Costume communicates a large part of the story one sees in performance or in presentation, but it is a world sometimes veiled in a bit of mystery. If people talk about costume designers at all, they often describe us with somewhat extraordinary words: glamorous, talented… magical.

In fact, after spending decades in the field, we realized that not many people know exactly what it is we do and how we do it. So, we established Masque & Pettycote in order to bring our craft back down to earth by revealing its process to people.

We consider ourselves artisans. We combine soft skills, like research, organization, and design, with hard skills, like drawing, draping, drafting, and sewing to create art that is also quite functional.

It’s wearable. It tells a story. It tells our story.

In fact, a Costume Designer is someone who, through a myriad of skills and a touch of compassion, facilitates these things with such an ease that the audience would never think what they saw was the sum of so many parts.

We guess that is a little magical.

Mishka Navarre, Founder

Mishka Navarre is a professional Costume Designer with an M.F.A. in Costume Design from Western Illinois University, who has been working in theatre for 25 years. She specializes in large cast productions, children’s theatre and musicals and  has worked with such local insititutions as the University of Puget Sound Theatre Dept., The Mountain Play Marin CA, The Pacific Science Center, Tacoma’s Broadway Center, Tacoma Actors Guild, St. Martin’s University, Opera Pacifica, Capital Playhouse and Harlequin Productions. In her spare time, she enjoys research and is an accomplished painter. Working in education for  over 12 years, she has also taught costume design and history, as well as technical theatre. She resides as the costume shop manager and designer at the University of Puget Sound Theatre Dept.

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