How a dream and a sewing machine took a Derry Girl around the world
Aileen is currently working as a Costume Supervisor on a horror film in Belfast, where she lives with her partner Ross and puppy Milo but her career in the costume department has taken her all over the world. The former Thornhill student has worked on ‘Good Omens’ in Scotland, ‘The Wheel of Time’ in Prague, ‘Peaky Blinders’ in Liverpool and even on Bradley Cooper’s latest masterpiece; ‘Maestro’ in London which will be released this December. However, it’s close to home she’d rather be and is encouraging others to pursue the film industry too.
Aileen said: "When we were younger, we lived in Steelstown and my whole family would dress up every year at my granny and granda’s. The costumes were hilarious – one year my uncle was a Lampshade, another year I was an 8ft Candy Cane. My grandparents, who were well into their 80s always bought great costumes on their travels. My mum Finola Faller ran the ‘Tour’s n Trails’ Halloween tours back in the early 2000s. She would give me a tenner to go create banshee costumes so I’d search the local charity shops, get wedding dresses, cut them up, paint them and without realising, I was a costume designer aged 12. Our house was buzzing from September onwards preparing for the tours, so the lead up to Halloween has always been so exciting and special for me.
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Hide Ad"My mum gifted me her second hand sewing machine from the 1980s when I was in school. She was always encouraging my creativity and wanted my passion and personality to thrive in what I do. I really loved Thornhill too, I thought it was absolutely brilliant. My art teacher was Mr McAteer, he was really creative and always had us thinking outside of the box. So, from a really early age, I was crafting some wacky costumes and mad art which still comes in handy nowadays.
“After my A Levels, I decided I really wanted to go to Wimbledon College of Art, to one of the top costume courses in Europe. You need an Art foundation diploma to get in, so I completed that at North West Regional College and then progressed onto my Costume Interpretation degree, which was part of a BA in Theatre and Screen. It meant I costumed lots of live theatre and short films when I was a student but my big break was the London Olympic Ceremonies in 2012. I worked there while doing my degree and then went on to work in the West End as a costume assistant.”
"I love to give career talks and help young people who want to work in the film and TV industry because it's so hard to get your foot in the door and it can be very competitive and daunting. But I always say that it takes persistent hard work, fuelled by a hunger for new challenges and a thirst for learning.
“I landed my first TV gig, which was season three of ‘Bad Education’ with Jack Whitehall because they needed someone right away to clean, iron and hang up hundred’s of School uniforms and I lived just round the corner, so in 20 minutes they were all being sorted."
After she graduated, Aileen stayed in London for a few years, where she worked on ‘Call the Midwife’, ‘You, Me and Them’ and a few other Sky Dramas. She found her niche, with a healthy mix of relentless hard work, good connections and Teflon shoulders, she continued to work on major TV productions.
“I worked out really early that I didn’t want to stay in theatre; I absolutely loved the buzz of film so I just gave it my all. I worked dailies, on my days off whilst on other jobs, that’s how I ended up working on ‘Peaky Blinders’ – I came in for one day filming on on ‘Churchills Secret’ and ended up being offered to join Peaky Blinders season 3 costume team. I left London and moved up to Liverpool, where I looked after all the women on ‘Peaky Blinders’. I worked closely with Helen McCrory, who has sadly passed away since, and she was so inspirational.
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Hide Ad"After that, I just went from job to job and city to city so there was a lot of moving around. I would finish on a tv show on Friday and then start a Movie on Monday in a new city or country and that’s how it worked for years. One job took me out to America for season 5 of ‘Episodes’, where I worked with Matt Le Blanc, it seemed to be all glamourous Hollywood vibes but was a in reality it’s a tough job. I was only 24, to be heading up the costume team abroad so I upped my game and made sure the costume continuity was spot on, this definitely steered me down my Costume Supervising route.”
It wasn’t all celebrities and glamour, though, and the toll of working such long hours started to take its toll on Aileen.
"I was working relentlessly doing six day weeks and 14 hour days, it’s not a career for the faint hearted. So whilst striving for a better work-life balance, I moved back to Belfast temporarily and started working on ‘Game of Thrones’, where I also changed the type of work I was doing. I had trained as a costume maker, where I made couture, historical clothing at uni but when I went into the industry, I hadn’t been making at all; I was working on set. I decided that for Game of Thrones, I wanted to get back into costume construction. I was part of the Workroom making team there who made all the costumes for season 7, it was a remarkable experience.
Aileen’s family own Mintiagh’s Lodge, in Drumfries. When Covid hit Europe she had to down tools and evacuate Prague in 24 hours, as filming was halted on almost every production. Aileen went to Donegal and poured her heart and soul into renovating the 200-years-old home to its former glory. She created an events space in one of the outbuildings, where she now hosts photoshoots, music videos and themed costume parties for family and friends of the film industry. The house has recently been put on the market so Aileen is gearing up to host the last of the events there soon.
Things have gotten back up and running after Covid but, unfortunately, there have been a few more bumps in the road for the industry locally and globally.
“The Actors Union (SAG- AFTRA) in America are striking against the streaming services (AMPTP) because of Artificial Intelligence (AI) exploiting actors’ voices and pictures and reproducing them without their consent or getting fairly paid for it, and they want to get a % of royalties from the streaming Giants. However as it's in America, all the US striking unions get paid but over here we get no financial help from the government; there's thousands of people out of work in the tv and film industry right now, it’s terrible!
“I'm a BECTU member, which is the UK entertainment industry union, who started striking in London to raise awareness about the US strikes. We want to put pressure on the UK GOV to implement a strategy that will protect the UK film industry when shows get shut down and crew contracts get abolished at a moment’s notice. Although all the American streamers come to the UK and Ireland as it's cheaper, we are at their mercy should they decide to cancel or postpone a show. It's a really hard time at the minute for below the line crew.
"The best thing about this career is the people and the team work, we create villages and fantasy worlds over night, it’s simply amazing. There is no problem that cannot be solved by working together. I would suggest to anyone to get a job in the film or TV industry because it is so dynamic and interchangeable and there’s so many creative opportunities out there even if you didn’t go to art or film school.”