Erasure • Features • Private Ear
Bright Ideas
Tell us a little about yourself...
Well I'm over 40, from the Midlands. I moved to London in the late 70's, went through art and fashion school and did a degree at the St. Martins School of Art.
When I left college I was selling my clothes to really exclusive shops, which were being bought by people in the music industry. Eventually I began selling direct to those in the music business and gave up on the shops as I would never get paid and they wouldn't order enough; it was much easier to sell direct. So that's how I ended up working for the past 20 years in the music business.
How did you meet Andy?
I met Andy whilst I was sharing a studio with Rachel Auburn, who was a really notorious women's wear designer in the 80's. Andy came in to buy something for his backing singers for the show that he had in about two weeks, but hadn't even thought about what he was going to wear. So Rachel went "Oh! Here's Dean!" It was that easy, we just hit it off straight away and I have worked with him ever since.
Who else have you worked with?
I have a lot of private clients who aren't pop stars that I make clothes for. I work for a lot of fashion companies and I have my own fashion range. I worked for people like David Bowie, Boy George, Rolling Stones, Dead or Alive - a lot!
What was the first set of costumes that you designed for him?
The first things that we did for him was for The Innocents in Birmingham, when they were doing a special live recording of this show.
How do you come up with the concepts?
Well usually Andy does - he has an idea or fantasy of what he wants. And then I'll join in and say what my fantasy is at that moment and then we'll just decide it between each other. Then that's it. I'll just go off and do it. There aren't a lot of drawings and working it out. Usually Andy will have been thinking for months that he really wants a big orange dress (or something) and I'll say orange will make you look sick so why not go for pink, and it will just go on like that.
Were there any concepts that you would have liked the band to have worn but were turned down?
Well there's not much that Andy won't wear, where as Vince will say "I'm not wearing that", "I don't wear shoes like that" or "I don't wear long jackets". Andy is more open, and I can't think of a single thing that Andy wouldn't wear as he's so up for it. So I constantly think "well what are we going to do next?" because we have gone so far and gone so extreme.
The cactus costume that ended up in the Cowboy tour was something that I really wanted to do in the Phantasmagorical tour, but we never got around to it. I wanted all the backing singers in cactus costumes so that there would be cactus's on stage and they would then turn around and there would be a trio of singing cactus's. But as I couldn't fit it in I snuck it in the Cowboy tour.
Is Vince involved much in the designs?
Vince doesn't get very involved in the look of the show, but I always consult him and I like to please or surprise him so that he is entertained, as he doesn't always have all that much to do on stage apart from all the technical stuff. He often likes something that is quite fun, but the look of a show is all down to Andy's fantasies.
Given the complex nature of many of the costumes, has that presented any last minute problems?
Well getting the costumes done are always a last minute thing. It all comes together the day before, or even on the day of the show with things still arriving. If it's a big tour then there can be people in different parts of the country making specialists items such as shoes. So you have to keep your fingers crossed that on the day everything comes together. For the dress rehearsal they are quite often not!
Some costumes take an awful long time to make, as long as three months in some cases due to the amount of fittings. If we've had things made in New York, Andy has had to go backwards and forwards which can take time.
There hasn't been anything that has gone wrong, although there have been costumes that have been troublesome, such as the globe dress from the Phantasmagorical tour. It was so heavy that it kept collapsing, so we had to keep sending it back to Bristol where the crinoline was made to have even stronger crinoline made. It would work for a while and then collapse again!
It wasn't a disaster, as no one got upset that it wasn't on stage since no one knew it was supposed to be there. But it was certainly the most problematic.
How do you think the costumes have evolved over the years? Do you thing they have become more shocking?
I don't think that there has been a deliberate attempt to make them shocking. In fact, I have even tried to suggest to Andy to not wear costumes and just wear jeans and a t-shirt, and he very quickly put me in my place!
Sometimes I guess it would be nice to just see Andy there singing. But, at the end of the day, it is much more fun when the costumes are part of the show.
I don't think there is a progression to the costumes, and it ultimately depends on the size of the tour. If it's a small budget then not much can be spent on the costumes. With a bigger tour you have more money to play with. I'll say to Andy "I'm afraid that costume will cost £10,000 and that the budget will not stretch to it". So he will then pay for it out of his money if he really wants it.
I like seeing Andy in a suit, but then he wants to change out of a suit into a dress - what she wants she gets! [laughs]
When Andy was preparing for "The Other Tour" he decided that he wanted crinoline. So I said "what kind?" and he didn't know. So we spent the afternoon at the Victoria and Albert museum looking at all the different kinds of foundation garments that women had worn through the centuries to see what kind of shape he wanted. We looked at corsets, gloves, bloomers, crinolines, shoes of all the different periods, and that way Andy got an idea and could point out how he wanted to look.
We also got a lot of books to find out how those things were really made, as we had to make something that would last, as the costumes go through a lot of wear of tear with the heat and Andy tearing about on stage. The costumes had to be strong but look as if they come from the period, but also that they have to be seen from a few hundred yards away in the theatre.
On several occasions the costumes change mid tour. What are the reasons for this?
Well sometimes costumes go missing, or they wear out, and they also get very smelly to the point where you can smell them across the stage! It's not so much body odour; it's just the sweat that you can't wash out since you can't wash these costumes. And while touring you can't dry clean costumes.
But also the band can get bored and want something different, or if the tour is split across different countries you can get additional budgets to create further costumes.
Are there any current bands that you think have an image that really works?
I must admit I don't pay a lot of attention to what other bands do or wear. I really have my eye more on fashion. There are certain people that I admire with the way that they present themselves. Pete Burns (Dead or Alive) I think is a master.
Which tour are you the most proud of?
Phantasmagorical is the best, it just all came together. It was the right time, it was the right people, and Andy and Vince had the enthusiasm to be ambitious. It's the biggest show that I have ever worked on and it still looks amazing.
I remember people that I know who are very high up in fashion that came to see it and were literately gob smacked at the amount of costumes and scenery changes. And I'm still gob smacked; it's the best thing I have ever worked on.
Have there been any thoughts for the next tour?
Well I've heard the new album, but nothing had been discussed yet until we get closer to the tour and Andy starts cooking something up in his mind on what the presentation should be. There are many other factors as well, such as if the tour will be tiny or if it will be an intensive world tour.
We'll hopefully see Andy in a suit again, but he usually gets too hot in a suit so he has to take it off and get down to a bra and pants! So I don't know at this stage - it's up to Andy.
Dean, thank you very much for your time!