Promotion!

I had the most incredible experience as a Professional Intern for The Walt Disney Company, and I was not ready for my journey with Disney Live Entertainment to come to a close. Luckily my time with my dream company did not end after my internship, as I was offered a full time Associate Costume Buyer role with my team! I am beyond grateful to have been given this opportunity that will allow me to continue to grow my career in costuming, and I cannot wait to continue working alongside my amazing team and leaders whom I built great relationships with over the course of my internship.

What does an Associate Costume Buyer do?

The primary responsibility of a costume buyer under Disney Live Entertainment is to have the right costumes at the right place, in the right quantity, and at the right time. Buyers are responsible for placing orders for costume pieces, garments, and accessories and ensuring that delivery dates for products ordered are closely monitored. By achieving this, we are able to create and enrich the experiences of our guests and cast members around the world. Our work can be seen at the Disney theme parks, resort hotels, cruise ships, and numerous other locations around the globe. It is a unique opportunity to be a part of something that creates magic for so many people every day.

As an Associate Costume Buyer under our Character Programs & Development (CP&D) replenishment team, I assist with the purchase of various hard goods, soft goods, and raw materials for our character costumes. My main responsibilities in this role include:

Supporting multiple buyers on the team with their purchase orders for character costume pieces, garments, accessories, fabrics, notions, and trims that support entertainment offerings around the globe
Managing a small portfolio of orders associated with low volume external vendors while ensuring that delivery dates for products are closely monitored and met
Replenishing existing products as well as assist with resourcing projects for notions and trims by effectively communicating with external vendors to obtain and approve samples
Negotiating and effectively communicating daily with domestic vendors to ensure the production of high-quality products remain on schedule and within budget
Building and maintaining strong relationships with external vendors by attending local vendor visits and setting up vendor meetings on a reoccurring basis
Partnering with key collaborators to ensure costume quality is maintained
Tracking and clearing blocked invoices

How do buyers collaborate with other teams at Disney and external stakeholders?

For the CP&D Procurement Buying team, one of our main focuses is our communication and relationships with outside vendors. It is extremely vital that we build and maintain strong relationships with our outside vendors so our business can continue to run successfully. The buyers are in constant contact with their assigned vendors, communicating daily via email and phone about both current and new costume orders. It is also important that we are getting our work onto their production schedule in a timely manner to avoid scheduling conflicts with other customers they may have.

In terms of other teams at Disney, my buying team often collaborates with the project development buying team. This team is responsible for the buying and sourcing of materials for new character costumes that are currently in the process of being developed by the designers. Once the development process has been completed, we hold transition meetings where the development team goes over everything the replenishment buying team will need to know about the new character costume for future orders. This includes elements such as raw materials, fiber content, vendor information, and price per costume piece.

What are unique challenges involved with the role?

A challenge that will frequently come up involves orders with a “hard due date”, meaning that the costume piece is needed for a specific project, show, or cruise ship. These hard due date orders do not have flexibility with their due dates as a regular replenishment order would, so it is important to make the vendor aware to shift order priority if necessary. Sometimes these hard due date order requests come in with very little notice, so the buyer will confirm with the vendor that they will be able to turn around the items quickly and successfully meet the due date. If a hard due date order becomes impossible to meet, the buyer will communicate with the inventory planning team who will work on finding a viable solution.

What part of the job is most exciting? Were there any surprising aspects of the role?

The most exciting part of my job is witnessing how my work behind the scenes makes an impact on people every single day. Whenever I go to the Walt Disney World theme parks, I watch guests interact with their favorite Disney characters through meet & greets and parades. It is such a heartwarming feeling to know that I get to contribute to something so special to somebody and allow them to have that memory for the rest of their life.

An aspect of my role that surprised me the most was how complex and detail-oriented every single element of a character costume is. It may be as small as an earring or a buckle on a belt, but each component of the costume is treated with equal importance. Attention to detail is an extremely crucial element to Disney Live Entertainment Costuming to ensure the power of storytelling comes across to all guests.

Costume Buying & Sustainability

The Walt Disney Company has a commitment to environmental sustainability, implementing a number of goals to achieve by the year 2030 related to emissions, water, waste, materials, and sustainable design. Specifically for Disney Live Entertainment Costuming, we are focusing our attention on areas such as sustainable materials, sustainable manufacturing, and zero waste management. Fabrics and raw materials will be resourced to contain at least 25% certified sustainable content or lower impact alternatives. Plastics will also need to contain at least 30% recycled content or a lower impact alternative material. Manufacturers of raw materials and garments must provide one or more approved sustainable certifications and confirm participation in the Higg Index.

As a buyer, it will be our responsibility to work with our outside vendors and ensure they are closely following our company’s sustainability efforts. As some vendors source their own materials rather than use Disney-supplied materials, they will have to make sure to shift toward the use of recycled, sustainably sourced, or lower impact alternative textiles and raw materials. Additionally, any vendors who specialize in plastics and other hard good items will have to figure out ways in which their materials can be more sustainable without affecting the quality of the costume piece. All of our current outside vendors will also have to maintain a sustainable manufacturing certification and provide proof of their sustainability practices. If this is not possible for some of our current vendors, I imagine we would have to identify new vendors who have the ability to maintain production on a sustainable level ideal for our business model.