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SJ Behind The Seams<br />
by Rhiannon James<br />
The television and film industry<br />
has long been renowned for<br />
its ability to use costume<br />
design to create authentic and<br />
larger-than-life characters on<br />
screen. But what really goes into<br />
making these effortless pieces of<br />
wearable characterisation?<br />
Welsh costume designer Sarah-<br />
Jane Perez has lived life behind the<br />
scenes and has designed costumes<br />
for numerous TV and film<br />
productions, including Keeping<br />
Faith (S4C), The A-List (Netflix),<br />
Whites (BBC) and Tales of<br />
Friendship (Disney).<br />
Currently living in <strong>Rhiwbina</strong> after<br />
growing up in Penylan, Sarah-Jane<br />
attended Our Lady’s Convent, an<br />
all-girls school, but “always wanted<br />
to go to Whitchurch High School<br />
because they had boys there.”<br />
“I was taught by nuns,” laughs<br />
Sarah-Jane. “The textile teacher<br />
there was taught to crochet by my<br />
father’s mother. My mother’s mother<br />
taught me to sew. She was the only<br />
person who had the patience to<br />
teach me.<br />
“In high school, I was always<br />
drawing houses as I wanted to be<br />
an architect, but I was told I needed<br />
22<br />
Maths to do that and I hated Maths,”<br />
she continues. “I thought I’d do<br />
fashion instead, but I ended up<br />
having to use Maths for things like<br />
pattern cutting and, later on in life,<br />
running my own business. I didn’t<br />
get away from Maths that easily!”<br />
After high school, Sarah-Jane<br />
studied A levels at St David’s<br />
College, including Textiles under<br />
Mrs Salisbury, who was also taught<br />
crocheting by her father’s mother.<br />
Her desire to start working as soon<br />
as possible and make her way up<br />
the career ladder influenced<br />
Sarah-Jane's decision to go in a<br />
different direction than most of her<br />
classmates. Newport Art College<br />
was the best option.<br />
“I knew too many people going to<br />
Cardiff Art College and I wanted to<br />
work. It was the best year of my life,”<br />
she reflects. “Newport was a<br />
brilliant college, helping to bring<br />
out creativity and explore different<br />
mediums in Art. One of the things<br />
we did was life drawing; I got a fit of<br />
the giggles on my first session as<br />
the model came in, took his clothes<br />
off, and the easel collapsed in front<br />
of him. We worked hard but we<br />
partied hard there too.”<br />
The costume designer then went<br />
on to study Fashion at Bristol<br />
University, as it was formerly known.<br />
“Writing my thesis on What Makes<br />
Fashion Change in my final year –<br />
the direction of costume was really<br />
interesting because sometimes<br />
costume influences fashion.”<br />
At that time, a business called<br />
Script to Screen, supplying<br />
costumes to the TV and film<br />
industry, opened up in Cardiff.<br />
“HTV Studios had closed the<br />
costume department, so Chrissy<br />
Pegg, who was Head of Costume,<br />
bought all the stock and opened<br />
Script to Screen along with her<br />
business partner, Lynsey Wood. I<br />
went along and asked for two<br />
weeks' work experience, which they<br />
kindly agreed to. A short while later,<br />
they offered me a permanent job<br />
there, so I got to meet a lot of<br />
costume designers. I was there for<br />
four years and learnt a lot!”<br />
Sarah-Jane then decided to go<br />
freelance and worked on a number<br />
of jobs, including The Mal Pope<br />
Show, which led to working with<br />
singers like Bonnie Tyler, designing<br />
dresses for her, as well as various<br />
Welsh artists.<br />
“Things were very exciting around<br />
that time. I worked with a lot of<br />
Welsh bands like The<br />
Stereophonics and the Manic Street<br />
Preachers, before they became<br />
famous,” Sarah-Jane remembers.<br />
She landed a job working on<br />
Welsh TV show Nuts and Bolts,<br />
which was filmed in Merthyr. The<br />
show was the starting point of many<br />
Welsh artists such as Matthew<br />
Gravelle, Eve Myles, Matt Ryan, and<br />
a lot of other people’s careers. This<br />
helped build the designer’s portfolio<br />
and from there, she progressed<br />
onto larger dramas such as Con<br />
Passionate with Matthew Gravelle<br />
and Mark Lewis Jones, and Whites<br />
with Alan Davies.<br />
Sarah-Jane was nominated for<br />
three BAFTA Cymru for her work on<br />
Con Passionate, Whites - and later,<br />
Keeping Faith.<br />
“Keeping Faith is the show that I<br />
have become most recognised for.<br />
It’s funny sometimes how you get a<br />
job. Sometimes you get jobs via<br />
agents but sometimes, it’s being in<br />
the right place at the right time. My<br />
sister was at the gym with [lead<br />
actress] Eve Myles and that’s how I<br />
found out about Keeping Faith. I<br />
remember reading the script and<br />
thinking how amazing it was. I had a<br />
Zoom interview and got the job!<br />
"Keeping Faith was a modern-day<br />
drama, set in Laugharne and I could<br />
pull ideas for costumes from<br />
people I knew in real life.<br />
“We had meetings about colour. I<br />
went through a lot of colours and<br />
research and I decided on yellow<br />
but it had to be the right shade of<br />
yellow. I found some coats, sent my