Dame 101:

Dames are men!  This may seem obvious to you but I assume by virtue of the fact you are reading this that you are new to panto costumes, so I repeat....Dames are men.

This means they have no idea how to wear a dress and they look at it as if it is an alien concept.  They do not understand the simple fastenings women do.  They can do buttons on shirts and zips on trousers but when these simple operations are put in a different place they lose the plot.  If you use poppers or hook and eye fasteners buy the biggest size you can because their manly, clumsy fingers cannot cope with them.  Even if you tell him a hundred times that a dress fastens at the front you can bet your bottom dollar that you will be standing watching a performance and realise the Dame has his dress on back to front (yes, really, it happened).   I am fully aware that the best way to go about it is to have a dresser available for him (in fact we do have a dresser but it still got put on the wrong way!) but there is not always someone willing to do it or even the room (we are stuck with the kitchen of our village hall as a dressing room for everybody.

Try to make your design as simple as possible for him to put on and then go to town on the rest of it.

I have discovered that one of the biggest problems facing the Dame is that he needs underpinnings for it to look right, otherwise he looks like a man in a dress and we really don’t want that.  The man’s concept of what looks like big boobs is largely failing and I have had to ask on more than one occasion ‘you need bigger boobs, what cup size is that bra?’ and be told it is ‘38’, they just do not understand that they need a big cup size to get a big boob and if you don’t fill that cup with enough stuffing you may just as well wear a vest.  Take control of this issue and be prepared to provide stuffing or a bigger cup bra to ensure those boobs are big enough. 

They also lack hips which is something that occurred to me late in the day after my third year.  I therefore now have made a bustle pad, bum roll and very poufy petticoat to push that entire bottom layer out in various directions.  Be aware that a small stage means you need to avoid very wide dresses, they look wonderful but having the Dame bashing everyone around with his skirts is not a desirable effect.

Also remember that any man that wants to play a Dame is bound to be an extrovert and will be happy to wear anything you throw at him.  Do not hold back and give him as many flounces and frills as you can reasonably fit on a dress...it is bound to make him happy.

Wigs are a must but they do tend to look a different colour under some lights so be aware of that.  Hats are optional, they look good but can be a pain to get on in a confined space when there is enough of a problem getting the dress round the right way; they also have a habit of going astray just at that moment when he is getting ready in the matching outfit.

Now for another point...Dames are men!  Please, please don't make the mistake of thinking you can stick a woman’s dress on him and it will be fine, it won’t.  Men’s torsos are a different shape to women’s and it just looks wrong.  You can get away with a ladies elasticated waist skirt, but the top half is a nightmare.  Many well meaning people will give you their old dresses and think they are helping but all they are good for is the fabric content.  Your audience will notice this indiscretion and it will ruin the look on stage. 

Think of it this way, you are not dressing a woman who is a little odd shaped; you are dressing a man with women’s clothing.  You would not dream of going out and buying your principal boy a pair of man’s trousers (assuming it is a girl) and expect them to fit and be comfortable, so why would you do it for the Dame?  The man’s torso is longer than a woman’s, they have no waist or hips to speak of, their chest is larger (not taking into account the boobs), their shoulder width is wider and their arms are longer.  Just remember this when you are making the costume and everything should be fine...no really....just great....if they can put it on the right way round.

A bustle pad may be useful to add some feminine curves!