The closure of the Radio-Canada costume tree marks the end of an era

With the end of Radio-Canada's “costume designer”, a workshop and a warehouse over 40 years old, it is an entire part of the life of the institution that collapses.On March 31, Sylvie Beaudoin, the costume chef, will put the key under the door.

Sylvie Beaudoin entered Radio-Canada in 1984 in what was then the institution's costume workshop.She thus joined an army of 20 seamstresses who made...everything.

In a corner of what she affectionately calls "Le Costumier", Sylvie Beaudoin finds one of the dresses she had herself cut and sewn for the character of Roxane, in Cyrano de Bergerac.She exhibits her to journalists who came to interview her today to comment not only to loss her job, a small personal tragedy, but the complete closure of the Radio-Canada costume workshop...collective tragedy.

Sylvie Beaudoin, costume chief at Radio-Canada

A universe that collapses

Because it's the end.As of March 31, Sylvie Beaudoin, costume chief, will close for good the doors of this lair of 70,000 costumes and 20,000 accessories.Yesterday, her supervisor summoned him in his office to tell her that she and three other colleagues lost their job, their respective permanent position being deleted.

But if it was just that..."I am worried about where all these costumes will go.It has to fall into good hands, ”she says with an anxious look at her universe.

Read also: the warehouse of the Costumier de Radio-Canada closes its doors

And what universe.Pass the main entrance with its security cure, cross the lift area, pass the store of the Radio-Canada cooperative, take the corridor, turn left: that's it.Penetrate.It is like the multiplication of breads in the Gospel, or the court of miracles, or the most beautiful dream of a child on the day of Halloween.

And it is also on this Halloween day that Sylvie Beaudoin, still in shock from bad news, receives journalists. Ironie : dans les couloirs de la maison de Radio-Canada, les enfants de la garderie circulenteverything costumés, Stella et pirates maquillés.From year to year, tell their parents, a cameraman was mandated to follow them.In a box where we make TV, we have the right to immortalize between employees and their offspring.Not this year.Sign of times: even at this level, there is no more production.

Already, in the 1990s, Sylvie Beaudoin was aware of a decline in the production of Télé-Théâtre, Téléstes, Téléromans and Tutti Quanti.Then, in 2005, a wave of compressions decimated the sewing workshop.No more confection.Remained the costumes which had one, ten, a thousand lives!

When Sylvie Beaudoin is asked to list who praised and why she stammers;There are so many!The history of these costumes which travel outside the walls of the parent company begins in 1990 and it is made up practically as many chapters as there have been any theatrical and cinematographic productions. TVA,everythinges les zones de la maison de production Zone 3, d'autres maisons de production aussi telles que Fair-Play et jusqu'à des entreprises de Halifax venaient s'approvisionner, voire s'abreuver à cette fontaine magique.

Closure of the Radio-Canada Costumier: report by Olivier Bachand

Not to mention the programs broadcast by Radio-Canada.When the workshop started, in the early 1970s, the team repatriated treasures such as the costumes of a man and his sin or the other there and the other.The learned creations have been added to it for all bye bye, the inn of the black dog, thirty lives, unit 9, memory, new address;Name them, they went into the expert hands of Sylvie Beaudoin and her acolytes.

"All the TVs you see are dressed as a large part with us," explains Sylvie Beaudoin.The hat carried by the legionnaire in the Bye bye last year?He is perched in the costume workshop;It is blue but it started its existence in red for another television work.Because, if it is an art that costumers master, it is that of recycling.

A freelance freelance costume designer

Marie-Lynn Beaulieu knows something.This young freelance costume designer (she specifies that she has never lost a job nowhere since she has never had one) is distraught at the idea of no longer being able to resort to the services of the Radio-Canada Costume Workshop."I'm going to be in the mard, me," she said bluntly.

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Marie-Lynn Beaulieu multiplies in the appendages, the detestable, true life and she already predicts that it will cost the producers of these various programs more expensive to dress their artists on the screen."It will complicate the work," she explains.We will have to indulge in making and production costs will explode.»»

