The stage remains dark, the room empty for the moment. But from somewhere you can hear voices, running and a “let’s go, let’s get out.” The audience begins to fill the seats and suddenly the tables light up and the artists come on stage. The show started in Neuquén. But at that same moment, there is someone who was left with the needle and thread hanging in her fingers, after long days of putting together the wardrobe in her small home, accompanied by her partner and her huge dogs. .
It is Yazmín Mer, 35 years old, who by the time the curtain rises has already spent days and nights making the costumes for the theatrical casts. Without sleeping, but with the conviction that this is his place in the world. She is the costumer for the casts of the independent theater of Neuquén.
A task that can only be seen behind the scenes. A profession that Yazmín, when he began to plan his tertiary career She never imagined that she could become one of the few and best costume designers. of Neuquén art.
She, perhaps without knowing it, began to emerge at her young age. “When I was little I liked to go to the circus and look at the clothes. that the artists had. In the movies I looked at what they were wearing,” he said. The seed was germinating.
Yazmín grew up and after finishing high school she entered the Escuela del Habitad to study clothing design. There he learned molding and put his imprint on his own clothes that he then exhibited and sold at the independent fairs of Neuquén.
It was a friend who gave him the first push. He invited her to a performance at the El Histrión theater. An outing with friends that ended up marking their destiny. “I went to see a performance and I was enchanted by everything that is theater and more than anything by independent theater that has a special mystique. When I graduated in 2010, they called me because they knew me from independent fairs, from a cast in the room directed by Carlos Barros, and I started designing and making costumes for the casts and I never stopped,” he recalled.
In the beginning it was not the only one, but many of those who were there left the city “and Today it is an area that has many vacancies”. But for her everything went from minor to major. “They have had faith in me and things have turned out pretty well,” she said, laughing.
The moment of the function
The audience settles in and the artists come on stage. But few of those who are willing to enjoy the work are aware of the number of workers who gave everything before that moment.
In the case of costume designers, like Yazmín, there is a lot to think about when dressing an actor or actress. The costume has to be according to the character that is going to be played. But also, “you have to think that they feel comfortable, that they can move freely, that they can get into the character without thinking about the clothes they are wearing. That is our task,” said Yazmín.
And not to mention, if they have two or three changes because the work demands it. “They have to be changing rooms that are easy to put on and take off. They have to be appropriate changing rooms so that they do not die of cold or heat. That is the biggest challenge,” added the textile artist.
But that is not all. What happens when a wardrobe requires a change? When you have to build one from scratch but the numbers don’t work. Yazmín is clear. One of the alternatives is to recycle “to make it sustainable, to not generate a greater amount of waste,” he shot.
“I really like buying clothes at the fair but they have to be in good condition because they require a lot of washing.. It depends on the complexity of the costume. If I have to start making, it takes me an afternoon to get the materials. Another afternoon is the molding and tailoring. The creative process is the one that requires the most effort because once you know how it is easier to solve. The issue is what. It is knowing what that actress or actor wants to say,” she confessed.
And so she weaves those costumes that go on stage. And she has a tip that she claims to be fundamental: “Go see the rehearsals of the casts where the protagonists of the plays are in sweatshirts and sneakers. It’s like seeing the whole, you see the essay even if it’s just a small piece, so we can understand what they want to tell us,” he said. It is the beginning of his inspiration and what is later captured on stage. It is everything behind the curtain but essential to go out on stage.
Between dogs and fabrics, life becomes a spectacle
Between fabrics and designs, Yazmín does what she does best accompanied by her partner of almost twenty years and his three little dogs, Momo, Luka and Dina, all rescued. They are huge for a small house, for that same home where the designer makes the theater costumes.
If the time comes to cut a fabric or recycle a garment, one of them will undoubtedly appear.
This is also part of Yazmín. “I tell you, I left because you covered my fabric with hair,” he warns them..
And he continues with his project, thinking about what is coming and remembering the first time she was put to face her first challenge as a costume designer. The public would not be easy.
“In addition to being my first costume, It was for a child with everything that comes with getting into the world of childhood.. It was a play about a girl and a horse, where the only real one was the girl. The girl was selling flowers at the Obelisk. At that time it was considered a nice story but not anymore, because we are talking about child labor,” Yazmín recalled.
Today, going through his third decade of life, cut, sew and put together those suits that at some point all mortals want to have. And if it is those three pets, the better.
