This week is National Apprentice Week and to celebrate we are highlighting our lovely Wardrobe Apprentice, Sophie. Sophie recently began a two-year apprenticeship here at the Octagon. 

Hear from Sophie, in her own words, what it has really been like being a apprentice with the Octagon. 

We would also like to give the Mackintosh Foundation a shoutout for making this apprenticeship possible!

Although I will always say that no two days are the same at the Octagon, I often get into a really nice rhythm while shows are on. Checking show reports, collecting the costumes from dressing rooms, laundering and ironing them and completing any necessary repairs. I feel like I've really started to get a sense for what items might need some extra supervision in the last couple of weeks, which has rather streamlined the process of checking costumes for repairs. It's if we need to make repairs that I tend to learn the most, there's a lot about those techniques I don't know. Recently that's meant learning how to repair a jacket from inside the lining and even starting to tackle my most dreaded task...sewing in zips!

It's that element of learning that really defines the apprenticeship, I think. It would be easy to imagine that the days I work on college projects for the formally assessed element of the qualification are the only times this plays a major role but in reality almost everything I do each day teaches me something, even if it is something really mundane like not to leave elastic waistbands stretched while they are drying!

In between maintenance on show days there are usually tasks related to either the previous or next show we have/are producing. For future shows this has recently taken the form of a fair amount of production paperwork. I have a module coming up on that and Su, the Wardrobe Manager, is fantastic about making sure we fit in practical experiences that relate to my college work, giving me opportunities to visit other theatres, lead on organising the maintenance of shows and really collaborate on what the department focuses on teaching me next. For previous shows, we do a surprising amount of undoing alterations so that borrowed costumes can return to their original owners. This might take the form of swapping out buttons, re-adding decorations to hats or even replacing the lining in a waistcoat. I find it really nerve-wracking working on costumes that we don't own, forever worried that I might unwittingly do some permanent damage but I'm always able to ask questions if I'm not sure and the team's confidence in giving me tasks is really encouraging. 

Over Christmas, my maintenance tasks were often followed by working on the show itself. Jess, the wardrobe assistant, took time to teach me the dressing plot for the show and supported me with setting up costumes for changes and helping the actors change in fast paced, high-pressured moments. We don't get a lot of opportunities to dress shows outside of the business of Christmas but I'm really looking forward to getting much more involved in the whole process next year. 

I only started my apprenticeship at the Octagon in September but with how much I've learned and how welcoming the whole team has been, I often think I must have been working here for years. Lucky for me I'm only just getting started!