There are eight principle characters in RENT, including Mark, Roger, and our third costume inspiration - Tom Collins. Collins is an anarchist and college professor, thus his less 'bohemian' look compared to the other characters.

We didn't sew almost anything of our RENT outfits; there was simply no need. Everything we either had already or bought retail.

Skip to finished costume.

Sashay already had "Collins"-like shoes, so like Maggie that was also her starting point. Originally, we were going strictly by the costume so the black undershirt wouldn't have been seen. But it's horribly hot where I live and so much more comfortable for Sashay to keep the shirt open. We took a vote and that was that. The blue short-sleeve button-down was mine and the vest was Maggie's. We found a knit cap like Collins wears and bought it for the costume, but once Sashay tried it on it just didn't look right so we dug into our stash of miscellaneous costume pieces and decided on a gray beret. The skirt was made from two pairs of old jeans. The dark pair acted as the waistband and main body of the skirt and the lighter pair was cut up and sewn in as gores to give the skirt more fullness.

   

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To see the reference images used to make this costume,
check out my Tom Collins Costume Research.