Randy Werdal, Quick Change Artist

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Before dressing actors in plays such as Les Miserables, The Will Roger’s Follies and The Lion King, Randy Werdal created a role for himself as the assistant to the Japanese fashion designer Mitsuhiro Matsuda. The son of Norwegian missionaries, Randy grew up in Japan and returned when he was in his early twenties. It was while he was giving private English lessons to a group of Japanese designers looking to export their fashions to the U.S. that he made a conscious decision to get into the business, but “I had no idea how I was going to do it.” When the group told him that they needed an interpreter to interview people in Public Relations, Exporting and Sales, he volunteered for the job.

“I didn’t even know how to sew,” Randy says. He spent the next eight years working 14-16 hour days “soaking it all in,” learning about collections, selecting fabrics, meeting celebrities Brooke Shields, Candace Bergen and Jack Nicholson during Fashion Week, and acting as an interpreter when Matsuda opened a boutique in New York. All the excitement and commotion wore thin eventually, and Randy returned to the states.

Aptly nicknamed, “The Zen Dresser,” Randy’s intuitive nature and calm demeanor puts him at the top of the “Best Dressers List” when wardrobe supervisors nationwide need the perfect person for the job.

 

For More Information:

Want to learn how to get “on the list?” Go to Theatrical Wardrobe Union Local 887: www.districtone.com/887text.htm; or plug “theatrical wardrobe resume” into any search engine and see how other people got their start.