Couturier Peter O'Brien has risen to the challenge of designing for the stage, writes Deirdre McQuillan
Next week couturier Peter O'Brien makes his theatre debut with the costumes for Lady Windermere's Fan at the Gate Theatre. For the former head of design at the House of Chloe in Paris, it will be the fulfilment of a lifelong ambition. Being invited to design the costumes "was like locking a child in a sweet shop," he says.
The revival of the Wilde play, which is directed by Alan Stanford, is set in l947. Coincidentally, this is the year in which Dior's new look, a source of particular inspiration for O'Brien, who loves the clothes of that period, was launched. "Stanford believes that l947 is the last moment when the language and the social conventions would still have been acceptable. Dior wasn't entirely new - there had been big dresses and small waists, but he exaggerated the silhouette more with masculine shoulders and really short, boxy jackets."
In recent weeks, O'Brien has been trawling his favourite haunts in Paris and London for fabrics and trimmings. "I have been buying in Mokuba, the Japanese shop selling wonderful ribbons in Paris. You just want to buy everything when you go there, but I had to restrain myself." For Mrs Erlynne's day dress, he found a piece of brown Italian wool with Nina Ricci 2004 on it, in a remnants shop, also in Paris.
He has enticed millinery superstar Stephen Jones to create the hats. Jones, who has worked with leading fashion designers such as Gaultier and Comme des Garçons, is known for his groundbreaking collaborations with John Galliano at Dior. For O'Brien, the finer detail has always been important. His mother Muriel recalls her son permanently scouring Weinribs on the Dublin quays at lunchtime as a youngster. "There wasn't a scrap of material in our house that didn't boast Peter's painstakingly sewn sequins, diamante or bugle beads," she told an interviewer once. The same exhaustive attention to detail can be found, for instance, in Mrs Erlynne's ballgown, a black silk velvet creation with a three-layered tulle skirt and Edwardian jet beads.
"Costume is absolutely not fashion," O'Brien says. "It has to be read from a distance, so it is like a kind of shorthand. The clothes have to be tools that serve the play. So much of Wilde is about appearance and surface and how it relates to class and position in society, and how people relate by reading the outward signs. Lady Windermere's Fan is not Arthur Miller - you don't have ladies in stained aprons and dresses from Sears catalogues. These are well-bred Englishwomen and English aristocrats were not famous for being stylish. Being fashionable was something rather dubious. US heiresses brought in money and new Worth dresses, but the smart ones wore them a year later."
There is plenty of scope for playfulness. Lady Windermere is young and sweet and her clothes reflect that. The Duchess "is quite a character, dripping bon mots at every breath, and quite a bitch," according to O'Brien, and her spikiness shows in the angular lines of her attire. Then there is a profusion of ball dresses such as Lady Agatha's with its violet velvet bows and miles of skirt. "It is nice to do posh frocks, though I have had to come to terms with buying acetate taffetas and polyester chiffons enough to make me lie in a darkened room for a week. But I am beginning to understand that it is all about illusion. This is the most fun I have had with my clothes for a long time and I really love it. I like the whole ambience. I like actors, they are a bit self-obsessed like designers are and this play is a nice one to start with."
Fashion and theatre have a long history of synergy. The stage in the l9th century was often a catwalk of the latest fashions, setting popular trends. In l923 Chanel designed costumes for Cocteau's Antigone (with sets by Picasso). The party-loving Pierre Balmain costumed over 100 productions. Christian Lacroix has become known for his exuberant theatrical work and more recently, in London, Jasper Conran created indigo tutus for the Royal Ballet's current production of Tombeaux. In New York last year Isaac Mizrahi designed costumes for The Pearl Fishers at the City Opera, and Oscar de la Renta created costumes for a production by Martha Graham, who has had previous collaborations with Calvin Klein and Halston. In Ireland, Ib Jorgensen designed couture dresses for actress Deirdre Donnelly for the first production of Tom Murphy's play The Blue Macushla in the early 1980s, and Jen Kelly created the costumes for the first production of Riverdance.
According to O'Brien, the challenge is practical, rather than aesthetic. "For one who has had no experience in theatre, I have to think - are the clothes durable, can the players get in and out of them easily, will they work under the lights and so on." One thing he really enjoys about designing for the stage rather than the catwalk is that "you don't have to worry about selling them afterwards. You don't have to worry if the buyer from Barneys is only going to order two, and so one can really indulge one's fantasies."
Lady Windermere's Fan opens at the Gate Theatre, Dublin on May 17th (previews from May 12th). Book on 01-8744045.