from 2008
ALYJA KALINICH
talks about her work designing costumes

by Scott Wolf

From dancing fruit and vegetables to new clothes Mickey and Minnie wear, Alyja Kalinich has been pleasing audiences for decades with her designs. I had no idea that so many of the costumes I've enjoyed have been designed by Alyja, and I'm tickled that I can share my conversation with this brilliant unsung Disney artist. 

Scott Wolf: How did you get into designing costumes?

Alyja Kalinich: I went to art school. I majored in fine art at St. John’s University. I transferred to Parsons School of Design in New York where I studied illustration. My first job was for Oleg Cassini, a fashion designer in New York. I illustrated his fashion designs and did some idea sketches for him.

Then I went on vacation to California and loved it. I said goodbye to my family and friends, quit my job, and decided to start a new life in California. Oleg came to Los Angeles sometime later to do costume designs for a film at Columbia Pictures and he asked me to be his assistant designer. On that project I learned the ins and outs of producing costumes from idea to presentation to final product.

Then I was hired to work for Disneyland by Bob Phelps. Tom Peirce and Jack Muhs were the very first designers to work there, and I was hired as their sketch artist. They would talk me through their thoughts and I would sketch their ideas for presentations to the project producer and director.

At one point, I was asked to design a costume for a show that Bob Jani was producing. From that time, projects just kept coming and I graduated from designing atmosphere costumes to show, parade and character costumes. One of my parades was "The Lion King."

SW: That had spectacular costumes. Which ones did you work on for that?

AK: I designed all of the costumes for "The Lion King" parade.

SW: Was that the first time that Disney did an artsy kind of animal like that?

AK: Yes, I believe it was. The whole parade had an abstract quality. In the designs, all of our teams stepped away from reality. We stretched our creativity.

SW: Did you have to do any kind of research for those costumes?

AK: Always. Before I began to put pencil to paper, I went through tons of photos, books, tear sheets, films, paintings. I looked at everything, everywhere…things that had to do directly with African themes and things that had nothing to do with them, yet somehow would give me a feeling of relevancy.

SW: So you were no longer the assistant by the time you did “Lion King”?

AK: Right. My title was Senior Designer by then.

SW: Were you working strictly for Disneyland at that time?

AK: Yes, I was on staff for 20 years. During that time, I worked at Walt Disney World during its opening. Because of this, my name is on one of the store fronts on Main Street. It’s my maiden name, Alyja Paskevicius. I can’t imagine how they fit it all in on that small window, but there it still is!

SW: That’s awesome! So you were there for the opening of Magic Kingdom?

AK: Yes.

SW: What kinds of costumes did you do back then in the ‘70s?

AK: I was working as a sketch artist for Tom Peirce. He would suggest a costume design and I would illustrate it for his presentations. Tom designed all the Operational and the Audio Animatronic costumes for the Walt Disney World opening.

SW: So you were working on a lot more than just shows and parades.

AK: Yes, I worked with both Tom and Jack Muhs, who designed the Entertainment costumes during that time. Tom Peirce and Jack Muhs are such a valuable part of Disney costume history.

SW: What do you mean by “operational”? 

AK: Everyone you see working at a Disney Park - the clerks, parade staff, janitors and ticket sellers, attraction hosts - they have a themed costume. These are referred to as Operational costumes.

SW: What was the process when you would start designing, like a parade?

AK: Usually I would meet with the show or parade director. They would go over the script with me, familiarize me with the intended music, and talk through the theme and style. I would discover the amount of performers - usually around 150-200, the number of units (floats) in the parade. Then it would be time for sketching my concepts. I generally like to design an overview of the parade, then get down to the details of each costume. After the concepts are sketched, I would present them to the parade director and producer. We look at the work together. Flexibility is important. It is a collaborative effort and the goal is to do the best work, fitting into the director’s concept and producer’s budget. I find music to be very inspiring to me in all my projects. It dictates the feeling.

When all designs are approved by the director and producer, I take them to a costume house to actually produce costumes from the sketches. Communication is important in this process. I talk through each part of each costume, suggest fabrics, determine size and shape. The building process begins. Throughout the months of production I would check on the progress very often and tweak things here and there in order to keep true to the original concept.

SW: When you set out to design something, do you have to worry about limitations, or do you shoot for the moon and see what the costume house can do?

AK: I pretty much know from experience what can or can’t be done. But if there are new materials, plastics, new types of fabric or types of lights that the costume house might know about, I welcome them. I like to try for something new yet relevant in each project.

SW: Out of everything you’ve worked on, do you have a favorite project?

