Interview: Alejo Vietti of THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST at ALLEY THEATRE

Oscar Wilde’s THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST runs through March 29, 2026​, and is directed by The Alley Theatre’s artistic director, Rob Melrose. Alejo Vietti has been brought in as a special guest artist for this one to do the costumes. He is based out of New York City, originally from Argentina. Alejo has some serious credits under his belt, including TITANIQUE, SMASH, HOLIDAY INN, and BEAUTIFUL, just to name a few. BROADWAY WORLD writer Brett Cullum got a chance to sit down and talk about fun fashion at the Alley and Alejo’s upcoming Broadway gig. 

Brett Cullum: I have always been one of those horrible actors who use clothes to influence my performance. They are such a big thing! It really determines a lot about a character. So, when you approach something like THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST, which is a turn-of-the-century, Victorian comedy by Oscar Wilde, how do you approach designing clothes for this?

Alejo Vietti: We all started having a meeting with Rob Melrose [director and artistic director] and Michael Locher, who's the director of design here at the Alley, and the set designer for the show, and one thing that Rob said early on is he didn't want to have a pastel, cake frosting show. He wanted vibrant colors, a bit more punchy, and a different palette than we're used to. So that was really good for me, because that opened up many more possibilities. I went into research, and the show is, when you come see it, it is what I call “period-ish.” It's anchored in the silhouette of the 1900s, but it definitely has a flavor that goes from Alexander McQueen to John Galliano in the 90s to the paintings of Baldini and Sargent. It's all over the place, and with all those elements, we created a world that is very cohesive. 

Brett Cullum: You've already touched on some of my favorite fashion icons, so I'm really excited, but, do you approach comedies differently than you do dramas in terms of design? Do you find yourself kind of, like, working in a different sense of how things move, or how you're gonna use things?

Alejo Vietti: Oh, most definitely, most definitely. In this case, the hats are so important, and they're hats I designed that I would not have designed if we were doing A DOLL’S HOUSE or THE SEAGULL, or something that is much more dramatic. But yeah, I love to design for comedy, so it was kind of a great opportunity, because this is glamour. These are people who do nothing for a living. They're just rich and frivolous, and following the rules of etiquette, and by the end of the show, breaking the rules of etiquette, and so that was so much fun to do! You have these high-glamour, rich, entitled, very sassy people on stage. It was really, really fun.

Brett Cullum: Yeah, well, this one's a farce. Actually, Susan Sontag references it in her famous essay and uses it to define camp. There is a very camp element. They're way too serious people, and they're leaning into their glamour, but they go so big! It becomes comedy because they go so over the top. Bigger is better.

Alejo Vietti: Oh, yeah, bigger is better, and you will see, I mean, bigger is better in this case, but especially with Lady Bracknell, when she makes her entrances. The hats are crazy, over-the-top, and one is based on a Galliano collection from the mid-90s, and the other is a McQueen hat. It has big, big chartreuse feather wings. It's very exaggerated, and it's campy, but at the same time, these people, I think, they're self-deprecating, don't take themselves that seriously, and they break their own rules all the time. And the actors in the show are fabulous, so it was really fun to collaborate with them.

Brett Cullum: I always think it's interesting to see how people end up at The Alley Theatre. How did you end up with this gig at the Alley?

Alejo Vietti: Oh my gosh, I think this is roughly my 30th show at the Alley? [Alley Theatre records confirm at least 28!] The Alleys is a place I love. I love Houston, I love coming to the Alley. I've been able to do so many different things, from CYRANO DE BERGERAC to THE SEAGULL. The first time I actually did a show here was a transfer from Harford Stage, a Theresa Rebeck play with Annalie Jeffries, and then after that, I designed the production of A CHRISTMAS CAROL that lasted fifteen years, so I think the first time I came here was 21 years ago.

Brett Cullum: I wanted to ask you, when did you first start designing costumes? I mean, what made you say, “Hey, I want to design clothes for the stage!”

