Emilio Sosa is making it work.
The 45-year-old “Project Runway”-finalist landed the plum role of costumer for “The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess,” which opened last night at American Repertory Theater in Cambridge.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime production,” Sosa said of the revival opera that will head to Broadway after its fall run. A.R.T.’s controversial production, an African-American love story set in 1920s South Carolina, gave Sosa some 20 characters to dress, from Porgy, a disabled beggar (played by Norm Lewis), to a slippery drug dealer named Sporting Life (David Alan Grier).
“I’m not designing costumes for a certain period as much as I’m designing clothing for people who happen to be in the (1920s),” Sosa said.
Sosa’s vision of authenticity plays out in the simple floral dresses, trimmed in lace, the ladies’ wear and the distressed work pants in which Lewis limps across the stage.
“A happy actor gives a better performance,” said Sosa, who makes allowances for the actors’ personal preferences when creating their wardrobes.
Earlier this week, Sosa was making final adjustments in the A.R.T. costume shop, where he has practically lived for the last two weeks. He matched jewelry to dresses for a picnic scene, and debated with the shop director about whether Grier should wear a bow tie.
Sosa, who placed second on “Runway’s” season seven, has always embraced his “fashion angel,” but said his heart has been with theater since he was a student at Pratt Institute, an arts college in New York, in the 1980s.
“I started as a shopper, buying threads and fabrics, then I started to swatch,” said Sosa, whose first gig was at the now-closed Grace Costumes in Manhattan.
His 25 years of experience includes work with Alvin Ailey, New York City Opera and Diane Paulus, who directs this production of “Porgy and Bess.”
“We did (rock opera) ‘Turandot: The Rumble for the Ring’ and ‘The Capeman’ with Paul Simon,” Sosa said. “Getting theater notes from Paul Simon — it’s not something I even dreamed about.”
This “Porgy and Bess” is also otherworldly for Sosa, who said the best compliment he hopes to get is that the costumes disappear in the telling.
“It’s a universal story about love, finding your voice and leaving your surroundings to find a better life,” he said. “I hope the world embraces it.”