Housed in what used to be the Chelsea Mills Textile Factory, Yvette Helin Studio occupies approximately 1400 square feet on the third floor of the late 1800's building located at 1205 Manhattan Avenue in Greenpoint Brooklyn, which is owned and managed by the Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center or GMDC. The studio combines the skills of professional artists, including sculptors, craftspeople, seamstresses, pattern makers, and designers to create and produce custom costumes.

Yvette Helin has been creating clothing and costumes since 1981. She studied art at the Kansas City Art Institute.  Yvette drove to New York in 1985, and went to work in the New York costume industry, which fused together her many interests and talents.

Some of her first jobs included making life size Muppet costumes at Henson Associates, building costumes for the NY Lottery with Cathy Lazar, making tutu’s, tunics, and doublets with Hartford Ballet for two seasons, working at the Hartford Stage Company’s costume shop where Mark Lamos was director, constructing Broccoli and Pita Sandwich costumes for the Connecticut Department of Health, and designing and making 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, Yvette worked for Parsons-Meares LTD, a large Broadway costume shop in Manhattan, 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 puppet designer 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 orchestrated all fabric work and soft sculpture on 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.

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.

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, 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 order these characters from her.

More live shows followed from Nick for Yvette to create costumes and puppets, including Blue's Clue's Live, Dora the Explorer, and recently "Go Diego Go", where Yvette designed and created the Baby Jaguar Costume.

Nintendo's Pokemon Live arrived in 2000. The show demanded many pokemon characters be designed to wear, to puppeteer, to hang, and to roll around in specially designed rigs. As costume and puppet designer, Yvette and her shop were busy. There were over 120 puppet elements in the touring show.

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. Around that time 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 shop began to take on more work for advertising and commercials, making the Cabbage Patch doll costume and the Gecko costume used in the Geico ads, Weather costumes for Channel 7 News, (see pic above), a grim reaper for the New York Lotto Win for Life campaign, a Time Warner Remote Control costume, and several other projects that can be seen in the portfolio. Many of these projects take Yvette and crew on location for the shooting, which is a welcome adventure.

In 2006 Seaworld of Orlando contacted Yvette to make several special fish costumes to be used as walk-arounds in their 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.

Currently Yvette is doing a project with designer Chase Tyler, making Sasquatch costumes as part of a large Manhattan tourism project, with an impressive list of sponsors including the Blue Man Group.