Where a costume designer likes to shop and source in Melbourne

For fashion that’s a little different than your usual. 

As a fashion editor, I’m a little embarrassed to admit how little I know about costume design. I understand in broad strokes how fashion design works, having followed the careers of many emerging designers from university level to some pretty soaring heights. But when it comes to costume design, it’s mostly guesswork. So when talking on the phone with Mathilda Sinagra, emerging costume designer and graduate of LCI Melbourne, journalistic curiosity gets the better of me.

“Is it sourcing particular outfits? Or is it creating your own costumes from scratch? I’m thinking in terms of sewing, patternmaking, things like that,” I ask.  

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Mathilda, who has a strong interest in fashion and currently works for Melbourne label Coreprêt, isn’t offended at all by the question. She patiently explains that it’s different from person to person and that some people work as costume stylists, rather than designers, whereas others prefer to design from scratch using fashion design principles. 

Mathilda knew she wanted to study costume design but didn’t want to be limited. “I really wanted to do a course in [both] fashion and costume,” she says. “Just because, you know, more than half of costume is fashion.” After exploring options around Melbourne, she felt limited by most of the universities that approached costume design with a rather narrow scope. 

Ultimately, she settled on LCI Melbourne, part of one of the world’s largest global creative education networks and the only school she felt provided enough scope to learn across both areas of fashion and costume design. LCI Melbourne offers a Major in Fashion and Costume Design within its Bachelor of Design Arts, designed to equip students with the technical skills they’ll need for a successful creative career. 

The course blends traditional foundations (like hand drawing and garment construction) with areas like trend forecasting, fabric innovation, production procedures and more for a really robust education. Students benefit from academic mentors who foster their design thinking across form, silhouette, materials and construction, and walk out ready for a career in costume design, fashion design or both. 

“I’m still not sure where I draw the line on fashion and costume, I definitely want to work in the costume space, but I still want to have a lot of fashion knowledge,” she says. 

Costume design comes with a unique set of demands, something that sits well beyond fashion design alone. Pieces must either be sourced or made from scratch to fit a very specific brief – an era in time, a character’s quirks, a distinct personal style – meaning that those who work in costume design need a breadth of places to turn to when sourcing or creating their designs. 

So when tasked with a narrow brief, where does a costume designer turn? In Melbourne, chances are it’s one of the below. 

Rathdowne Fabrics, Brunswick

A costume designer needs access to a wide range of textiles when creating, and Mathilda says Rathdowne Fabrics is her favourite. “They have heaps of fabrics and there’s a remnants section, which is all the offcuts that would have been chucked out if they weren’t being used,” she says. Those remnants can be found scattered around the store in dozens of bins that are topped up weekly and fabric lengths are short, often suitable for single garments. Sales assistants will also curate their favourite fabrics of that week, bringing them to the front of the store for extra visibility. It makes for a fun browsing experience, knowing that each week what’s in-store will change.

154 Victoria Street, Brunswick

Next State, Preston

I’m surprised to hear a digital printing service is next on Mathilda’s list, which shows how little I know about costume design. Rather than looking to find the right fabric, Mathilda might instead choose to create her own custom pattern which she’ll then get printed onto a textile, ensuring the fabric she’s working with is one of a kind. “You can have a much more tailored approach to exactly what you want,” she explains, adding that she used AI to build custom prints for her graduate collection. 

262 Dundas Street, Thornbury

Jimmy Buttons, Fitzroy

“I’m a little bit afraid of Jimmy himself,” laughs Mathilda. “But his store is amazing, so it’s worth going into.” She’s referring to Jimmy Ketoglidis, the owner of Fitzroy institution Jimmy Buttons & Haberdashery. The store itself isn’t massive, she tells me, but its hallways are covered floor to ceiling in ribbon, ties, patches, pins, threads, lace, buttons, basically “anything you want that can be added to a garment”. In a 2019 interview, Jimmy claimed to have over a million buttons, which might not seem an exaggeration to those who have been inside. 

375 George Street, Fitzroy

Dollar stores, various

Like many of us, Mathilda is also partial to a dollar store. While she typically uses them to source tools for creating her designs (she’s good friends with a hot glue gun), she adds they’re also a great resource when budget isn’t limitless. 

Vintage stores, various

While I expected that a costume designer would be well acquainted with Melbourne’s vintage stores, I was surprised to hear that Mathilda uses them more as a research tool.  “I don’t usually go to vintage stores [to source],” she says. “I go there more to get inspiration and to look at the way a garment is put together… “In costuming, there is a certain amount that is hidden that you can’t see. But it’s also nice to know the backstory of a garment. Like, ‘Okay, this is the way the lining looks, this is where the buttons are placed, this is the shape generally of a collar of this time’,” she notes. Understanding details like this is helpful, she explains, where a costume is set in a certain decade or era, particularly period pieces. 

Goodbyes, Brunswick

Eager to know the vintage stores Mathilda visits most regularly, I press her for some names. While not strictly vintage, she’s quick to mention Goodbyes. A consignment store with multiple sites around Melbourne (and nationally), it’s become a firm favourite of the FJ team. “Goodbyes is always a tried and true because everything in there is unique. I usually don’t walk out empty-handed,” she notes. 

127 Sydney Road, Brunswick

Brotherhood of St. Laurence, Brunswick

As expected, Mathilda is also a regular at her local op shops. “I really love op shops, I love the hunt for something you’ve been really looking for,” she explains. When I ask for specifics, she points me towards the newly relocated Brotherhood of St. Laurence in Brunswick. “It’s honestly one of my favourite op shops,” she says.”[It’s] slightly smaller than the original store, but they still have incredible pieces going in and out and I love all the trinkets in there. [There’s] also a side section for carefully hand-picked clothing pieces. Also the staff are always so bloody lovely.” 

145 Lygon Street, Brunswick

Gigliotti Fashions, Brunswick East

“I love Gigliotti Fashions,” she exclaims. “It’s the most interesting store I’ve been to.” According to Mathilda, it’s full of “relIcs” from the ’80s and ’90s, complete with vintage Italian suits, vintage soccer jerseys and vintage products from iconic Australian brand, Bonds. Like a retailer from another era, Gigliotti Fashions’ digital footprint is scarce. A single image of the shop’s storefront appears on Google Street View, alongside a Yelp review that gives Gigliotti Fashions three stars adding that it is “completely rammed, chock full of stock” and “infinitely more interesting than shopping at Kmart.” 

329 Lygon Street, Brunswick East

Coreprêt, online

We’d be remiss not to mention Melbourne label Coreprêt, where Mathilda now works with designer and founder Nessie Croft. “I have the honour of working with Coreprêt who have the most stunning tailored pieces, made using sustainable practices such as repurposing, using dead stock and eco fabrics. Coreprêt also have a tailoring experience so everything can be custom fit to you. Which I love!” 

Interested in a career in costume design? With the creative industry booming, seize this opportunity to study for a career in the sector here.