DEVARIO D. SIMMONS ’13
From Clemson’s Department of Performing Arts to Broadway, Simmons designs for an empathetic future
Devario D. Simmons takes a journalistic approach to costume design.
“We’re in a costume every single day,” Simmons says. “We’re all trying to say who we are, even if we don’t mean to, by what we put on our bodies.”
A former aspiring journalist from Greenville, South Carolina, Simmons now travels between New York and Los Angeles as he takes on design projects. Thanks to a fateful introduction to costume technology in Professor Kendra Johnson’s theater course at Clemson University, Simmons’ career has been marked by a unique blend of disciplines. He’s not just designing costumes; he’s investigating human perception.
“I investigate the text to develop the character for the purpose of visual representation; my goal is that someone watching understands who the character is before they speak,” Simmons says. It’s important for Simmons, though, that this process doesn’t make a character two-dimensional. Instead, he hopes to create a connection between shared experiences.
In an example from his time on tour with the opera Fellow Travelers, Simmons noted his intentional choice to dress a character in a white outfit who could have been perceived as off-putting to the audience.
“I took it as a charge of my job to make sure the moment felt innocent and put it in a place where we could all identify with what the characters were going through,” he says.
His thoughtfulness and collaborative nature have opened doors for Simmons around the world. His work has been on Broadway and in numerous off-Broadway productions. He’s been a guest artist at multiple opera houses and has regional credits across the country. Simmons has also earned television credits, including productions on Netflix, AMC and PBS.
As he continues in his career, Simmons is embarking on a new journey: starting his own suit-reproduction company, Tradition&Form. The goal of Tradition&Form is twofold: to serve the costume design community by providing ready-to-wear, reasonably priced costume options while caring for the planet by reducing wasteful practices.
“Costume design is a wasteful business by nature,” Simmons says. “I’m trying to figure out ways I can make it a little more conscious of what our planet needs.”
With his array of experiences, Simmons stands by the Department of Performing Arts at Clemson.
“I think a lot of people forsake non-art-specific universities,” he says. “I’ve had a full, well-rounded career even though I didn’t go to one of the big art schools in the country. I think quality is the biggest thing, and in that department, those professors were some of the best designers.”
