Designer James McGlynn Seaver has created wild but impeccably crafted outfits for An Ideal Husband at The Gate TheatreCaitríona Ennis and Ayoola Smart in An Ideal Husband at the Gate Theatre, with costumes designed by James McGlynn Seaver. Photograph: Ros Kavanagh Mon May 25 2026 - 06:00 • 5 MIN READWhat titillation do lace-up corsets, sky-high platforms, top hats, snake pins and zany tweeds all suggest? They are aspects of the camp costumes that feature in the Gate Theatre’s irreverent new production of Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband, the classic four-act play that centres around blackmail and political corruption. Head of costume at the Gate, James McGlynn Seaver, was tasked by director Mark Atkinson Borrull with bringing a new perspective to the characters’ attire in the play set in 1895. “It came from a need to do the show in a sexy, modern way. I wanted to throw in old Hollywood, John Galliano, Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen into the mix to make it feel relevant to today’s audience,” Seaver explains when we meet in the Gate’s costume workshop, as the last pieces for the show are completed. John Singer Sargent’s portrait of Madame X painted in 1884 was a starting point, Seaver says.He and his team of six had been working feverishly for over five weeks to finish the more than 40 outfits for the show in time for opening night. He points out that the period in which the play was set was a stuffy time in men’s tailoring, with long sleeves and high collars. For women it was “between two bustles”, referring to the puff sleeves and padding that created the characteristic hourglass silhouette of the time.On a table in his workroom are his sketches, 25 drawings of costumes for the main characters, while finished pieces, colourful and flamboyant with attendant accessories, hang on rails nearby. There are voluminous outfits with plenty of flounce for the female characters, and extravagant three-piece tweed suits and a lime brocade dressing gown for male characters along with black-tie outfits.James McGlynn Seaver’s costume design for Mrs Cheveley in An Ideal Husband The women’s costumes are mostly corseted, with exaggerated artifice, made with prodigious attention to detail and designed to highlight the effect of fabrics such as iridescent shot silk and fluid satin under light. Throughout the play, colour plays a key role, often clashing and bold. Mrs Cheveley, the villain of the piece, is one such example. “I couldn’t make a villain work in pastels, so she is in what I call heliotrope purple,” Seaver says. The corseted gown has a sweeping skirt, pointed cap sleeves cape, crocodile skin belt and sky-high pink Versace platforms and purple gloves. In Act 2 she is “on the hunt for what she wants, so she’s foxhunting with a red riding jacket embellished with a large snake pin, top hat, billowing grey skirt and black sky-high laced platform stilettoes”. The shoes are a story in themselves.From Kilcoole near Greystones in Co Wicklow, Seaver always had a passion for making, even as a child, playing with fabric and possessed with an innate ability to embroider or work out patterns by himself. His grandmother Pauline, always into fashion, with her jewellery and gloves, was another influence. “I was always surrounded by that growing up,” he says.James McGlynn Seaver at work He started studying fashion in Griffith College, continued his studies in the National College of Art and Design before completing a course in advance cutting and draping in Central Saint Martins in London. His real interest lay in corsetry, and he taught himself how to make them, doing further training with a specialist in Paris. “Corsets are incredibly beautiful things, and a well-made one doesn’t hurt if placed well on the body,” he says, admitting that he had to wear them himself when studying “because it gave you a good idea of how you breathe and stand. If people understood them better, they would wear them more.”Costume design for Lord Goring in An Ideal Husband After college, a short period was spent in Milan with Max Mara before returning home and working as a fashion designer with Aran Woollen Mills in Westport, followed by Avoca in Kilmacanogue for more than three years. He attributes his sense of colour to Amanda Pratt.It was while in Avoca where he was starting to tire of fashion as a career that his real break came, when he was asked by Panti Bliss to make a dress in 2009. “I was happy to have a side project making lovely frocks for the stage – all the things you didn’t get to make in fashion. Then as Panti became more popular, people started to ask me to make things – and I designed and made Riot [the cabaret club culture show] for Dublin Fringe that became a big success. And then the Gate came calling.”Gabriel Draper, Matthew Malone, Daniel Reardon and Ayoola Smart in An Ideal Husband at the Gate Theatre. Photograph: Ros Kavanagh Caitríona Ennis and Matthew Malone in An Ideal Husband at the Gate Theatre. Photograph: Ros Kavanagh His greatest love, he says, are well-crafted clothes. “I love the female form and the challenge of trying to create the amazing fit. I cherish the craft of the past in what I do, because I am a corset maker and I am aware of the sensibilities of what the modern audience want to see. I think of costume design as a fine art. I don’t think people realise how much craft goes into the making of clothes.”Costume designs for Lady Basildon and Mrs Marchmont in An Ideal Husband Seen up close, the finish of the clothes inside and out is impressive. He shows me the inside of a corset with its tiny hand stitching and flossing, and how everything is so well thought out – how the actor moves and gestures in the clothing, how to deal with fast costume changes, and how the costumes relate to each character, scenery and lighting. “It all has to feel a bit extra,” he says, explaining the opening scene between Lady Basildon and Mrs Marchmont, one in an elaborate voluminous red skirt and top, the other in head to toe emerald that immediately sets the scene and the tone.No one understood better than Oscar Wilde the power of dress, and in the script of An Ideal Husband, characters are introduced with very specific details of their attire and appearance. For Seaver, as costume designer, the challenge has been how far he can go with his wild but impeccably crafted take on Wilde, more than a century later.[ Review: The Gate’s assured Ideal Husband remains fittingly haunted by the circumstances of its creationOpens in new window ]“My hope for the show is that there is enough in it for a normal audience to enjoy as a spectacle, and for a younger audience not experienced in Wilde, to come in and enjoy the fashion moments.”An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde is at the Gate Theatre in Dublin until July 11th. gatetheatre.ieIN THIS SECTION