From Buffy to Sheen, she dresses the stars

Costume designer Eileen Dunn (wiqan ang for the boston globe)

While her grade-school classmates were drawing stick figures of Mom, Dad, and the dog, 8-year-old Eileen Dunn was sketching fashionably dressed imaginary families. Oh, the gifted costume illustrator had plenty of her own relatives in hometown Dover, N.H. She just had more fun outfitting fictional ones. She still does.

Now in her 50s, Dunn has the enviable job of key costumer/shopper on TV shows that have included "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Two and a Half Men," and currently, "Ghost Whisperer." The Los Angeles resident spends her days at fine stores everywhere, searching for chic, character-appropriate outfits for actresses like Jennifer Love Hewitt and Camryn Manheim.

On May 3, Dunn came back to Boston to receive the Isobel S. Sinesi Lifetime Achievement in Fashion Award from her alma mater, the School of Fashion Design on Newbury Street.

"I was speechless when they told me I would be getting this award," says the soft-spoken Dunn, who graduated in 1974. She was also touched it was named for Sinesi, who was the school's director at that time and had allowed a totally against-the-rules monthly payment schedule for the under-funded design student so she wouldn't have to drop out. Dunn has never forgotten this kindness.

"I was in my world there," Dunn says. "Everything I learned I use today, and I thank my lucky stars I had such great training."

Dunn's fitting skills, for example, helped land that all-important first job in Los Angeles, where she arrived after a grueling four-day Greyhound bus trip from Boston with $500 in her pocket.

Dunn met a Playboy promotions director who suggested she apply for a job designing Playmates' uniforms for public appearances. Dunn got the job because she could design and custom-fit the costumes. "They weren't nearly as revealing as these days!" she says.

But meeting and working with costume designer Dorothy Amos was Dunn's big break. Amos got her a job as personal dresser to Cybill Shepherd on the non-union set of "Texasville."

Partway through filming, the production went union, making Dunn an automatic member, no easy feat in Hollywood. The hard worker got noticed for going the extra mile, such as wearing Shepherd's down coat to warm it up for the star's use between takes in the bitter cold.

Dunn soon became the personal dresser for Sharon Gless of "Cagney & Lacey" fame, as well as for film legend Lauren Bacall. Not long after, Dunn was dressing entire casts of popular TV shows, like cult hit "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." "Everyone thinks what I do is so exciting," Dunn says with a laugh. "Oh, you shop all the time. You meet actresses. But there's a lot of hard work that goes into it."

Dunn started as a set costume dresser, which is a stressful, labor-intensive job that requires up to 18-hour days of prepping and cleaning all the selected clothes, styling the actors, and keeping track of what was worn when.

She was happy to move up to key costumer, which involves shopping for clothes that suit the characters. For every outfit seen on television, dozens need to be selected for the actors' approval. Dunn still works with Amos, who was hired to revamp the wardrobe closet for "Ghost Whisperer" star Love Hewitt, switching from vintage hippy to a more fashion-forward look.

Why the change? Because women often watch shows to see what their favorite characters are wearing. Then again, guys aren't immune. When Dunn was working on "Two and a Half Men," she witnessed the explosion of retro bowling shirts in menswear because Charlie Sheen wore a different one every week. And for the record, Dunn says Sheen is a great guy to work with.