Housed in what used to be the Eberhard Faber Pencil Factory, Yvette Helin Studio occupies approximately 4000 square feet on the second floor of the early 1900's building. The studio combines the skills of many professional artists, including sculptors, craftspeople, seamstresses, pattern makers, graphic and industrial designers to create and produce custom costumes.

The studio includes a large sewing/design workroom, fitting area, large crafts workroom, dye room, and offices.

Yvette Helin has been creating clothing and costumes since 1981. She studied art at the Kansas City Art Institute. Her immediate family lives in Houston Texas. In high school Yvette learned to sew and eventually made her entire wardrobe of suits, coats, jeans, vests, shirts, and her prom dress. Her mother told her she would buy her all the fabric she wanted. Eventually, a cap was put on that. She went to work for Hancock fabrics, and made a deal where they would provide free fabric if she displayed her work on mannequins for a few weeks. Undecided on fashion or art as a pursuit, Yvette chose art, figuring she would be exposed to more options creatively, more materials, and would allow her to develop further her imagination. Four years later Yvette drove to New York just after graduation, and went to work in the New York costume industry, which seemed to fuse together her many interests and talents.

Before opening her own shop in Brooklyn in 1997, she had completed many costume jobs, including making life size Muppet costumes at Henson Associates, building costumes for the NY Lottery with Cathy Lazar, making tutu’s, tunics, doublets and puppets with Hartford Ballet’s costume shop supervisor April McCoy for two seasons, and working at the Hartford Stage Company’s costume shop where Mark Lamos was director. She made costumes for the Connecticut Department of Health, a Broccoli and a Pita Sandwish costume, and designed and made costumes for the Hartford Ballet, (L’histoire du Soldat) University of Connecticut (Seascapes), and the Atlanta Ballet (This Too Shall Pass).


She worked freelance for many years at Parsons- Meares LTD, a large Broadway costume shop in Manhattan best known at that time for their amazing work on Cats and Starlight Express, doing craftwork for Broadway hits such as Starlight Express, Phantom of the Opera, Cats, Aspects of Love, Starmites, the Wizard of Oz on Ice, Alladin on Ice, and Beauty and the Beast on Ice. At Parsons-Meares she met and worked with Michael Curry while making lizard costumes for the Siegfried and Roy show at the Mirage in 1990. Through Parsons, Michael and Yvette collaborated on costumes such as a skating camel and ABU the skating elephant for Disney’s Alladin on Ice as well as the Horse of Many Colors for Wizard of Oz on Ice.  In 1993 Curry hired her to work in Portland Oregon for several months at his new shop there. She helped build large giraffes and elephants for The Lion King Parade featured at Disneyland in Anaheim California, and large Cobra and Genie puppets for Disney’s Alladin show in Tokyo.

Back in New York, Yvette began to work on more independent projects. She built costumes for Liz Prince, who was designing costumes for Mikhail Baryshnikov and his White Oak Dance Co., Disney Theatrical, Michael Curry, and Julie Taymor, who hired her as the head costumer for the Lion King Workshop, where the now famous Broadway Lion King show was developed in models and white mock ups for a reading/presentation for Michael Eisner, then CEO of Disney. There, under director and costume designer Julie Taymor and puppet designer Michael Curry’s direction, she developed the costume elements for Timon, Scar, Nala, Mufasa, and the Hyenas that would interface well with Michael’s puppet-elements.

Nickelodeon contacted her in fall of 1997 with a project they were doing called “Rugrats Live”. Never having heard of a Rugrat, Yvette was eventually swooped off her feet into a world of Nickelodeon characters that would continue on for years. She met costume designer Gregg Barnes (now a Tony Winner for Drowsey Chaperone in 2006) on that project, and continues to make costumes for Gregg for many of his numerous projects. The Nickelodeon characters exploded into a terrific project for Nickelodeon Recreation, as she was awarded the job of developing and manufacturing theme park costume versions of many Nickelodeon characters such as Chuckie, Tommy, Angelica, Eliza, Donnie, Jimmy Neutron, Oswald, Blue, and Little Bill. The 6 Paramount Parks, 2 Universal Theme Parks, The Nickelodeon Family Suites, Dreamland in Queens Australia, Mall of America in Minneapolis, Movie Park in Germany, and Nickelodeon Marketing all order these characters from her.

In 2004, Yvette made several Disney character costumes for Winnie the Pooh Live, designed by Gregg Barnes, produced by Kenneth Feld + Disney. Kanga, Roo, Owl and Piglet were created in her studio. She was flown to Christchurch, New Zealand to see them into their world premier show.

Yvette is thrilled to be in business doing what she loves.