Former Wichita woman has designs on Broadway

Angela Aaron, who attended Kos Harris Elementary and Coleman Middle School before moving to Colorado, has made her way to Broadway in New York City.

It wasn’t a direct route. She will arrive in late November by way of Prague, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Akron, Ohio.

But let’s back up. You won’t see her onstage in New York, but you will see the costumes she has designed for the show “The Illusionists.” Her designs not only will be on the illusionists but also will be worn by the dancers in the show.

The wardrobe stylist and costume designer resides in Los Angeles, but comes to Wichita to see her mom, Diane Cline, at least twice a year.

Her first job was a long way from Kansas. She hit the ground running in her career by styling new male and female models for the top modeling agencies in Prague. The publishers at Hearst Publications were impressed and made Angela the fashion editor of Czech Esquire magazine.

After three years she decided to come back to the United States. “I spent six months in Wichita deciding what to do next. I decided since I had a lot of contacts on the West Coast I would move to San Francisco,” she said.

“The way you get into styling is you assist, and I got to assist someone very successful. Then I signed with an agency and stayed there for six years,” she said.

With a good reputation and a lot of talent she struck out on her own in Los Angeles. She has done costumes and styling for commercials, videos, photo shoots, a few short films and even a circus. You can take a look at some of her work at www.angelaaaron.com.

Her latest venture is a challenge she hasn’t had before. “It is an ensemble show featuring the world’s greatest illusionists,” she said. “That means the costumes have all kinds of secrets and pockets that things can go in. Usually when I do a costume it has to just get through a music video or a commercial.”

Angela explained the requirements of costumes goes far beyond looking pretty. “It has to be durable, and I have to figure out how something can be taken off to be cleaned. Sometimes it comes down to engineering but I have all kinds of wonderful, talented people who help me with all this,” she said.

“The Illusionists” opens at the Marquis Theater on Nov. 26 and runs through Jan. 5, but the show is going to Akron, Ohio, for rehearsals and a soft opening. “We’ll be doing all the fittings and getting the show open,” she said.

Her enthusiasm lets you know that she loves what she does and feels fortunate to be doing it. However, she’s quick to tell you: “It’s fun, but it is definitely a job and definitely stressful. We make many changes, and improvise.”

Her clients have sent her back to the drawing board a few times on this project. “This is a big deal and they want everything to be perfect, and so do I,” she said. Once she gets to Ohio, she says, she’ll be putting in 14 and 16 hour days. “But when it’s done, it’s done, and I know when I sit and watch the first rehearsal it will bring tears to my eyes,” she said.

When I interviewed her on the phone, she chuckled and said she was sitting in the middle of a mess of sketches and fabrics. But the end result of her work has to be “pretty and clean.” “That’s what my mom taught me: pretty and clean,” she said. “And she was a great cheerleader for me. I have always appreciated the freedom and support she offered,” Angela said of her mom, who resides in Wichita.

This transplanted Kansan loves transforming her and her clients’ dreams to reality. “To see people who have dedicated their lives to their arts and to get to assist them is amazing,” she said. “They are already a delicious cake and I get to ice it and put the cherry on top. It is such a natural place for me to be. It is my happy place.”

This story was originally published October 23, 2014 at 6:16 PM with the headline "Former Wichita woman has designs on Broadway."