Sashing the Patriarchy—on Broadway!
I made about 16 sashes in two designs for the Broadway musical SUFFS. But there’s a lot more to it than that! I recently spoke with Rachel Attridge, SUFFS’ associate costume designer, who described the many ways sashes are threaded through the musical’s plot.
Creator Shaina Taub and director Leigh Silverman wanted evolving designs to underscore the progression of the story. While many historical sashes displayed slogans or the names of suffrage groups, the sashes in the musical would be used as identifying symbols for their wearers and their various affiliations.
The logistics of managing all of the sashes didn’t just fall to the props department. The production employs a wardrobe sash captain whose job is to make sure everyone’s wearing the right sash at the right time, which is further complicated by the fact that sashes donned backstage use snaps, while those donned onstage have magnets.
It was important to the creative team to have all these varying sashes in the March to signal all the different groups that came together. —Rachel Attridge
SUFFS was nominated for six Tonys—including Best Costumes—and won Tonys in the “Best Book of a Musical” and “Best Original Score” categories. It also won Outer Critics Circle awards for Best Musical, Best Score and Best Book.
The first sashes, yellow with sunflower cockades, represent early suffragists.
Photo © Joan Marcus
When younger suffragists break away from the old guard and begin to organize, they wear my purple and yellow sashes, what Attridge calls the “DIY sashes.”
Photo © Joan Marcus
That design evolved into the “sunray” style, seen here in a performance on the Today show, which the young group wears once it’s organized. Attridge says they were inspired by Inez Milholland’s costume, a modified tip of the hat to German actress Hedeif Reicher, who dressed as “Columbia” at a rally in Washington, D.C. (Columbia’s also on every tag I sew into all my sashes.) The more dynamic style of this sash symbolizes the march amplifying the suffragists’ voices.
My red and white sashes refer to the Deltas, a black sorority that Mary Church Terrell helped establish, who joined the march in Washington.
Ida B. Wells (right) has a new sash invented for the musical, meant to symbolize both the National Association of Colored Women (purple and white) and the pattern of the otherwise all-white Chicago delegation, which she joined.
Photo © Joan Marcus
The young suffragists’ sashes keep evolving as the story unfolds. Alva Belmont helps to fund their new National Women’s Party. The yellow and purple sashes get white stripes and gold accents.
The old guard gets an upgrade as well: red, white and blue sashes symbolizing their alliance with President Wilson and the looming world war.
At the end, every character gets a white sash symbolizing their unity.
