How To Build a Quick Change Costume Jacket with attached Vest and Rigged Shirt/Tie Dickie

I recently worked the touring version of Gentleman’s Guide To Love and Murder. 

One of the main performers played NINE characters and had about 13 Costume Quick Changes in the first act, most of which had to be completed in 20-60 SECONDS! It was insane! The clothing had to be built for speed by merging multiple layers into one quick change design.  

The green suede jacket on the left was one of those garments. Although it looks like a normal layered outfit, it’s all one piece. 

There were several Edwardian Styled jackets that consisted of a coat, attached vest, tie and shirt converted to a dickie like so:

The front of the jacket looked perfectly styled, but the center back seam of the jacket is where a single lap separating wide tooth zipper was installed from below a back separating shirt collar that hooked open and closed and looked seamless. The separating zipper was installed upside down to zip from the neck to the waist back slit (or lower depending on the jacket style) so the actor could dive into the design from the back of the garment. 

The actor was able to remove one costume and drop it to the floor while the second costume was held open by the shoulders to allow the actor to dive into it from the back of the costume and be zipped up from behind.  The front of the jacket stayed buttoned, perfectly styled and intact. These quick change jacket designs can include a vest front only, attached at the shoulders and side seams (back of vest is removed completely). The shirt consists of a cut away dickie that snaps into the jacket collar and vest and can including a removable snap in tie. You can get the look below by cutting away the shirt from the center front down, remove the sleeves and open the back of the neck to hook closed. 

Save the shirt cuffs and attach them to the jacket cuff so it looks like it normally would. 

The purpose of the shirt dickie is to be easily snapped in and out of the vest and jacket with whopper poppers (quarter sized snaps) so it can be removed and laundered daily. 

The rest of costume can be vodka sprayed between shows. The actors wore under clothes that stayed on throughout the show and were laundered between shows. Here’s a great website to find affordable vintage style garments for costumes. https://www.historicalemporium.com