For 'Pinafore,' it's costumes, ahoy

It takes only a few seconds with costume designer Fabio Toblini for his enthusiasm to bubble over like uncorked champagne.

As he walked through the Guthrie Theater's costume shop hours before a preview of "H.M.S. Pinafore" last week, shirt opened to reveal tufts of salt-and-pepper chest hair, Toblini smiled broadly.

He caressed a mannequin sporting one of his dresses for the show, squeezing its waist as if reuniting with a long-lost friend.

"Isn't she gorgeous?" he asked. "I can't wait to see Christina Baldwin move in it onstage."

If his emotions are big, so are his costumes for "Pinafore," which opened this weekend under Joe Dowling's direction. (See review in Tuesday's Star Tribune.) The Guthrie had a smash hit several years ago with its production of another Gilbert & Sullivan operetta, "The Pirates of Penzance."

"Pinafore," which PBS will film for national broadcast in the fall, is arguably the best-known comic work by Gilbert & Sullivan. Set on a ship, the show concerns class divides. A captain's daughter is in love with a common sailor. Her father wants her to marry a man of pedigree.

Toblini, who lives in New York and has designed for opera, musicals and plays, said that the comic opera begs for a light touch.

Historical mix

Toblini's "Pinafore" costumes are composites of influences and styles that do not hew to any historical era. For example, the officers' uniforms draw from different eras of the British Navy. And the women's dresses for "Pinafore," which is set in the late 19th-century, are busty and revealing.

"The Victorians would close everything off, but we want it to look like a treat," Toblini said, winking.

In fact, all the female costumes are amply proportioned, with big bustles, to evoke the era. It's a visual overcompensation for women's bodies today, Toblini said.

Women today do not have such small waistlines, he said. That's why he brings out the bustline and exaggerates all the other proportions, as well. He showed off the peasant get-up that he did for Christina Baldwin.

While Chinese footbinding might offend modern sensibilities, there have been other dubious practices in the name of style and beauty, historically. In the era when "Pinafore" is set, girls might start wearing bustles at 10 to contain the development of their waistlines, said D.J. Gramann II, of the Guthrie's costume shop. "No wonder they fainted so easily. When you have a 16-inch waist, it doesn't take much."

Quarter-life crisis

Most people have their what-is-the-meaning-of-my-life meltdowns at, well, midlife. Toblini had his (quarter-life?) crisis at 23. That's when he burned out on the fashion industry, which he had dreamed of as a child in Italy and which had brought him to New York. He quit cold turkey, unsatisfied with the limitations of fashion, he said. Several years later, he found his way back to design, but this time in theater.

"When you make a costume for a play or an opera, you're designing for a character, a performance," he said. "Your dress or uniform or whatever is part of the story. It's not isolated like in fashion, not the end of a thought but the beginning of something."

And in the case of "Pinafore," that something is fun, a word he used often. As he strode through the costume shop, he was in his element among the drapers, stitchers and other costume experts bringing his vision for the show to life.