Bryant), Saturday Night Live (Tom Broker), Captain America (Judianna Makovsky), The Knick (Ellen Mirojnick), ABC’s Once Upon a Time (Eduardo Castro), Bullets Over Broadway (Jeffrey Kurland), Argo (Jacqueline West), and Love & Mercy (Danny Glicker). Their insights are invaluable to our students in establishing their own professional careers, internships and assistantships. Our costume design program benefits from UCLA’s David C. Copley Center for the Study of Costume Design, which hosts an annual costume design panel and celebration and the Swarovski Designer-in-Residence program. Students have described this annual event as, “a life-changing opportunity” and “priceless.”
Curriculum
What We Offer
COSTUME DESIGN MFA
Required Core Design Courses (combination of at least 40 units)
● Introduction to Design in Production - Scenography 4
● Costume Design for Theater/Musicals & Opera/Film & Television 4/4/4
● Costume Design for Theater and Live Entertainment 4
● Scenic Design 4
● Lighting Design 4
● Design Thesis Project 4 (Mandatory for degree)
Design Practice & Collaboration (combination of 24 units)
● Production Practice in Theater (Assistant Design Assignment) 4
● Advanced Projects in Design and Production (Design Assignments) 8
● Costume Designing for Film and TV Productions
● Professional Internship in Theater, Film and Television or additional design projects 4
History Courses (Combination of 16 Units)
● History of Costume A/B/C 4/4/4
● Advanced Costume History (Special topics in historical costume)
● History of Costume Design in Film
● Advanced Critical Studies in Costume Design (“Deconstructing Glamour”)
● Costume Production Management and Supervision 4
Foundation in Design Skills Courses (combination of 20 units)
● Perspective Drawing 2
● Multimedia Rendering 2
● Digital Rendering (Photoshop) 2
● Life Drawing 4
● Costume Rendering 2
● Digital Concept Rendering for Film & TV 2
● Makeup & Wig Design for Theater, Film and Television 2 (pending course action)
● Design Portfolio Development and Marketing 4
Costume Construction (combination of 8 units)
● Costume Construction A/B/C 2/2/2
● Advanced Costume Interpretation (Historical Construction Project) 4 or 8
Elective Courses
● History electives in Theater, Art, Decor, and/or Architecture 4
● Designing Virtual Worlds 4
● Art and Process of Entertainment Design 4
Total Required Units: 104
Opportunity
The Bridge to Professional Life
We are proud of our alumni. Most of our recent grads are now members of the Costume Designers Guild, Local 892, and/or Motion Picture Costumers, Local 705. Our costume design alumni are working on some of the most exciting and popular productions in the entertainment industry. Our goal each year is 100% placement. Our alumni network is active, engaged and growing! Internship Placement
Our students have the opportunity to intern on productions around Los Angeles. UCLA costume design students have interned on Django Unchained (Sharen Davis), Scream Queens (Lou Eyrich), Getting On (Chrisi Karvonides), True Blood (Audrey Fisher), Magic City (Carol Ramsey), Gangster Squad (Mary Zophres), as well as assisting distinguished designers such as Arianne Phillips, Mona May, Jenny Eagan, Aggie Guerard Rodgers, Mary Vogt and Melina Root. Our students have interned at the Geffen Theater, Western Costume Company, Bill Hargate Costumes, FIDM Museum & Galleries and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. UCLA/Design Showcase West (DSW)
Design Showcase West is the only national entertainment design portfolio review on the West Coast. Each June, DSW features the work of MFA graduates from the nation’s top university design programs. Co-Sponsored by the Art Directors Guild and the Costume Designers Guild, DSW is attended by hundreds of design professionals in search of new talent. Post Graduation
Since 2012, UCLA costume design graduates have worked on a wide range of feature films including, Nightcrawler (2013, Amy Westcott), The Lone Ranger (2013, Penny Rose), Intersteller (2014, Mary Zophres), Night at the Museum 3 (2014, Marlene Stewart), Jersey Boys (2014, Deborah Hopper), Goosebumps (2015, Judianna Makovsky), The Accountant (2016, Nancy Steiner), Jane Got a Gun (2016, Catherine George) Captain America: Civil War (2016, Judianna Makovsky) and television productions such as, True Detective (designer Alix Freidberg), Castle (Luke Reichle), Hart of Dixie (Meredith Markworth-Pollack), The Grinder (Debra McGuire), Key and Peele (2012-, Beth Morgan), Scorpion (2014-, Agata Maszkiewicz), Rake (2014, Cate Adair), Blunt Talk (2015-, Chrisi Karvonides) and East Los High (2015, Caitlin Talmage). Recent alum have also designed for theater at Los Angeles Theater Company, the Hollywood and New York Fringe Festivals, as well as Cal State Northridge and Occidental College.
“I met costume designer Judianna Makovsky briefly in class and then later at Design Showcase West. After graduation I started working for her on Captain America: Winter Soldier. I’m now working on my 4th film with her, Guardians of the Galaxy 2.” - Hannah Greene (MFA ‘12)
Faculty
Chrisi Karvonides-Dushenko, Professor
Chrisi Karvonides-Dushenko has more than 25 years of experience as a professional costume designer in theater, film and television. She received her M.F.A. in theater design from the Yale School of Drama, has a B.F.A. from Emerson College. She also attended the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. In 2003, Karvonides received an Emmy for NBC’s American Dreams. She was nominated for an Emmy for FX’s American Horror Story, and HBO’s From the Earth to the Moon and Carnivàle. She was nominated for four Costume Designers Guild Awards during five seasons of HBO’s Big Love. In addition, Carnivàle, From the Earth to the Moon and the pilot for ABC’s Pan Am were also nominated for CDG awards. Karvonides-Dushenko’s feature films include The Glass House, Beautiful and The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, based on an unproduced 1957 screenplay by Tennessee Williams. Her theatrical designs have been featured in productions at the Old Globe Theater, Geffen Playhouse, South Coast Repertory, Seattle Repertory, Guthrie Theater and the Kennedy Center. On Broadway, she designed the costumes of August Wilson’s production Two Trains Running. She recently designed the HBO series Getting On and she is currently designing the costumes for Starz’s Blunt Talk, starring Patrick Stewart. Deborah Nadoolman Landis, PhD, Professor
Costume designer, historian and Professor Deborah Nadoolman Landis is the founding director and chair of the David C. Copley Center for Costume Design. Landis received an M.F.A. in costume design from the UCLA College of Fine Arts and a Ph.D. in the history of design from the Royal College of Art, London. Her distinguished career includes the horror/comedy Burke & Hare (2010); Coming to America (1988), for which she received Academy Award nomination; An American Werewolf in London (1981); Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981); the classic Animal House (1978); and the costumes for the groundbreaking music video Michael Jackson’s Thriller (1983). Landis is the author of many books including FilmCraft: Costume Design (Ilex Press, 2012); Hollywood Sketchbook: A Century of Costume Illustration (Harper Collins, 2012); Dressed: A Century of Hollywood Costume Design (Harper Collins, 2007); and Screencraft/Costume Design (Focal Press, 2003). In 2012, she wrote the catalogue for the landmark exhibition, Hollywood Costume, which she curated at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. From 2001-2007, Landis served as a two-term president of the Costume Designers Guild, Local 892, of which she has been a member for 40 years. She is a Governor of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.
Hands-on experience with industry professionals. Start preparing your applications or Fall 2021! Our Costume Design Program is rapidly evolving.
