As an Educator
With a passion for sharing her love of costuming and sewing with others, education is a large part of Matsy’s practice. At the University level She has worked at Yale, NYU Tisch and Montclair State University, where she costumed shows, and taught sewing and mentored students interested in design. In spring 2023, she served as the Interim Head of Costume Education at Pace University, teaching five design courses, and permanently took the position in the fall of 2023.
Fashion & Content Creation
Matsy's love of fashion, sewing, and crafting led her to spend a year creating content for DIY lifestyle blog P.S. I Made This. In the years following she worked at Hearst, creating digital content for Seventeen Magazine's video series Fashion to DIY For. Most popularly, she shared easy, no-sewing required Halloween costume ideas for the 10-18 age demographic. They released many more DIY videos, including a season sponsored by Converse Sneakers.
Most recently, Matsy managed Midnight Dolls Vintage in Soho, appraising and pricing merchandise from an extensive designer clothing archive.
Sets, Props and Art Direction
Matsy’s work as a props artisan has been seen onstage at institutions such as BAM and The York Theatre. She also has designed sets and served as Production Designer and Art Director for music videos, commercials, and most recently, six episodes of The Smack Dab in the Middle of the Day Show - an educational kids’ TV program.
Recent Work:
Dark Disabled Stories (Play) - The Public Theatre, NYC
Urinetown The Musical - Pace University, NYC
Procter & Gamble x Scary Mommy (Branded Content) - BDG Media, NYC
Next Life (Music Video) - Artista Records, NYC
Coming Up Next:
Iceland (World Premiere Opera!) - La MaMa, NYC
The Daughter of the Regiment - Opera Orlando, FL
La Traviata, The Magic Flute, Kinky Boots & Honk - Quisisana Music Resort, ME
Matsy Stinson (she/her)
Born and raised in Wilmington, Delaware, Matsy moved to New York City in 2010 to pursue a degree in theatre arts. While in school, she focused on costume design and sewing/tailoring, but also studied stagecraft, makeup artistry, scenic design, prop fabrication fine art & art history.
She now lives in NYC’s East Village and works primarily as a costume designer and fashion stylist. Additionally, she has served as an production designer, created scenery and props, and has dabbled in installation art. In every medium, Matsy strives to collaborate creatively, listen to the wisdom of those around her, and tell meaningful stories using color, texture and (most of the time!) fabric.
Matsy is a cis white women, and feels strongly that if you are working on a project that tells the stories of trans folks, people of color or other marginalized communities, to seek out designers from those demographics! She is always happy to help you find the right person to tell your story.
As a Resident Designer
Since 2016, Matsy has been the resident costume designer for immersive performances and a creator of installation art pieces with The Exquisite Corpse Company, a group presenting work in NYC & internationally.
Notably, her costume designs, and a wearable art installation were seen in ECC’s immersive play, A Ribbon About A Bomb in 2017. For this show, she collaborated with fashion brand Nineteenth Amendment to feature designer garments on various actors as part of an exclusive partnership in association with New York Fall Fashion Week.
Her second foray into installation artwork was featured in ECC’s Memory House Showcase in 2018 where she designed the interiors of two spaces to create her original piece - Clothe Cathedral. Her installation utilized hundreds of secondhand garments to create a vaulted ceiling scattered with twinkling clotheslines of starlight. In the adjoining space, she presented transcripts from interviews she conducted with various individuals about favorite garments and memories involving clothing.
Additional projects with ECC include The Enchanted Realm of Rene Magritte, Water Water Everywhere… and most recently, the critically acclaimed production of Zoetrope. (Written up by the NYT and The New Yorker!)
Matsy is also the resident Costume Designer at Quisisana - a summer resort in Maine that features live opera and musical theatre performances for their guests. She worked her way up from costumes intern in 2012 to becoming the head of the costume department in 2017. For summer 2022, Matsy designed and fabricated costumes, wigs, and even some puppets for: A Little Night Music, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Shrek & Cosi Fan Tutti. She will return this June.
Stay up to date with Matsy's Latest Projects via her Instagram:
