Madeleine Claire is a Los Angeles based specialty costume maker and crafts artisan who has made pieces for theatre, dance, burlesque, drag, television as well as couture commissions and commercial Halloween work. She has been making costumes professionally since 2011 and in 2020 completed her MFA in costume technology at The Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University in New Jersey. 

 

Madeleine has performed many of the roles in a costume shop, she enjoys draping, construction and especially embellishments but her affinity for working with unusual materials led her to specialty costume making. Since moving to LA she has been exclusively working in fabrication, applying knowledge from traditional costume construction to the unique problems specialty costumes create. Always yearning to learn more materials she has also been actively learning the skills necessary to be a foam worker and puppetry making. There is nothing she loves more than encountering a new challenge and finding the unique solution to the problem. 

 

In addition to her master’s degree, Madeleine has received her BA in Theatre from the University of California, San Diego. As part of her MFA she spent a semester in London at the Rutgers Conservatory at Shakespeare’s Globe where she was privileged to learn under milliner Sean Barrett and study at The School of Historical dress with Jenny Tiramani. Additionally, Madeleine has always leapt at the chance to learn something new, taking educational internships with Jim Henson Studios (NYC) as well as several independent designers.