How can I get into the costume-design business?

By: Cindy, Miami

A.B. Replies: First, one must calm down!! One must not freak out!! One must use patience and diplomacy if one is going to coax A-list space cadets away from their Xboxes and into their costume-fitting appointments. Movie actors just love to blow off those fittings. Before you even think about this profession, you'll have to find a more effective attention-getter than double exclamation points.

Like other careers in film, costume designing does not necessarily require a formal education. Quentin Tarantino abandoned middle school and worked at a porn theater before conquering the realm of indie scuzz film, and your idol and Oscar winner Sandy Powell is also a dropout (from college, see).

Long before she swathed Cameron Diaz in those adorably grimy petticoats for Gangs of New York, and well before she clad Kate Beckinsale in those killer Eva Gardner shoulder pads for The Aviator, the British-born Powell was just a simple, restless college art major. She decided to slag off her education ("I wasn't a very good student," Powell todd the publication Victoria in 1993) and instead learn costuming on the job.

According to Industry profiles, Powell worked in theater first as a costume assistant, before finally meeting movie director Derek Jarman in the mid-1980s. Powell also volunteered for lower-paying jobs on indie features to build her portfolio. The directors--Neil Jordan, Mike Figgis--were unknowns then, but, of course, they wouldn't stay that way forever. As the directors moved up, so did Powell.

However, there is another way into the costuming profession--perhaps an easier one, if you can afford the nearly $22,000 a year in tuition and other costs. A well-connected fashion school can help an ambitious student land key internships on film sets or TV soundstages. At L.A.'s Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, aspiring Edith Heads are usually required to take two years of basic schooling before being accepted into a rigorous Film and TV Costume Design program. (Mary Stephens, Chair of Fashion and Costume Design at the school, tells this B!tch that only eight students made the cut this year. Each student also had to craft a dress spun from a single hair from Gwyneth Paltrow's head. Or so we hear.)

The program may be selective, but it's also rewarding.

"Alumni call us asking for students to assist them on their film costume projects," Stephens says. For example, she says, FIDM grad Mona May, costumer for Disney's The Haunted Mansion, is currently working with an FIDM student assistant on a new gig.

Lastly, my dear, as a would-be costumer, it helps to, literally, see what you're getting into. Consider investing in a flight out to L.A. this month. On Monday, FIDM opens its 14th Annual Art of Motion Picture Costume Design exhibition. Each year, the college gathers real costumes from recent films, letting visitors--for free--get an up-close look at the detail that goes into these seemingly simple pieces. This year's exhibit features more than 100 costumes, including Powell's Oscar-winning Aviator togs.

Think you can stitch an equally mean pair of jodhpurs? Then head on over to the FIDM exhibit, and pick up a student application while you're at it.

And, yes, you can include this column as a letter of reference.