AK: “The Lion King” parade was a favorite. I liked the work I did for Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo Disney Sea. I loved making the park walk about characters from Disney films…Jafar, Jasmine, Genie, etc. Reproducing Jim Henson's Muppets at Walt Disney World was a wonderful experience as well.

SW: Did Jim Henson have to approve your work?

AK: Yes, he did. I am so fortunate to have met him and worked with him for awhile.

SW: I know you worked on my favorite parade "Party Gras," I saw the photo of the pineapple character in your other room.

AK: Most of the parade was done by Jack Muhs. I contributed the new characters..the dancing pineapple, cherry and banana. I always loved to design new and different characters, from moving fruits, vegetables, cars, bugs, even to dancing spark plugs!

SW: I saw you designed a seaweed costume. What’s the strangest costume you’ve done?

AK: Maybe the pink elephants from Dumbo for Radio City Music Hall were the strangest.

SW: Was that the live "Magical World of Disney" show?

AK: Yes. I did a black lighted Dumbo pink elephant dream sequence. The costumes stretched tall and then reverted back to regular height, changing their shape on stage. It was a good effect. We also had the Rockettes dance inside the giant brooms from Fantasia.

SW: Were you working for Disneyland when you were asked to do the Radio City show?

AK: Yes, I worked with Barnette Ricci on that show.

SW: Which “Disney On Ice” shows did you work on?

AK: I designed the costumes for "Pocahontas Disney On Ice," and worked on the overdressings for Disney characters on many other "Disney on Ice spectaculars.

SW: That’s like their “wardrobe,” right?

AK: Yes. An overdressing is a costume that an established character wears in order to fit into a particular role… like a raincoat for Mickey, or a special Easter dress for Minnie, etc.

SW: When you design for ice shows, is it different than a stage show or a Disney parade?

AK: On ice, the performer needs to be free to move quite a bit. That takes a slightly different approach. Sometimes different fabrics need to be used and more of the body needs to be exposed. Lighting makes a great deal of difference. In an indoor ice show, as in all indoor venues, lighting can help create a mood. With an outdoor parade, the sun is shining, and the audience becomes the backdrop for many of the performers. The background colors can be very distracting. Another thing, the costumes are seen very close up at times and so must be very well made. Outdoor performances are very unforgiving and I think, generally a harder problem to solve. This is where experience helps a lot.

SW: Some characters obviously have makeup, are you also involved in that?

AK: Yes, make-up and hair are part of the overall design and my responsibility.

SW: You mentioned working with a director earlier. Who else do you work with on these projects? 

AK: On every production there’s a director, a producer, a set designer, a lighting designer, a music director and a costume designer, working together. A choreographer is very important as well.

SW: Why would the choreographer work with you?

AK: If for some reason the person can’t move properly in the costume, I’d need to fix that. Sometimes the choreography can change to accommodate a larger costume. It’s very collaborative.

SW: How much time do you usually have between the time you first learn about a parade until the time it’s on the street?

AK: Usually six to maybe nine months. It’s a long and focused process between the concept and the final dress rehearsal.

SW: You started your own business doing costumes, so what other types of costumes are you doing?

AK: My current business is very similar to what I’ve done in the past, but it’s not limited to Disney now. I still like to do large productions. My largest one was the Paralympic opening and closing ceremony (in Salt Lake City). That was the biggest, consisting of over thousand people.

SW: I saw a photo of your inflatable elephant costume you did.  Was that for Japan?

AK: Yes. The Tokyo Disneyland director wanted an elephant in the African section of "Disney's Dreams on Parade", and I thought, wouldn’t it be fun to have almost a life-sized elephant. An inflatable costume came to mind. I worked with a company in South Dakota who specialized in inflatable elements. It was interesting because when you looked at the standing inflated elephant, it looked heavy just like a real life sized elephant, but because it was full of air, it could jump and dance and looked so incongruously light. Two people were inside.

SW: Didn’t you have some of your costumes turned into merchandise in Japan?

AK: Whenever there was a costume, especially for one of the main characters, or if there was a costume Tokyo Disneyland particularly liked in the parade, Merchandise would make a plush out of it.

SW: What’s it like for you when you finally get to see the finished product in front of an audience?

AK: It’s magical. It’s the reason why I do everything. This job is a hard one and it requires a lot of people with a lot of different personalities working together….a definite timeframe and budget parameters, all of that. But in the end, seeing the people enjoying it makes it so worthwhile. I imagine them being taken away a little from their everyday cares by something visual and musical and just plain happy. It's very gratifying and humbling for me.

More from Alyja:
Comments on images of her work

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