Pockets for the costume

An original imagined account by a costume maker.

The coat looked convincing on its stand. I had made it for a messenger in an amateur play, and the long shape gave the character the restless importance I wanted. At the first fitting, I watched the actor turn and admired the way the cloth followed.

Then we tried the scene. She had to carry a folded map, hand over a key and produce a pencil while holding a door. The coat had two decorative pocket flaps and nowhere useful to keep anything. From the front it told the audience that she travelled; in practice it left her unable to deliver a message.

We marked where her hands reached naturally and added pockets which could be used without looking. The key went into a separate small compartment, so it would not disappear beneath the map. During the next rehearsal, the actor could speak to the person at the door instead of staring down at her own coat.

I kept the photograph from the first fitting beside the altered pattern. It reminded me that a costume can look complete while an important part of its work has not begun.

What does the account explain about why the costume needed to be altered?