Yvette Helin's unique skill range allows her to design and construct unusual and complex costumes requiring many different materials, methods, trades and a great deal of diverse costume making experience. Yvette can provide a variety of services related to costumes including costume design, costume construction, tailoring, consultation, creation of specialty costumes for film, and general custom clothing making and alterations.

BACKGROUND

Some of Yvette's first New York jobs included making life size Muppet costumes for Sesame Street Live at Henson Associates in 1985, and building dollar bill costumes for the NY Lottery with costume maker Cathy Lazar. A brief stay in Hartford Connecticut in 1986 allowed her the opportunity to master making tutu’s, tunics, and doublets for the Hartford Ballet for two seasons, theater craft work for the Hartford Stage Company’s costume shop where Mark Lamos was then director, and touring as Wardrobe Mistress with the Connecticut Opera. She made a Broccoli and a Pita Sandwich costume for the Connecticut Department of Health, 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).

In the late 80's and early 90's in New York, Yvette worked for Parsons-Meares LTD, a large Broadway costume shop in Manhattan known for its excellence in artistic and fantastic costumes, assisting in the making of costumes 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. While at Parsons-Meares she met and worked with puppet designer and artist 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 Disney's Wizard of Oz on Ice.  In 1993 Curry hired her to work in Portland Oregon for several months at his new shop there. She directed all fabric work and soft sculpture on large giraffes and elephants for The Lion King Parade Floats featured at Disneyland in Anaheim California, and large Cobra and Genie puppets for Disney’s Alladin show in Tokyo.

In 1997 in New York, Yvette built costumes for Mikhail Baryshnikov and his White Oak Dance Co., Disney Theatrical, 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. Under the direction of costume designer/director Julie Taymor and puppet designer Michael Curry, she developed costume elements for principle characters that were ultimately used in the final Broadway production and many subsequent tours. Around this time Yvette transitioned to working solely for clients out of her own studio or on site.

Nickelodeon contacted her in fall of 1997 with a project they were doing called “Rugrats Live Adventure”. After completing all the Rugrat characters for their live touring show, in 1998 Nickelodeon Recreation awarded her the job of developing and manufacturing theme park costume versions of Nickelodeon characters Chuckie, Tommy, Angelica, Eliza, Donnie, Jimmy Neutron, Moose and Zee, 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 ordered these characters from her. Yvette set up a new larger shop in Greenpoint, Brooklyn to accomodate the large orders.

More live shows followed from Nick for Yvette to create costumes and puppets, including Blue's Clue's Live, Dora the Explorer, and "Go Diego Go".

In 2004, Yvette made several Disney character costumes for Winnie the Pooh Live, designed by Gregg Barnes, produced by Kenneth Feld + Disney Live. 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. She also made several key characters for Disney on Ice shows including Bullseye (Toy Story), Mr. Ray and Nigel (Finding Nemo) and Small World Floats (The Incredibles).

In 2005 Yvette's projects began to include more work for advertising and commercials. She made the Cabbage Patch doll costume and the Gecko costume used in Geico TV ads, Weather costumes for Channel 7 News, a grim reaper for the New York Lotto 'Win for Life' campaign, Time Warner Remote Control costumes, and several other projects that can be seen in the portfolio. Many of these costume projects put Yvette on location for their shooting.

In 2006 Seaworld of Orlando contacted Yvette to make several special fish costumes to be used as walk-arounds in thier Halloween events. More fish were made the next year, and in 2008 Yvette delivered a new Virgil the Pelican to Seaworld, which was well received by the park and the visiting children. More fish were made in the fall of 2008 for Seaworld in San Diego.

In October 2009 the producers of Celebrity Apprentice chose Yvette's studio to be part of an episode where the celebs have to oversee a costume being made. Jesse James, Dennis Rodman, and Brian McKnight came out to the studio to work with her and her crew, and the next day Yvette joined team Kotu in the "War Room" with the finished superhero costume they designed for her to make, where she also met with Clint Black, Mark Green, Hershyl Walker, and Scott Hamilton.

The series Rescue Me on FX contacted Yvette to make some special headresses for an episode involving singing vegetables. A Broccoli, a carrot, and an onion headdress were made and appeared mid season.

Costume designer Juliet Polcsa contacted Yvette to build a superhero costume for Ryan Reynolds, for a movie called Paperman, directed by Michelle and Kieran Mulroney. It had its debut at the Westwood theater in Hollywood.

Early 2009 found Yvette again working with the brilliant Juliet, this time making a lot of identical cell phone costumes for Tracy Morgan for a Warner Brother's film she costume designed called "Cop Out", also starring Bruce Willis. 16 cell phone costumes were created to complete shooting.

Drawn to clothing making at the early age of 14 while living in Houston, Texas, Yvette gained tremendous cutting and sewing skills working from commercial patterns, making nearly all of her own clothes in her high school years. She received her bachelor's degree in fine arts from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1985. Predictably, she began mastering pattern making and began experimenting with costume design while a student at the Art Insititute, approaching local singers and entertainers designing and making thier stage outfits. While at school, Yvette also gained intensive experience in graphic and industrial design, sculpting in metal, plaster, wood and fabrics, painting and color theory, kinetic sculpture design, photography, illlustration, and performance art.

After graduating, she moved to New York to work in the costume making industry. She was so intrigued by an article she had read in Theater Crafts while studying in Kansas City about the costumes in the hit Broadway show "Starlight Express" that she became convinced costume making was what she could and wanted to do for a living. In a few years, she found herself making those very costumes in the shop that held the contract for thier fabrication.