Stratford Festival reveals costumes for Love's Labour's Lost

Actress Ruby Joy insists wearing a corset is comfortable.

"I love wearing a corset. I think it's fantastic,"she says, running her hands along the structuredbodice of her costume.

"If you're wearing a bad corset, it's terrible. It's the worst. Because it's cutting into you in the wrong way, you don't feel like you have room to breathe."

• The von Trapp kids' favourite things about The Sound of Music
• The Diary of Anne Frank stars the descendant of Holocaust survivors
• She Stoops To Conquer takes on 18th century 'feminism'

In contrast, the corset she is wearing nowwas designed and fitted to her frame, for her role as Princess of France in Stratford Festival's production ofLove's Labour's Lost.

Joysays that tailored touchmakes all the difference.

"I can't express enough how amazing a bespoke outfit is. You sort of think 'oh,these pants fit me' or 'this topfits me' when you go into J. Crew or H&M. And then you get in a corset that's been built for your body and you realize, 'Oh no. This is a second skin',"she explains.

Love's Labour's Lost begins previews on Thursday, July 30,and CBC Kitchener-Waterloo got an exclusive look at the costumes for the productionduring a final fitting.

Listen to that conversation with Ruby Joy and designer Patrick Clark, below.

• Go behind the scenes of Stratford Festival's costuming department