Where costumes come to life
Designer and couturier Stacey Gonder creates dazzle-worthy wear at home
It is a labyrinthine trek to costume designer Stacey Gonder’s studio/loft in a warehouse in Leslieville.
But once you manoeuvre through the winding hallways, it’s like being in Malabar costume store if it had mated with King Textiles.
Gonder, rocking a miniskirt of her own design, looks like an ethereal, rainbow-haired punk version of Titania, the fairy queen in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I want that skirt. She is a costumer and former choreographer with two lines: Flash Design, launched in 2001, which builds costumes for competitive dancers, theatre and assorted performers, and House SM (House of Sass & Magic), started three years ago, that references her love of electronic music and fashion with one-of-a-kind party and rave gear — “alternative lifestyle/street wear for adventurous souls” and installations in festivals and shows.
Ironically, Gonder is a farm girl who hails from the village of Pontypool, Ont., near Peterborough.
“I grew up in dance,” she recalls. “I was performing but lost a contract and I didn’t know how to do anything but count to eight.”
So she reinvented herself, submitted some designs and was accepted into the costume design program at the International Academy of Design & Technology. After a crash course condensing four years into 18 months, she started designing kids’ costumes for private dance companies and competitions. She lives and works in the1,235-square-foot space, which she shares with her guy, Eric. “Our living space is one-tenth of it,” she says.
It is open concept, with the work and living spaces differentiated by shelving full of fabrics and trimmings. Finished costume pieces hang on the studio walls, like artwork. There are racks upon racks of clothing and costumes.
She has been at the warehouse since summer, 2008. She found it on viewit.ca. “I wanted to have a place like the girl in Flashdance,” she explains. “I wanted to be that girl.”
Gonder painted the kitchen backsplashes in hot pink, black and grey geometrics. Hot pink and black is her decorating palette. Her hot-pink couch (sourced from Habitat for Humanity) is accessorized with zebrastriped cushions shot with glitter.
The kitchen cupboards are genius: camouflaged behind inspirational graffiti. But she really put the kitsch in kitchen with her hot-pink kitchen table, bedazzled with glitter paint and epoxy. “I did a Pinterest tutorial,” she explains.
Fabric samples hang from a metal rod over the kitchen table. She found the rod in the trash.
The place is immaculate — not a pin on the floor. Her full-time assistant, Alex, is labouring on a costume. She has three to five employees during busy season: “Thanksgiving to early and mid-May is crazy. And in sum- mer, it’s the festivals.”
She even puts her mother to work. “My mom is the head of the bejeweling department,” she says.
Gonder describes her esthetic/look as “boho glam.” Even her notebook is hot pink. “It’s from growing up being a farm kid. I had no access to glitter; I was selling mud pies.”
Why working at home works for her “There is zero commute,” she says. “It’s a 10-foot commute. It is financially advantageous and I get to create my surroundings. There are no worries whether it is OK with the boss. I was loosey-goosey about my hours: I now work 8 (a.m.) to 4 (p.m.) and 8-to-5 or 6 in the busy season.”
Why working at home doesn’t work “If I want to have a dinner party, it is not conducive. My social life is compromised because it is difficult to combine the two knowing that the work is always there — it’s six hours later and I am still working.
I share the space with my staff and clients; they come to my home and there are strangers in my space. That’s my bathroom . . . I guess I should put my prescriptions away.”
Combating cabin fever “Cabin fever is a tough one,” she allows. “Often it’s been three or four days and I haven’t been outside. I started going to the gym; that’s a goal this season.
“There are weeks when I haven’t seen anything but the row of townhouses (outside the window). But I’m working on it.”
Separating work from home “You need to create the split. The open concept is how I differentiate work from home.
“I’m a super-organized person — I’m a Pisces so that’s not normal. I compartmentalize the space.
“There are a couple of spaces that cross over and this goes here and that goes there but if this isn’t where this goes, I have an aneurysm. “There are moments when I wouldn’t mind living separate from my work — but where would that be?”