For Brittany Graham, costumes are more than clothing \u2014 they are a way to tell a story.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As the assistant costume shop manager in the Department of Theater Arts<\/a> at Pitt, Graham has built a career around helping characters come to life, whether on stage or on screen. Since arriving at the University in December 2021, she has become a steady presence in Pitt\u2019s costume shop, balancing intricate designs, student mentorship and a freelance design career that stretches well beyond campus.<\/p>\n \u201cI love my job,\u201d Graham said. \u201cEvery new project is a new challenge. It kind of tickles all the places in my brain that I like.\u201d<\/p>\n Finding her way to Pitt\n<\/p>\n Graham found her love of theater in high school, where she was president of the drama club. She earned her bachelor\u2019s degree in theater from the University of Maryland in 2008, where she initially focused on acting. But it wasn\u2019t until she began working in the costume shop to fulfill course requirements that she discovered her love for costume design.<\/p>\n \u201cI already knew how to sew, and I was always interested in clothes and fashion and how they tell a story,\u201d Graham said. \u201cI just didn\u2019t know it was a career.\u201d<\/p>\n Graham graduated as the global financial crisis disrupted the art industries<\/a> across the country, entering a job market where theaters were cutting costs and limiting new hires<\/a>. Facing fewer opportunities in acting, she chose to focus on design \u2014 a decision that would shape the rest of her career.<\/p>\n After a period of working freelance jobs in theater and film, she earned her Master\u2019s of Fine Arts in costume design from the University of Wisconsin in 2018. At this point, Graham realized she was drawn to academia.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI really enjoy working with students and helping foster the next generation of people,\u201d Graham said.\u00a0<\/p>\n While working on the independent film \u201cUnsinkable<\/a>,\u201d Graham and her husband moved from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh because the job required her to spend about half the year in the City. With family nearby and her husband working remotely, Graham said the move felt practical.<\/p>\n \u201cMy husband asked, \u2018Why are we in Philly if you\u2019re always in Pittsburgh?\u2019 So we moved here, and now it\u2019s my fourth year here,\u201d Graham said.<\/p>\n Graham described \u201cUnsinkable\u201d as an important moment in her career. The film follows the political intrigue and drama after the sinking of the Titanic. Graham worked on the project for five years, and it was the first feature-length film she designed.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt was pretty epic,\u201d Graham said.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n Shortly after relocating \u2013 and while pregnant with her first child \u2013 Graham sought more stable work, joining Pitt\u2019s costume shop in the 2022 fall semester.<\/p>\n Living with endometriosis\n<\/p>\n Graham is also open about that more personal part of her story \u2014 her diagnosis with endometriosis, a chronic condition affecting roughly one in eight people with uteruses.<\/p>\n For years, she experienced what she eventually realized was chronic pain, assuming it was normal. She wasn\u2019t officially diagnosed until she struggled to become pregnant.<\/p>\n \u201cTurns out I had textbook endometriosis my whole life,\u201d Graham said. \u201cTo find out that I was struggling not because of personal failure, but because your body doesn\u2019t work the way that it should, was such a relief.\u201d<\/p>\n Looking back, she said the condition did affect her life and work \u2014 though she didn\u2019t recognize it at the time.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re in pain all the time,\u201d Graham said. \u201cBut I didn\u2019t know that wasn\u2019t normal.\u201d<\/p>\n She was diagnosed while seeking treatment for infertility, a process she said had a more direct impact on her career due to the time required for medical appointments.<\/p>\n In June 2021, she underwent excision surgery, considered the gold-standard treatment<\/a> for endometriosis. The procedure was \u201clife changing\u201d. She became pregnant shortly after and now has two children, including a baby born this past October.<\/p>\n Graham speaks openly about the condition because, she said, it remains widely misunderstood and under taught in medical education.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s so common, and yet it\u2019s not something that people talk about,\u201d Graham said. \u201cA lot about [endometriosis] is misunderstood, but it is better than it used to be. People are talking about it more.\u201d<\/p>\n Mentorship and freelance designs\n<\/p>\n As the costume shop assistant manager, Graham mentors theater students completing shop hours for their degree requirements, managing costume stock and serving as a draper and tailor for University productions.\u00a0<\/p>\n For Pitt Stages<\/a>\u2019 production of the play<\/a> \u201cAs You Like It\u201d last spring, Graham\u2019s primary costume design was a blue velvet gown featuring several cage-style costume elements. This show required many of the pieces to be made from scratch, while more modern shows require mostly pulled and altered garments<\/a>, according to Graham.\u00a0<\/p>\n