---
title: "Costume Attendant"
description: "Select, fit, and take care of costumes for cast members, and aid entertainers. May assist with multiple costume changes during performances."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/costume-attendant"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Costume Attendant

**Category:** Personal Care and Service · **SOC code:** 39-3092 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 39-3092.00

Select, fit, and take care of costumes for cast members, and aid entertainers. May assist with multiple costume changes during performances.

Also advertised as: Costume Draper; Costume Seamstress; Costumer; Draper; Dresser; Wardrobe Assistant; Wardrobe Attendant; Wardrobe Supervisor.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $50,400 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $24.23/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $32,150 to $109,520, with the middle half between $38,610 and $77,680
- **Total US employment:** 6,510
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +5.9% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 1,700 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 50/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 6,510 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $32,150 |
| 25th | $38,610 |
| 50th (median) | $50,400 |
| 75th | $77,680 |
| 90th | $109,520 |
| Mean (average) | $63,440 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| NY | $95,230 | $88,240 | 950 |
| GA | $94,890 | $98,543 | 100 |
| CA | $72,030 | $65,056 | 1,620 |
| WA | $64,650 | $60,413 | 120 |
| CO | $57,960 | $56,243 | 40 |
| HI | $57,660 | $52,442 | 30 |
| NV | $55,640 | $55,652 | 390 |
| MA | $55,190 | $52,186 | 90 |
| DC | $53,290 | $48,489 | 60 |
| MN | $52,000 | $52,727 | 80 |
| OR | $51,680 | $50,000 | 60 |
| PA | $50,270 | $51,521 | 260 |
| IL | $49,170 | $49,191 | 140 |
| UT | $47,850 | $48,400 | 140 |
| VA | $46,790 | $46,279 | 40 |

15 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 30 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/costume-attendant/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/costume-attendant.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 6,600 in the 2025–2035 base year to 7,000 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 400 jobs, or +5.9%. Faster than average: 5.9% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 1,700 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** High school diploma or equivalent (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Short-term on-the-job training.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 32.2% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 29.6% |
| Some College Courses | 14.9% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 10.4% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 7.5% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 3.9% |

## What the work involves

- Examine costume fit on cast members and sketch or write notes for alterations.
- Clean and press costumes before and after performances and perform any minor repairs.
- Provide dressing assistance to cast members or assign cast dressers to assist specific cast members with costume changes.
- Distribute costumes or related equipment and keep records of item status.
- Create worksheets for dressing lists, show notes, or costume checks.
- Design or construct costumes or send them to tailors for construction, major repairs, or alterations.
- Check the appearance of costumes on stage or under lights to determine whether desired effects are being achieved.
- Arrange costumes in order of use to facilitate quick-change procedures for performances.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 1.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Coordination — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Negotiation — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Fine Arts — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Design — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Production and Processing — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Psychology — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Fluency of Ideas — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Information Ordering — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Artistic (A), Conventional (C), Realistic (R).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| A — Artistic | 5.61 |
| C — Conventional | 4.27 |
| R — Realistic | 3.88 |
| S — Social | 3.26 |
| E — Enterprising | 2.84 |
| I — Investigative | 1.00 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ESFJ | 58.7 |
| ENFJ | 58.5 |
| ISFJ | 58.3 |
| INFJ | 57.7 |
| ISFP | 56.8 |

Best-fitting types: not scored.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Fashion Designer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/fashion-designer) — median $80,960
- [Tailor, Dressmaker, and Custom Sewer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/tailor-dressmaker-and-custom-sewer) — median $41,640
- [Makeup Artist, Theatrical and Performance](https://nuecareer.com/careers/makeup-artist-theatrical-and-performance) — median $97,150
- [Fabric and Apparel Patternmaker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/fabric-and-apparel-patternmaker) — median $62,750
- [Set and Exhibit Designer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/set-and-exhibit-designer) — median $75,240
- [Sewer, Hand](https://nuecareer.com/careers/sewer-hand) — median $36,480
- [Jeweler and Precious Stone and Metal Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/jeweler-and-precious-stone-and-metal-worker) — median $52,540
- [Interior Designer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/interior-designer) — median $67,190
- [Sewing Machine Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/sewing-machine-operator) — median $36,670
- [Merchandise Displayer and Window Trimmer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/merchandise-displayer-and-window-trimmer) — median $39,390

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/costume-attendant