GAME OF GARMENTS Chantelle’s seamless career
CHANTELLE GERRARD, 38, IS A SELF-TAUGHT COSTUME MAKER WHO IS HEAD OF WARDROBE AT THE POP-UP GLOBE
Ihave been incredibly lucky to have the opportunities that I’ve had. It is through determination, saying yes to everything and pushing myself.
There have been health challenges too, and I live in constant pain. But I could choose to be sick, or I can choose to do things and be sick.
I have always wanted to sew. I remember Mum would get the sewing machine out; it was an old, heavy thing that smelt like oil and wood. When I was about four, she let me sew squares. When I was a little older I would take my Barbie doll’s clothes and copy the patterns to make more with Mum’s scraps of fabric. I still have a bag of fabric that I considered amazing back then. It’s precious.
When I was about 12, I begged for an adjustable dressmaker’s dummy for my Christmas/ birthday present (I am a Boxing Day baby). I finally got to use it years later when I made my first dress.
When I was studying performance voice at Auckland University, a friend took me to a sword fighting club and I loved it.
It had history, acting and performance art. I needed something to wear and had no idea what I was doing, I had no pattern. But I decided to try. People asked if I could make them something, so I made their outfits too.
At the end of my first year studying voice, I swapped to a degree in spatial design and when I graduated I studied teaching a few years later. I was still making costumes, including all the school shows, and a professional theatre company’s shows. Then I had to make a choice – either be a teacher or work in costumes.
People mercilessly teased me about my re-enactments; people think I’m a weirdo. But I have the most amazing supportive friends because of it. I was involved in Underworld: Rise of the Lycans in 2008. Then I worked as a dresser on Phantom of the Opera, as well with the New Zealand Opera.
A few years ago, I exhibited all my costumes and artwork. A man said his daughter-in-law was a costume designer; he told her about me and gave me her details. She was the Game of Thrones designer Michelle Clapton. I have never trained in this and never been taught how to sew. How could I cold-call her? But I did, and I got a job and moved to Belfast in 2014.
I was one of the workroom assistants, sewing outfits and constructing garments. It gave me confidence and made me realise I did know things.
When Game of Thrones finished I went to England and stayed with a friend who asked if I could help out at work. Suddenly, I was helping to make the spacesuits for
The Martian movie.
I came back to New Zealand and was teaching in 2015, when a Pop-up Globe position was advertised. I knew who had different costumes and where the fabric shops were. I also had extensive practical knowledge of historical costumes. I got the job of head of wardrobe and I have been here ever since.
I couldn’t speak more highly of the people putting everything on the line to create something we didn’t have in New Zealand. However, it’s fast-paced and it does take its toll physically with my illnesses.
I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease when I was 12. I had an operation in 2003 to wrap my stomach around my esophagus to create a valve, but it has come undone so I have to have an operation next year to hopefully repair it. I suffer from chronic reflux and had back surgery in 2011, which left me with permanent sciatic damage in my right leg, giving me constant pain in my back.
Chronic illness, especially