Much has changed since the early days of opera in Seattle, when singers travelled with their own costumes. Beginning when Glynn Ross first enlisted his wife to alter rented costumes for the Seattle Opera stage, opera companies took on the responsibility. In pursuit of artistically cohesive productions, Speight Jenkins brought Cynthia Savage to Seattle in 1984 to establish Seattle Opera’s professional costume shop. (Savage remained Costume Director until 1991, when she was promoted to Director of Production.) The shop has created, by hand, carefully designed and individually tailored costumes, often numbering hundreds of pieces per opera). Under Savage’s leadership, and that of later managers Mindy Simons, Lise Schellman, and Susan Davis, they developed an international reputation for unparalleled craftmanship and technique, creating by hand extravagantly detailed period costumes. In partnership with the Wardrobe and Hair and Make-Up Departments, the Costume Shop regularly transforms performers into gods and heroes, mermaids and monsters, starving peasants and dapper aristocrats, making the impossible happen every day.