Linda Cho

Linda Cho is a Korean-born costume designer raised in Canada and based in the U.S. She has designed costumes for more than 15 Broadway productions, won two Tony Awards and been nominated for a third. She has also designed for opera and ballet companies, including the Metropolitan Opera and American Ballet Theatre, among others.

Early life and education

Born to an oil painter mother, Min Soon Cho, in Seoul and raised in Toronto, Cho attended Paris American Academy for fashion, received a BA from McGill University in Montreal and an MFA in design from Yale School of Drama.

Career

By 2019, Cho had designed costumes for more than 200 productions. Her designs have been seen in productions on Broadway, off-Broadway, in U.S. regional theatres, Canada, Britain and Asia. In addition to plays and musicals, she has designed for opera companies, including the Metropolitan Opera and dance companies, including American Ballet Theatre.
Before beginning design work on historical projects, Cho researches the era and collects image inspiration from catalogs, paintings, and books. She has called this research her favorite part of the design process. However, Cho does allow herself some liberties when it comes to historical accuracy. In her work for Anastasia, for example, the Parisian costumes " a heightened flair; it’s not true 1920s," as she instead wanted to invoke "a playful, pushed, bright feeling, like a young lady’s fantasy of what Paris is, a romanticized view, to have an opposite effect of the Russian revolution costumes". In other cases, her costumes stray from historical accuracy to allow dancers to perform "non-period movement", to appeal to the modern gaze, or to allow for quick changes backstage.
Her design setup is fairly minimal, working with a pencil and small watercolor set, allowing her to work while on a plane. Her design sketches are done in about an hour, an amount of time she says is "reasonable considering the extensive research she does". When picking fabrics for her designs, she prefers to choose all the fabric for the production at one time; "I can’t design one gown in isolation".

Personal life

Cho has two children. She created her own wedding dress, as well as the dresses she has worn to the Tony Awards ceremonies.

Costume design credits

Broadway

Source

A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder
The Velocity of Autumn
Anastasia
The Lifespan of a Fact
The Great Society
Grand Horizons
POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive
Take Me Out
Summer, 1976
Harmony
Doubt: A Parable
The Great Gatsby
Pirates! The Penzance Musical
Art
Ragtime
''Schmigadoon!''
Off-Broadway
The Chinese Lady
''The Half-God of Rainfall''
Awards