The Secret Garden, 2025
I had the pleasure of working with BTC for a third season beginning in the fall of 2025. Although I was familiar with the story of The Secret Garden, I had never seen the musical nor heard the music. It is truly beautiful and the cast brought it to life with such wonderful energy it was an honor to once again be part of the team.
There were no major from-scratch builds this time around but I certainly had my hands full with alterations and styling. My favorite projects were probably the ballgowns worn by the characters Rose and Lily. These gowns had been selected from stock for these characters in 2020 for a production that never took place due to the pandemic.The cast and team members who had been involved in that 2020 production were excited to finally use these gowns after five years and I wanted to honor that. BTC has a solid stock of costumes and it’s always exciting when you put a kid in something and their eyes light up in recognition. It can feel like a rite of passage to wear a garment worn by a peer or predecessor. I certainly remember this feeling from when I was a kid. Maybe it was an early sign that I was meant to be a costume designer.
My sentimental ramblings aside, there were some minor issues with these gowns. Although they were gorgeous, they definitely weren’t historically accurate. The Secret Garden takes place somewhere around 1906 and modern prom dresses just wouldn’t do. After a bit of research I came up with some simple additions to place the gowns into the right era. I dyed some white raschel lace that I had in bulk from my corset business until it matched the dusty rose color or the Rose dress and I built a flowing lace V to cover the shoulders.
For the Lily dress, I was a bit offput by the color at first. Lily just seems like a much lighter colored character to me. I imagined a white or pale yellow for her, not the vibrant violet of this gown. What made it click for me was when I looked up the symbology of purple lilies. They can represent inheritance, admiration, and spirituality. Lily is a spirit, a ghost, admired to a point of obsession. Her garden is the legacy that Mary is inheriting. I grabbed some pale lavender organza and some white lace and constructed an overskirt and train to resemble lily petals. The lighter organza toned down the vibrance of the violet tulle while still revealing the expressive color beneath. I added some sneaky little snaps to the train so it could be bustled for dancing. I am most pleased with this dress because the actress seemed to really love it. As a costumer, I sometimes have to put actors in costumes that are less than exciting due to the nature of their character. However, it makes me happy when I can tell that an actor feels beautiful in their costume. It’s one of the many joys of the craft.
The last garment that I’d like to cover from this production is one that was worn by the character Mary for the majority of Act 1. This plum-colored dress with its delicate floral print and dainty lace trim had been worn the year prior by Young Eponine in our production of Les Misérables. This was my second time trying to color match the fabric of this particular dress. I needed to lengthen the dress a few inches to hide Mary’s petticoat. Once more, I mixed dyes until I got as close to the right color as possible. I chose not to attempt recreating the print this time as I didn’t find it necessary. I am happy with the way it turned out and I wonder what the dress will look like next time it is used. Will I lengthen it more? Shorten it? Add sleeves? Will I recreate the print again or just the color? Ah, the life of a stock garment is an exciting one indeed!
