Shelley Murray, the costume designer on Home and Away dresses all character from head to toe. Home and Away Central had an exclusive chat to to find out what really happens behind he scenes.

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What exactly does a costume designer do? What qualifications did you have to have?
A costume designer, designs the wardrobe of characters, and creates the overall look in combination with the producer, director and script executive. I have a Bachelor of Creative Arts with a major in Theatre and TV Set and Costume Design. However there are many other educational paths you can take. Some come from the Fashion industry too.

Describe your job as costume designer on Home and Away. What’s your typical day like?
2 days a week I Go to label viewings where I see the upcoming seasons range of clothing and purchase here. I also do other shopping both wholesale and retail depending on what is required. The other 3 days I go to the studio where I have meetings with various departments, I do lots of fittings and put together about 200 outfits per week.

Are there any downsides to your job?
There are very long hours particularly if we have large location scenes as they often start at about 5:30am and can go for 14 hours.

What fashion advice do you live by?
Always accessorise!

Who are the hardest and easiest characters to dress?
The easiest character to dress is Colleen, as the more the better. She can never be overdone! There isn't a character that is hard to dress. They are all very different and that's what is fun about it.

Where do you buy the majority of the clothes?
The clothes are bought from a large range of different labels. Being a beach show I use a lot of surf labels: Ripcurl. Others include Seduce, Katherine, Bang, Messina, Blue Juice, Y.D, Tarocash, Juice, Running Bare, Bont, Wahine, Starlet

To create a characters look do you have to work with the actually cast members and the writers or do you have to create the look yourself?
I work firstly with the producer and script producer to create to character traits, then go and determine the wardrobe on my own. In the initial fitting with the actor, we do discuss both our ideas to come up with a wardrobe that we are both happy with.

Do different characters ever wear the same things?
No different characters never wear the same thing.

When a cast member leaves the show, what happens to their characters clothes?
When a cast member leaves, often I give some of the clothes to the actor if they want them. The rest go to charities.