Broadway's Biggest Costume Story of 2026: Qween Jean Makes Tony History

A ballroom-culture reimagining of Cats just delivered a landmark Tony win for costume design, and there are craft lessons in it for anyone building a character from scratch.

A Reimagined Cats, Built From Ballroom History

Cats: The Jellicle Ball didn't just restage a familiar musical, it reframed the entire show through the lens of New York's ballroom scene, the underground competitive culture built by Black and Latino LGBTQ+ communities over decades. For costume designer Qween Jean, that meant the source material wasn't old Cats production photos. It was archival research, including time spent with historical photo collections and deep study of the ballroom documentary tradition, most notably Paris Is Burning.

The result is a wardrobe that trades the show's classic bodysuits for neon fabrics, layered furs, bejeweled cat-suit variations, and denim, all built to survive the competitive energy of a ball rather than a traditional dance number. One standout piece is a tapestry-style costume stitched with faces meant to honor the community's earliest trailblazers, a design choice meant to put real history on stage rather than just an aesthetic reference.

Jean has said her goal on any project is to let each performer's own presence come through the clothes rather than bury it, and with roughly 500 individual looks needed across the cast, that meant building a wardrobe department capable of both scale and specificity at the same time.

History at the Tony Awards

When the winners were announced this June, Jean's award for Cats: The Jellicle Ball carried extra weight. She became the first openly transgender person to win a competitive Tony, a milestone in an awards ceremony that has been handing out trophies for close to eight decades.

In interviews since the win, Jean has described the moment in personal terms, calling it a kind of rebirth and crediting the queer and Black trans women who came before her for making the win possible in the first place. She also revealed a fun bit of craft trivia: the gown she wore to accept the award, a rose-toned piece with sculptural shoulders and layered ruffles, came together in just three days, proof that a fast turnaround doesn't have to mean a rushed result when you know exactly what story you're telling.

A Second Nomination Across Town

Jean's 2026 season wasn't limited to one show. She also picked up a nomination for costume design on the play Liberation, a far different assignment set during the feminist movement of the 1970s. Rather than building everything from scratch, she leaned on real vintage garments, tracking down period-accurate pieces from shops in New York plus additional finds in Pennsylvania and North Carolina.

Asked about her approach, Jean has said she avoids anything that reads as costume-y or overdone, preferring instead to research each character's arc before choosing a single fabric. That philosophy, chase the character first and let the clothes follow, is exactly the mindset behind the strongest builds we see walk through our doors too, whether it's a stage role, a convention entry, or a Halloween costume someone has been planning for months.

What It Means for Everyday Costume Builders

You don't need a Broadway budget to borrow Broadway thinking. Jean's two very different 2026 projects, one built from scratch with fantastical materials and one assembled from real vintage finds, both prove that a costume works best when the research comes before the shopping list.

If a Broadway-level, character-first build is what you're after for a theater production, a competition entry, or this year's Halloween plans, that's exactly the kind of project our team at Williams Costume Company loves digging into. Stop by the shop and let's talk through the details, the era, and the materials before you commit to anything.

5 Broadway Costume Lessons Worth Stealing for Your Next Build

You don't need a wardrobe department to build like one. Here's what Qween Jean's Tony-winning season teaches about approaching any costume, stage or street.

1. Research the world before the wardrobe: Jean studied ballroom history and archival photography before sketching a single Cats look, and that groundwork shows in every seam.
2. Design for the person, not just the role: Her stated goal is to let each performer's own presence come through, rather than hiding them under a costume concept.
3. Mix textures on purpose: Furs, rhinestones, denim, and sequins only read as intentional when they're chosen to support a story, not just piled on for effect.
4. Vintage sourcing takes real legwork: For Liberation, Jean pulled genuine period pieces from shops across three states rather than settling for the nearest approximation.
5. Small details can carry big meaning: A single tapestry costume built to honor real community history did more storytelling than an entire rack of generic looks could.
6. A tight deadline isn't an excuse to rush: Her three-day Tony gown build proves a fast turnaround can still be considered and specific.
7. Range matters: Building a fantastical ballroom-inspired musical alongside a grounded feminist-era drama in the same season shows how far one skill set stretches.
8. Let the character's arc choose the fabric: Jean's own rule is to trace a character's journey before locking in a single material or silhouette.

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