Proving that clothes make the puppet

Polly Smith

Costume designer for puppets

Current credit: Designing togs for rabbit puppets on the Disney Channel’s new series “Bunny Town.”

Previous credits: “Sesame Street,” for which she’s won two Daytime Emmy Awards; “The Muppet Show”; “Muppets Tonight”; “Muppets From Space”; “Muppet Treasure Island”; and “The Muppet Christmas Carol.”

Job descriptions: “Every show is different. This one was very scattered because I am in New York and David Rudman, who conceived the whole show, is in Chicago. . . . He sent me a puppet and a list of costumes. I never saw a script. We were e-mailing things back and forth -- sketches -- so it was all done long-distance. When I had done the costumes, I could only dress one puppet at a time because I only had one puppet. I would take a picture of [the outfits] on the puppet the way they were supposed to be worn, pack them and send them to David, who took them to England [where the show was made]. I had maybe 20 or 25 bunnies to costume.

“David had a list of characters, and so I worked my way through the list and would send him pictures as each one was finished to see if there was anything he wanted to change. . . . The first king’s robe I made sort of overwhelmed the puppet. When they are this teeny, you have to find the right fabric. They are only about 6 inches tall -- they are minute. It is like dressing a Coca-Cola can with little legs, no neck and little teeny arms, so making pants was a real challenge. . . . The biggest trick is usually getting it to look like real clothes. You are trying to bring the puppets into the real world with realistic-looking clothes. So it’s all smoke and mirrors.”

Materials: “You use the lightest weight [fabric] you can manage with. I think the first king’s robe was a velvet velour something. I could tell it didn’t work, so I found this lightweight, synthetic, fleecy stuff that just floated. And my ermine was just a little teeny piece of stretch white terry cloth. I drew little black tails on with magic marker.

“I have the world’s biggest collection of teeny, teeny buttons. Whenever I find them I buy them, because over the years I have seen that you never can find them when you want them. I am competing with . . . the people who make little doll clothes. On the one hand, I’m glad they are out there because [without them, the little buttons] wouldn’t exist, but on the other hand, I hope I get there first. Sometimes I find them in stores. Sometimes I find them in antique markets. Sometimes, if it is a really, really good button store, they will have them. Wherever. I have this little antique fishing tackle box with all of these little compartments in them, and I have them divided up that way.”

The biggest challenge: “Years ago I did the show ‘Dinosaurs.’ Those were big puppets. There was a 60-inch neck on [the lead puppet] Earl. That was the other end of the spectrum. There were no dress forms; there were no dinosaurs unless someone was wearing the puppet [suit]. Otherwise, it was just a heap of latex on the floor, so I had to chase the dinosaurs around, once they were suited up, with a tape measure. The performers didn’t like to keep the head on one second longer than they had to. Once I got started and got all my measurements, I got my pattern-drafting book from fashion design school and blew the dust off of it and used the formulas in there.”

Background: “I thought I was going to be a fashion designer, and I went to Moore College of Art in Philadelphia. My senior year, we had to go out on a work-study semester.

“One of the work-study things was to go up to the Dartmouth College theater department. I did that and everything fell into place. I was designing costumes! Because I was in an academic place, they encouraged me to go to graduate school. So I went to NYU and started working in the theater and met people who eventually led me to the Muppets.”

Resides: New York

Age: 57

Union or Guild: “I’m in the Costume Designers Guild [in Los Angeles] and the United Scenic Artists here.”

-- Susan King