Alejo Vietti: I'm from Argentina. I grew up there, attending a Catholic all-male school; sons of doctors became doctors, and sons of lawyers became lawyers. I went to law school, and after four years, my father asked me if I was happy. I told him no, he asked me what I wanted to do, and I said, “design.” He said, “Quit right now, just enroll in design school, and do what you want.” And that's what I did. I was very, very, very lucky to have parents who encouraged me. And then, after I graduated, maybe a year later, we were coming to New York with my parents, my sister, my brother-in-law, to spend the holidays, and I told them, “I think I'm gonna just stay.”  So, I stayed in New York with no papers. I would have been taken away by ICE if it were today. I had no money, no contacts, but I had a really strong passion, so I opened a phone book, there was no internet at the time, I’m giving away my age, and I found all the designers that I admired for so many years, and I called them up, and I asked for an interview. Ann Roth, who had just won her Academy Award for her costumes in the movie THE ENGLISH PATIENT, gave me my first job for two weeks. And then she recommended me to someone else, and I was bouncing from recommendation to recommendation, and that's how I made it.

Brett Cullum: So if you were going to give somebody advice to somebody who is coming up, and they want to become a Costume Designer, what did you wish that you knew before you got into this?

Alejo Vietti: When I teach class, I tell students, I give them three things that they can apply to any way and anyone in the arts. No path in this career is the same. It's really incredible, but no path's the same. I feel like another big piece of advice is to learn to listen and not be confrontational. Because you create invisible walls. And the last one, I think, is the most important: polish your social skills. In what we do, we have to deal with so many personalities. We have to deal with people with stress, anxiety, and insecurity. So you really need to know how to read the room, navigate all these personalities, keep an even keel, and make sure that everybody feels that what you're doing is done responsibly and that you are taking, you know, the ship to a good port.

In the case of THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST, it was super fun, because it was putting them not only in period clothes, but outrageous period clothes, so they had a great time playing dress up in a very saturated way! Probably this will be completely bleeped, but what I was going for with these characters is for them to look very c—y on stage.

Brett Cullum: Yes, of course! They have to be. It's The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. That is their sole reason for being there: to serve that. Okay, so this show runs through March 29th. How long are you in Houston for? Do you stay through the run of the show?

Alejo Vietti: No, unfortunately, I have to leave on Sunday morning, because in a week from Sunday, I will be in tech for TITANIQUE on Broadway.

Brett Cullum: Tye Blue, the creator, is from Houston, and we even once did a silly cabaret together at the Alley. I knew him when he was a singer and actor here. I just am so thrilled that Tye Blue is experiencing this just out of left field kind of a thing, because he did TITANIQUE originally in a bar or restaurant somewhere in LA, and it's getting bigger and bigger and bigger. I cannot wait to see what you do with it. Now, you're actually doing the Broadway production. 

Alejo Vietti: I was there since the basement in New York City. I was there since the inception, so yeah. Not in LA, though, because it was done without costumes; it was just done in a bar. But for the first production in New York City, I was there from the beginning. 

Brett Cullum: What's it like when you're working on a show, and it keeps leveling up? Do you just kind of go crazy with the design and make it a little grander? Or is there an aesthetic for Titanique that you're keeping? 

Alejo Vietti: Actually, yes. When we did it, we created something that worked for the show, you know, the show has a quality of just being put together. Like, grabbing two pennies, and as somebody described it during the meet and greet, it should look like a drunk, drag queen made it. But we definitely crank it for Broadway, so it's more legit: there's more quality in the craftsmanship of the clothes, there's some new designs, there's some new surprises. It's a good one.

Brett Cullum: Well, that's great. So you're going from Houston to Tye Blue from Houston to Broadway with TITANIQUE, so that's a lot of Houston connections.

Alejo Vietti: Yes, I love Houston. Doing THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST was a dream of mine, and doing it in the way that we do it it's so much fun. It's so wonderfully acted, and designed, and directed, and everybody was at the top of their game, and I think the Houston audiences will really, really enjoy it.