By all accounts, Denise Hailes knows how to keep a secret. The costume designer is one of the few people in Aotearoa who knew the identity of the 12 secret celebrities on local TV show The Masked Singer NZ.
In late 2020, when Warner Brothers approached her to create the costumes for the first season of the show, Denise says they didn’t tell her for a long time who the contestants were.
“They gave me measurements and pictures of the people without their head. I only met the contestants and did fittings with them three days before we filmed,” recalls the bubbly 52-year-old from her home and work studio in Stanmore Bay, north of Auckland.
“However, this season, they gave me names immediately, so I knew early on. It was an easy secret to keep. I just made sure never to write them down.
“Host Clinton Randell genuinely doesn’t know who’s in the costumes, so he’s always trying to get information out of me. I always warn the celebs, ‘Don’t say a word to Clint!’ because he reckons he can guess who they are by their speaking voice.”
The show’s host Clint is kept in the dark too.
Each of the elaborate costumes has taken Denise and her team up to 150 hours to make, and even though she enthuses it’s the best job she’s ever had, it isn’t without its challenges.
Last season, Denise didn’t know that celebrity Matilda Rice was pregnant until “much later on” and needed to conceal her baby bump beneath her costume’s shimmering jellyfish tentacles.
“The curveball for me this year was the show wanted two people – TV host Shelley Ferguson and her sportsman husband Steven – in one costume.
Shelley and Steven thought they had it licked!
“So we turned them into a double-scoop ice cream, but the dynamics of trying to put two people together of different heights was tricky.”
Denise uses a wide variety of materials, including foam (she starts by cutting it into a regular pattern piece), fibreglass and ABS plastic, which creates a hard shell. And fabrics are sourced from around the world to accessorise the wacky outfits.
“For this season’s Gladiator Alligator, I found the perfect fabric of shiny metallic sequins in the right green colour, so I designed the costume based on it,” confides Denise. “Then when I was holidaying in Rarotonga in February, I saw all these red plastic plumes in a store there. I started laying them all out, going, ‘This is going to be for a helmet for the Alligator’, and I bought them all and managed to fit them in my suitcase.”
When the designer meets the celebrities for the first time during filming of the “clues packages”, she admits it’s often confronting for those who have never worn a costume of this scale before.
“So they’re completely daunted,” she shares. “They’re brought backstage wearing a dressing gown with a hood up, dark glasses on and hands covered. Then they’re taken into a little room and left to put on their costume.
“When I enter, they make a bit of an ‘Ahhh’ groan because they’ve just realised they have to sing with this gigantic headpiece on.
Tuatara unmasked! Denise and her assistant Rhea Atkins with season-one winner Jason Kerrison.
“I have to take them out of the room by their hand and wait with them onstage before the director tells them to perform.
“A couple of them were a bit claustrophobic in the costumes. Others, like politician Simon Bridges, absolutely loved being disguised.”
British-born Denise learnt to sew as a child in Lancashire, taught by her mum.
She began her career as a 16-year-old straight out of school, making costumes for a professional theatre in Manchester, on a youth training scheme.
With a pal aged 15.
“I wasn’t into fashion very much, I just liked sewing,” she says. “The woman who hired me as a teenager was starting up a mascot business, so I went to work for her full-time and she trained me.”
For the following decade, Denise worked in London’s West End, making costumes for the Royal Shakespeare Company and Royal Ballet, as well as touring the world with theatre shows.
She dressed all sorts of actors, including Hollywood star Kathleen Turner, Keeping Up Appearances’ leading lady Patricia Routledge and Downton Abbey’s Hugh Bonneville, while also socialising with members of the royal family at glitzy after-show parties.
“I’ve met just about everybody in the royal family because they would sponsor the theatre shows,” reveals Denise. “The Queen Mother and Princess Margaret used to come to those regularly. But I wasn’t star-struck at all.”
In 1999, the talented costumer arrived in New Zealand for a one-year working holiday. Her skills were snapped up by the Auckland Theatre Company and New Zealand Opera, before she decided to stay in the country and start her own business, The Costume Studio, making mascots full-time.
Her husband Mark, 60, recently left his corporate job to join her and jokes that he now puts down “model” as his occupation on forms.
“I’m not lying,” he laughs. “And I couldn’t be prouder to wear Denise’s mascot creations.”
With husband Mark and their dog Louie, who has lots of shoes to chew!
She adds, “It’s amazing that despite not having any qualifications, I’ve been making costumes for 35 years and can’t imagine ever doing another job. It was made for me.”
Quick fire
Any mishaps?
TV comedian Paul Ego, who was Playing Mantis, couldn’t remove his head without his glasses falling off! And the fact he was so tall, I had my assistant Hayley looking after him most of the time, but she’s only 1.5m tall, so it was funny watching her try and help him get dressed, then lead him to the stage.
Paul’s ego took a battering.
Which celeb loved the experience most?
Politician Simon Bridges. As Retro Robot, he would stand in his costume and work out his robotic moves. It was such a lot of fun watching someone you’ve taken so seriously all this time turn into a child! He went on
to say, “This has been amazing!”
An Aretha Franklin hit failed to get Simon any Respect.
Who do you think viewers will be most surprised by when they’re eventually unmasked?
Probably Magic Monster. He loved his costume. He’s never done anything like this before, but due to the fur fabric and the size of it, he was super-hot inside. He would start his heart rate monitor on his watch whilst in the costume to see how much of a workout he was getting!
