Theater, Costumes, and Confidence: Exploring Fashion with SMU’s Melissa Panzarello

By Dakota Rose

In Addition to SMU’s elite Business program, the school harbors Meadows School of the Arts, home of BFA programs in Dance, Music Performance, and Theatre to name a few – each producing a plethora of events a semester. Melissa Panzarello is Meadows’ own Manager of the Technical Arts. She oversees the design and creation of all costumes for dance shows, theatre shows, and the Music department’s annual opera. In between fittings and other interviews, Melissa made time to sit down and talk one on one with me about her role and how fashion and costume design intersect. 

Melissa began her career in costuming while earning her BFA in theatre. She went on to complete her MFA in Design and Technology at Florida State University. Melissa has always loved fashion and clothes. She and her mother would always bond while shopping which fostered her appreciation for dressing as a form of self-expression. From a young age, Melissa was concocting new outfits and “really challenging social norms” with her outfits. “I got ridiculed all the time” Melissa confessed. However, Melissa’s love for fashion never faded. 

Now, even outside of her role at SMU, spends her life surrounded by fashion. “I just love to go to the mall and see what’s stylish, what people are doing. I people watch.  I love to see how people express themselves through clothing” says Melissa. In her own clothing, Melissa continues to push the boundaries and is known around Meadows for her sense of style. In addition to drawing inspiration from publications such as Vanity Fair and Vogue, mostly by way of social media, Melissa has an intriguing way of approaching getting ready each morning. “Every day when I get dressed I create a new character…one day it will be like ‘today I’m Lydia Deetz,’ my version of that; Another day I could be 1960s inspired. It’s all over the board.” This approach leads Melissa to “create [her] own little persona,” all still her but based on how she feels and how she would like to present to the world on that given day. 

In her work in theatre, Melissa is an advocate for sustainable sourcing. “Theatre has always been sustainable because we reuse so much. We thrift and vintage buy so much that, unless it’s a brand new Broadway show, we’re not building. At least fifty percent is from, I would say, a sustainable resource” says Melissa. One challenge mentioned was the surge in fast fashion especially through Amazon. “Amazon is real easy,” she said and it can be tempting for graduate design students at SMU, who design the costumes for Meadows productions, to purchase something from Amazon because it is accessible. “I try to steer student designers away from fast fashion sites like Shein, Temu, and all of that” in addition to advising against Amazon purchases says Melissa. 

Though fashion is a part of her daily life, Melissa emphasizes her confidence in her role as a costume designer in a theatre setting rather than in the larger fashion industry. “In fashion, you have to come up with your inspiration. I’ve always needed given circumstances. A script gives me who is [a] person, what is happening to them, how they express that through their clothing, how the audience perceives that” says Melissa. The characters become platforms and inspirations for Melissa to create from. “Theatre costume design is grounded. It’s psychology” she says. 

While Melissa chose theatre costume design informed by fashion, her previous intern, Jackson Wiederhoeft, is a successful bridal designer whose years in theatre led him to design pieces that “celebrate fashion within the context of movement and live performance” (wiederhoeft.com). He recently dressed Nicola Coughlan, who stars as Penelope in the Netflix show “Bridgerton,” in a shoot with TeenVogue. Wiederhoeft is known for his shows being theatrical and telling a story through his a designs. “He’s taken his theatre roots and created fashion through a theatrical lens, whereas I take fashion and interpret it in a theatrical way” Melissa describes. 

For Fashion Media majors or anyone interested in fashion, whether in a theatrical context or otherwise, Melissa urges you to go see shows. “You don’t have to love theatre to see a show. Even if it wasn’t your cup of tea you still walk away with something – a different perspective or inspiration. As a media person, you get to interpret that and give it back to the world in a different way” she says. Witnessing and immersing yourself in as much art as possible can become a platform for inspiration that Melissa encourages. You never know what you will find.

Dakota Rose

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