Order of Canada

The founder of Dalhousie’s costume studies program has been invested into the Order of Canada.

A leading figure in set and costume design in Canada, Mr. Doyle attended the ceremony last Friday at Rideau Hall attired in white leather gloves, a formal jacket and a black-wool kilt with silver buckles that he made as a sample to show his students.

Originally a dancer who had to change careers after a knee injury, Mr. Doyle started designing costumes for a theatre production even before he left the hospital with his bandaged knee. Discovering he needed training in stage and costume design, he enrolled at the Wimbledon School of Fine Art in London, England.

Upon returning to Canada, he was approached to research and design early 18th-century clothing for the animation program at the proposed restoration of Fortress Louisbourg in Cape Breton. The ruin had once been an active French settlement, built during Louis XIV’s reign in 1719.

A Robert Doyle drawing for "Iris" in Insect Comedy, a Dalhousie Theatre Production in 1974. (Dalhousie University Archives)

“It was a massive job and as I was doing it, I thought, ‘My gosh, there is no program teaching this. There should be.’”

Two years later in 1974, he started the costume studies program at Dalhousie and served as its director for 20 years. Dalhousie still has the only degree-granting costume studies program in the country, combining applied skills, research and academics.

“The first 10 years were very tricky, but I think we put together a program that made sense,” he says from his home in Stratford, Ont. “Now you’ll find many graduates in prime positions in theatre and the fashion industry throughout the country.”

His books include Waisted Efforts: An Illustrated Guide to Corset Making (1997), Laundry: The Hows and Whys of Cleaning Clothes (1999) and The Art of the Tailor (2005). A new book, Costuming the Dance, is in the works.

A Robert Doyle design of costumes for Fortress Louisbourg. (Dalhousie University Archives)

Throughout his career, Mr. Doyle has worked on more than 400 productions, from the opening season of Neptune Theatre in 1963 to the Nova Scotia International Tattoo and dozens of DalTheatre productions. He particularly enjoys designing big, splashy numbers

with lots and lots of participants, such as the opening and closing ceremonies for the Pan-American Games held in Winnipeg in 1999. He outfitted the cast of 6,000 in some 30,000 yards of multi-coloured, waterproof paper fabric “to create the seasons of Manitoba.”

But now having received the Order of Canada, Mr. Doyle says he’s ready to leave costume design behind and embark on a new chapter in his life at the age of 71; he’s written a ballet based on the paintings of Tom Thomson and will be presenting it to Karen Kain, artistic director of the National Ballet of Canada, later this month.

“I was thinking, ‘What can I do next?’” he says. “And here I go.”

LINKS: Robert Doyle: Theatre Costumes and Set Designs, Dalhousie University Archives | Costume Studies at Dalhousie, Dept. of Theatre