When you visit CATS, the costumes look amazing. But how on earth are they made? Well, with a splendid design by John Napier and his team and various production designers, the costumes comes from a basic set of items. Back to main CATS page

Basic high necked unitard/leotard with full long sleeves - Preferably white or pale cream color so you can paint the markings you want on it. For a black cat costume, a basic black is best. They come in either cotton, cotton-lycra mix and pure lycra. The lycra is mostly favoured by the CATS designers. The cotton versions are tricky to paint on and is usually not as shiny and nice as the lycra ones. Warmers - leg and arm warmers are used on most of the felines. They look best if they are made from quality Mohair yarn to get that right fluffy feeling. But nowadays there are so many nice new yarns, that you can get all kinds of really neat special effects from the latest stuff! Some designs uses ballroom gloves or black biker gloves instead. It's all a matter of taste and what you think looks good for your cat. The wig - a terribly complicated thing! The real CATS wigs are all (except Grizabella's that's made form real human hair) all made from Yak hair. It has the stiffness to stand up without hairspray and other styling items. The fans are left trying to reshape fake fur and acrylic yarn into what is needed. All wigs at the shows are precisely measured to fit each individual performer, sometimes they make up to five wigs for a swing or more! The tail - Oh this is the fun stuff! The tails are color coordinated mostly to match up with the unitard's deisgn as well. They're often made from a long braid of material. Some shows have used scarfs/silk to braid and decorate while others uses heavy cotton yarn braided and decorated. It's all a matter of what you can find! Shoes -Anything goes that looks dainty and elegant. The real Capezio dance shoes are the best, but there are ofcourse other options. Plain summer shoes in a fabric material can look marvellous as well. Some samples of makeups and simple costumes from CATS But what if one can't afford to actually BUY a real one? Well, there is an option of making one yourself! Most cities have a dancewear shop, or you can find them online as well. They'll be happy to help you to get a basic unitard. After that it is up to you and you alone, what to do with it. Do you want to make a copy of a exsisting character or do you want to make up your own? Anything goes really! Mostly the fans make wigs out of 3 inch long (or longer if possible!!) fake fur or really good acrylic yarn. Some are real masters of creating them and they look scarily real! There are several helpful and imaginative creators of costumes that probably would love to help out with any questions. I am REALLY not that good at these things, but DO go to http://www.catsmusical.com and post a question at the FORUM if you want to know more! there are MANY who can help out. Ask before you invest and it can pay off! Some even MAKE costumes for others... I have created a few costumes myself and I thought I'd share what they are so you might get inspired to make one yourself some day! Costume Replicas created by Anna-Karin "Ahdeya" Larsson Some are private and some are sold to other persons. I do not have any for sale. I can make one for you, but they are EXTREMELY COSTLY because a massive amount of hours goes into each costume, depending on complexity and colors - so watch your wallet because I don't make replicas cheaply... Please move your mouse pointer over each image before clicking, that way you'll read something about the pictures. SWEDISH MUNKUSTRAP This is a tabby costume I have worked on twice. It was originally a white tabby one, but I got to rework it and it turned out looking VERY nice. The design is based on the Swedish production. I might make a better one later on this year if my economy permits it! The wigs here are made up of a grey Tina Turner styled one, PLUS I bought a black one as well, cut that one up and added pieces of it to gain thicker "fur". BILL BAILEY This a unitard handpainted and decorated by me. It is now sold via Ebay to a fellow CATS fan inAustralia and I'll see if I can get some pics of the new owner in it. It would be so neat! More to come... More to come... BOMBALURINA Red red red! I saw red and orange for days after finsihing this one, but it turned out really nice! More to come More to come VICTORIA I got this unitard from the US, but altered it a bit and redecorated it. It later went to a fellow CATS fan in England. MACAVITY To say that this costume took time, woudl be an understatement. It was HELL to paint and create. I honestly will never do another one unless I get paid a helluva lot! More to come....   Tails by Anna-Karin "Ahdeya" Larsson Tails are fun to make. These are a few that I have made. I am always open to make custom tails as well, so just email me and we'll take it from there. The basic black or white starts at 35 dollar plus postage. The more details and such the higher the price. I can even embroider details such as stars, striping and other little trinkets on them if you want to - all extras cost extra... It DO take time to make these, unless you had any doubts about it. Time costs and material costs and... well, it's a lot of stuff that goes into making these!

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