Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2011 - 20

Vincent Zullo working in his shop.
Courtesy of the personal collection of Zullo.

The surprise in the Broadway costume
business is not that shops merge, close,
or leave town, but that so many keep
going despite several business handicaps.
The biggest is that, as noted, the owners
are practitioners by choice...

tailoring starting at age nine. "Many tailors don't like to work in
the theater," says Zullo. "I have tried training people, but they
did not have the patience. They wanted to make a fast buck.
But I loved it. I got to work with so many fabrics and colors."
And colorful characters. "The first circus I worked on in 1972
we went to Madison Square Garden to fit an elephant blanket.
When we got there, the elephant was having a baby." In contrast, making a jacket for Joel Grey in Cabaret was no stress
at all.
"It was hard to decide to retire," says Zullo, "but it was
time to renew my lease, and it was up for a big increase. Also,
you work to live, you don't live to work. I was working sixteen
hours a day. I said 'this has to stop.' So I closed the shop in 1996.
I could not find anyone with my feeling for the clothes, so I just
let it go."
Tricorne has prospered and is now run by Marshall alone,
her former business partners having left amicably to pursue
other separate ventures. Tricorne makes the leading lady dresses for Glinda in Wicked, as well as the striking asymmetrical
Emerald City costumes. The shop also built the all the ogre
costumes for Shrek, as well as the human Fiona dresses. Both
shows won Tony Awards for their designers.
"Kathy is wonderfully adept at making clothes look like
they have been thought about and then done once, rather than
messed about with," says designer Desmond Heeley. "She did
her first draping for me at the Guthrie in Minneapolis. Kathy is
plum sensible with charm to spare. Her shop is very calm, and
bright. I remember when she was looking for space she kept
saying she wanted 'windows, windows, windows.' Kathy has the
best of Barbara in her bones."
William Ivey Long confirmed as much in praising the job
Marshall did building Stockard Channing's dresses for the recent revival of Pal Joey. "I design with certain shops in mind,"
says Long. "For Pal Joey I immediately thought of Katherine. It
was such a joy working with her and the results just knocked
everyone's eyes out."
Eric Winterling sprang fully armed and gloriously armored
from the head of Zeus. Or so it is easy to believe as Winterling
18

theatre design

& technology

Fitting room or sitting room? Genteel accommodations at EuroCo.
Photo courtesy of Gregory DL Morris

has no affiliation with the Diffen-Matera lineage. Rather he grew
up in Philadelphia, home of the original Van Horn Costume Co.,
so there is a back-to-the-future aspect to his place in the top
echelon of the Broadway costume industry. "All I ever wanted to
do was to found a costume shop," he says.
Winterling studied at Temple University, which has a masters program in cutting and draping, and came into his own as
costumer, designer, and shop manager for the Houston Grand
Opera from 1983 to 1987. He came to New York to realize his
dream in 1990 at age twenty-nine. "I figured that if I were going to go broke this was the way and the time to do it," he says
with a laugh.
Having worked with many designers he was sanguine of
getting work. Winterling built several shows for Jane Greenwood, and that relationship has grown into a strong professional affiliation and friendship. His personal expertise is period
clothes, which fits with they type of show Greenwood is often
commissioned to design.
"Being competitive these days in the costume business does
not really get you anywhere," says Winterling. "The designers

w i n t e r 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2011