Costuming Repossessed: Tailoring the Corporate Illusion
When I took on the costume design for Repossessed with the Actors Ensemble of Berkeley, I was excited to visualize the main contrast of the story: the battle between pristine, engineered perfection and raw, messy human reality.
The story dives into a world where personalities can be surgically edited, upgraded, and "enhanced." To translate this visually to the stage, I split the design concept into two distinct aesthetic worlds:
The Enhanced Corporate Illusion: Clean, cool, and sterile, yet subtly expensive. I built this palette around cool black, navy, crisp white, soft champagne, and sterile surgical teal. Fabrics were selected to look immaculate—structured wools, silks, and tailored linens that suggest a life where every rough edge has been seamlessly smoothed over.
The Unenhanced Raw Reality: Desaturated, worn, or chaotic. Here, we used soft, unpolished textures like washed denim, fleece, cotton jerseys, and deliberately ill-fitting silhouettes to expose the characters' unedited, vulnerable selves.
Visualizing the Characters
Gretchen Warner / Crystal Schenkman
Gretchen undergoes the most drastic trajectory—transforming from an unrefined, low-class past into a radiant, ethereal vision of an elite house wife.
To give her that "just featured in the New York Times Style section" quality, her present-day palette leans heavily on monochromatic creams, soft champagne, silk scarves, and tailored trousers. In stark contrast, her lab flashbacks strip her down to a basic teal green athletic set—giving her a distinct "specimen" vibe—while later scenes reduce her to a worn, unpolished bathrobe. Her final transformation merges a dark grey blazer with cream pants and a pop of teal at the collar, echoing Regina’s corporate silhouette and highlighting the synergy between her past and present selves.
Rich Warner
Rich moves in the opposite direction, regressing from a polished tech executive giving a TED Talk to a man unraveling under guilt. His enhanced look features crisp, saturated navy button-downs and tailored dark trousers. As his persona fractures post-surgery, his wardrobe softens into washed-out, unbuttoned polos that mimic the pale hue of a hospital gown.
Regina Hastings
Regina represents unwavering corporate power. She remains locked in sharp black suits paired with emerald green blouses—a structured, geometric silhouette with clean lines and pointed heels. The green underneath serves as a direct link to the medical teal of the LifeEnhanced staff. In the final scenes, she appears briefly in relaxed boho attire.
Ted Naughton
Ted provides a stark visual contrast to the Warners. Though wealthy, he lacks refinement; his lawyer attire consists of muddy brown, untailored suits paired with askew ties. At home, he drops all pretense into a disheveled undershirt. 
Cindy
Sourcing & Practical Solutions
I had a small, indie theater budget, so i needed a mix of sourcing strategies. Most of the primary wardrobe pieces were rented from Masquers Playhouse, with remaining gaps filled via thrift store pulls, items from the actors' personal wardrobes, and Actors Ensemble’s existing costume storage.
Beyond sourcing, I had to do some custom modifications and quick-change engineering:
Dyeing & Modifying Medical Scrubs: Two of the surgeon’s robes sourced for the ensemble were originally sky blue with long, cumbersome ties that would have slowed down backstage transitions. I dyed one of the robes with emerald green to match the surgical teal of the third robe. I also trimmed the long fabric ties and installed quick-release Velcro closures. The second blue robe I left as is to serve as a nurse uniform, but I did some tacking on the ties to make changing more fluid.
Simplifying accessories: To keep Gretchen’s transitions to Crystal moving smoothly, I got her a magnetic scarf necklace that could be removed quickly offstage. The bathrobe also worked to cover her Gretchen costume in one of the quick changes.
On-Stage Illusion: During Rich’s post-surgery scene, time made a full pants change impossible. So we strategically draped a blanket over his legs to maintain the illusion.
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