Cynthia Savage | Creates clothes that tell colorful stories
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 KEN LAMBERT / THE SEATTLE TIMES Designer Cynthia Savage |
Clothing designer Cynthia Savage has got what looks to be the world's biggest closet. An entire cinderblock warehouse of space. Racks floor to ceiling 20 feet up and 20 feet deep. Multiple rows of clothes hanging in nine bays. Nine bays! Jam-packed. Holy Diane von Furstenberg. But Savage needs lots of space because she creates clothes for the ages — all the ages as costume designer for the Seattle Opera. Her closet holds ball gowns and bustiers, slips and shirts and more from times medieval to modern, as well as 18th century, 19th century, fantasy, fairy tale — you name it. If somebody ever wore it, she's researched and designed her own version. When we found Savage deep among bolts of fabric in the opera's costume shop, her head was firmly in 1950s southern Italy creating 68 or so outfits for the January 2008 production of "Pagliacci."
Q: When you walk down the street, what stands out about what we're wearing?
A: We're in pajamas. Comfort has won. It's a reaction to 500 years of corsets and bondage. I don't know what they'll do 100 years from now. But this whole dying-for-fashion business that women did for all those years — they even had ribs removed — it was terrible. And it's fascinating that distressing has come back. The last time the rich wanted to look like peasants was Marie Antoinette in her country house. But there's always a practicality to fashion: When they dropped the hoop skirt they gathered that fabric up into the bustle.
Q: So do you ever get tired of clothes, clothes and more clothes?
A: I love clothes! My daughter said to me the other day, 'What do you like to do in your spare time?' And you know what the answer is? I rearrange my closet by color.
Q: What's your personal style?
A: Anything goes with a pair of black pants.
Q: Do you sew for yourself?
A: Never. The shoemaker's children go barefoot, you know. I have a Kenmore, and I've had it forever.
Q: What is your focus when designing?
A: Because I get to have this great opportunity to design clothing for people who don't exist in time gone by, I get to make up style to tell that story. I try to do that with color. Color is very important. The red people and the blue people fall in love, and suddenly they're wearing violet. Clothes are the things that tell you where we are in time.
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