Because, casually, you have to draw the costume, find the fabric and have it done, operations that require time.However, we turn faster and faster, everywhere. « Je ne pourrai plus me virer sur un dix cent pour trouver une robe d'époque, moi»», maugrée Marie-Lynn Beaulieu.

Mandible, Bedondaine and Palailsson

Era, from the Greek Épokhé, point of stopping. Tout est dit, l'atelier de costumes de Radio-Canada est, était, le point d'arrêt poureverythinge personne désirant trouver un costume d'époque.

For example, the costumers of the film Louis Cyr, the strongest man in the world, have hardly looked elsewhere than there.There are vintage dresses from the Roaring and most inventive years of wardrobes for subsequent decades. « Un pantalon des années 1920, on ne trouve pas ça chez Simons»», dit Sylvie Beaudoin.

And then there is the room containing the treasures, which is permanently locked.Fanfreluche, doormat and its chocolate potato, storage, floor and cup;So many characters from the famous children's programs that participated in the Glory, Past, of Radio-Canada.Their costumes are stored in this room.Otherwise, they are at the Museum of Civilization in Quebec, which preserved them at the end of an exhibition held a few years ago.

Dans l'atelier de costumes,everything est soigneusement étiqueté.The variety room, rich in sequins worthy of Suzanne Lapointe and Gilles Latulippe as unpaid demons of the Midi alone represents only the tenth of the entire workshop.There are fitting rooms dressed in gray curtains and mirrors, a laundry room, some tiny offices whose walls are lined with photos and rooms literally overflowing with costumes.

I myself counted 520 bins, a good hundred drawers swarming with gloves, scarves and other rooms, flooded shelves of shoes of all kinds, 52 tie supports (from the sixties, united or with patterns, in paisleyor striped), thousands of hangers supporting dresses, clothes, crinolines, hack supports, hats, sombreros and, finally, a few dozen conveyors containing...the story.Dresses and clothes of Marie Stuart, production from 1961 to the bourgeois costume made for Gérard Poirier in 1967, passing by pensions of nuns (yes, there were modes in this chapter also) we find all the treasures there.

Pierre Falardeau, costume designer, has been working for 23 years at the Radio-Canada costume workshop.He has not lost his post...Again."It cannot be long," he predicts, because on March 31, there will be no one here.»» Depuis l'annonce de la fermeture de l'atelier de costumes, le téléphone ne dérougit pas.Customers call, distraught.Because from December 7, finished the rental. Apprenant la nouvelle, le nettoyeur à sec avec lequel les costumiers de Radio-Canada font affaires « a attrapé son air»».

Stéphane Lagacé, la costumière de l'Opéra de Montréal, qui est doté de son propre atelier de confection de costumes, est l'une de celles qui téléphone pour exprimer « sa solidarité»».Because between the opera and the Radio-Canada costume workshop, there are loans that are done.Between costumers, we help ourselves.

What is a costume?

Quand on demande à Marie-Lynn Beaulieu, elle répondeverything d'abord : « C'est 150 piastres!»».This is the budget it has, often..."It's a flag," she continues more seriously, a flag that we give to an actor saying to him: defend him.»» Pour Sylvie Beaudoin, le costume indique à celui qui le vêt la direction à prendre. « L'habit fait le moine!»», s'écrie-t-elle.

In a press release, the company Radio-Canada justifies its decision

Our internal productions already have their own wardrobe and rarely use the costume services.Although some external productions use our services, the request is not strong enough to justify the maintenance of operations. En effet, le secteur opère à perte eteverythinges les prévisions indiquent que le déficit ira en s'accentuant.

We are aware that the costume tree has a heritage inventory, but it is a tiny part of the collection.Everything is not with heritage value.What is not disappearing.Procedures will be taken with cultural and museum institutions to preserve this inventory and benefit the public.For example, several of these costumes have been the subject of a donation to the Musée de la Civilization de Québec as part of the celebrations of the 75th anniversary of Radio-Canada.The remaining elements will not be destroyed.The company will seek to find buyers for its inventory.

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CBC/Radio-Canada announces the abolition of nearly 400 jobs