Pageant of the Masters provides ‘90 seconds of splendor’ in fashion-themed show

Throughout history, there have been countless examples of those who have gone to great lengths to stand out from the rest.

Snappy dressers spare no expense in putting together a complete look, and this summer, the Pageant of the Masters makes its own fashion statement.

“À La Mode: The Art of Fashion” opened last week at the Irvine Bowl in Laguna Beach, inviting the general public to awaken their inner fashionista with an evening of spectacular suits, glamorous gowns and fanciful footwear.

The longtime living picture show does not abandon the tableaux vivant tradition, but it does endeavor to stimulate the audience with a handful of live-action representations of the figures they will see in recreated artworks in the production.

It opens with a runway show featuring live actors and models posing as historical figures from King Tut to Parisian royals. Cinema icon Edith Head, who won eight Academy Awards for her work as a costume designer, is a prominent character, too.

Reagan Foy has worked with the Pageant for 16 seasons, beginning in the headpiece department. She has served as costume director since 2016. Foy noted the importance of capturing defining elements that hold a place in the mind’s eye of the viewers.

Cast members Antwon Mason Jr. and Andrue Velarde, from left, in costume for “À La Mode: The Art of Fashion.”

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

“People have an iconic image of … Edith Head or Grace Kelly’s gold dress,” Foy said. “As long as you capture that essence, the audience is going to recognize it.”

Foy said she typically has a few seasonal staff members in her department, along with about 25 volunteers helping out with the headpiece and wardrobe departments. Given the theme this season, more staff were needed, including an additional stitcher.

The builder set, which deconstructs the living picture artwork and largely debunks the myth of making humans appear two-dimensional within the frame, is an audience favorite. Foy works closely with David Talbot, the construction foreman, to keep up appearances. This year, audience members can plainly see a partial skirt being fitted over a volunteer. The piece is referred to as a skirt armature.

Cast members in costume for the Pageant of the Masters show, “À La Mode: The Art of Fashion.”

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

“It’s a way to … create a flat surface to paint all of the detail — the draping, the highlights, the shadows,” Foy said. “If we did that in fabric, it would never look the same every night. It’s a way of controlling it.”

Diane Challis Davy, the director of the Pageant, lauded Talbot’s welding skills, describing a lampshade-like frame that he made out of metal to make the phenomenon possible.

“We stretch the muslin over that frame,” Challis Davy said. “Now the frame, it’s not flat. It has a contour to it, so it’s very clever because the frame will wrap around the performer, and we can paint it however the original artist would create that skirt.”

Makeup director Michelle Pohl stands in the Irvine Bowl as she prepares for a night at the Pageant of the Masters.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

Michelle Pohl, who said she first appeared in the Pageant as a cast member in 1987, is now in her fourth summer as the makeup director. The Pageant’s reputation as a family of volunteers is very close to Pohl, whose husband and two children have been cast in three separate pieces this year.

Pohl said it takes approximately 45 volunteers in makeup to prepare for the show backstage. The first call into the makeup department comes just after 7 p.m. The show begins at 8:30 p.m. Those who participate in “The Last Supper,” the traditional finale, are usually out of makeup around 9:45 p.m.

The fashion-oriented theme excited many backstage, said Pohl, explaining that it was “a subject that’s dear to all of our hearts.”

A Pageant of the Masters cast member is dressed as Tippi Hedren in Alfred Hitchcock’s film, “The Birds,” in an outfit designed by Edith Head.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

Pohl had the opportunity to assist as a wardrobe consultant, bringing her personal touch to the runway show opening act.

“The runway, on the sides of that, there were audience members, and they kind of slowly trickled in as the show was getting started,” Pohl said. “There are 30 audience members that are watching that fashion show, and those are the people that I dressed, or helped buy for. We have two casts, and on each cast, I matched the personalities of the cast members to a look that they could pull off that was also congruent with 2024 fashion.

“The references that I used were people who were attending runway shows in 2024, a lot of research for street style during Fashion Week. Basically, everything surrounding Fashion Week, whether runway attendees, VIPs, celebrities, and [I] used that reference to build a look that was suitable for each of the people who are going to be watching our runway show.”

Cast member Valair Williams prepares for the opening act of the Pageant of the Masters show, “À La Mode: The Art of Fashion.”

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

The Pageant is replicating depictions of some of the more extravagant outfits throughout time, and that comes at a cost. Challis Davy said the Pageant spent an estimated $60,000 on costumes for the show, which she added was more than any other year.

“Most of the costumes for all the living pictures, they are muslin, so unbleached cotton,” Challis Davy said. “They provide the blank canvas, so the costumes are made in muslin, and then our scenic artists will paint the costumes, so ‘Blue Boy’ and all the rest of them, all the people in the painting, those are almost all blank canvas, and then artists come back and paint with textile paints.

“However, this year, we made some of the costumes from the living pictures. We rendered them in real fabrics and silks and satins and brocade.”

Cast members have a laugh backstage before the start of the Pageant of the Masters show, “À La Mode: The Art of Fashion.”

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

The Pageant’s production of “À La Mode: The Art of Fashion” will run through Aug. 30. It features a cast of 137 volunteers and roughly 15 paid performers, Challis Davy said.

While audiences inside the Irvine Bowl will get a couple of opportunities to see some of the costumes worn, including a Met Gala scene, the Pageant director surmises that there may be another opportunity to see them up close.

The Festival of Arts holds an annual runway fashion show, which will fall on Aug. 18 at noon, and it typically features clothing furnished from recycled and reusable materials. The Pageant theme provides for a degree of synergy, and Challis Davy described conversations as an “open invite” to have some of their models on the festival grounds that day.

“I think it will be fun,” Challis Davy said. “I think everybody will enjoy seeing some of those gowns up close and seeing them in the daylight. … The show, the red carpet, it’s 90 seconds of splendor, but it’s over very quickly, and a lot of people have told me that they would like to see more.”

A Pageant of the Masters cast member recreates the image of the gold dress worn by Grace Kelly in the 1955 film “To Catch A Thief.”

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)