Bio

Since 2019 Denise Wagner has been the Costume Director at Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. She also lectures on Costume Technology and Up-cycling.  Prior she was a draper at McCarter Theatre from 2003-2019.  She has also draped for Broadway, Goodspeed Opera House, Princeton University, Folger Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse and Shakespeare in the Park. She feels extremely lucky to have had the opportunity to work as a cutter at Barbara Matera’s Ltd before the legendary Broadway costume house closed its doors.  

 

She has contributed her costume construction skills to the following movies: The Art of Love, Gods Behaving Badly, Fading Gigolo, Weiner Dog, as well as a New York State Lottery television commercial. She was a first hand for the opening act of Paul McCartney’s Back in the USA Tour 2002.  She has created costumes for American Repertory Ballet Company in Princeton and for the Carolina Ballet.

 

Denise has enjoyed draping for student designers at University of California, San Diego and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. While a graduate student at UNC Chapel Hill she taught the undergraduate course Drama 64, which focused on basic aspects of costuming. She taught Draping, Decorative Arts and Advanced Costume Construction at Rutgers University, Mason Gross School of the Arts during the 2014/2015 academic year.  In Fall of 2017 she taught Beginning Costume Construction at Marymount Manhattan College and taught Flat Patterning in the Spring 2018 semester.

 

Ms. Wagner holds an MFA in Costume Production from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, a BFA in Costume Design from SUNY Purchase, and a Certificate in Management Development from Princeton University.