Sabina is an award-winning Australian costume and production designer for stage and screen.
Her design work is underpinned by a deep appreciation for art history, textiles, and world traditions in film, theatre, and image-making. She holds an MFA (Design for Performance) from the National Institute of Dramatic Art, and a BA (Art History) from the University of Queensland, and since 2019 has also been a regular lecturer at NIDA in the undergraduate Design program.
Sabina also works as an illustrator, painter, and concept artist (in both digital and traditional mediums).
Recent stage work includes: Set and costume design for ‘Il Tabarro’ (Victorian Opera - a major outdoor event for Sydney Festival 2024 presenting live opera aboard the heritage ship Carpentaria, at the National Maritime Museum, Darling Harbour), Costume and co-set design for '‘Inferno’ (The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra - a new immersive theatre work devised for 17thC chamber music), and costume design for ‘The Barber of Seville’ (Opera Australia’s 2022-23 National Touring production).
Recent screen work includes: Costume design for Tanith Glynn-Maloney’s ‘Finding Jedda’ (2022 AACTA Award Best Short Film), and as costume design assistant for major feature films such as ‘The Fall Guy’,‘Play Dirty’, ‘Three Thousand Years of Longing’, and ‘Shang-chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings’.
Sabina is the recipient of the 2024 Thelma Afford Award for Costume Design, the co-recipient of a 2024 Green Room Award for the design of Victorian Opera’s ‘Melbourne Cheremushki’, and a 2016 Australian Production Designers Guild Award for ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, along with further APDG Award nominations in the categories of Multi-diciplinary Design, Costume Design, and Concept Visualisation. In 2019 her work was published in ‘Innovative Costume of the 21st Century: The Next Generation’ by the A.A. Bakhrushin State Theatre Museum, Moscow.
SELECTED CREDITS:
STAGE:
Il Tabarro - Costume and Set Designer. Victorian Opera,Sydney Festival (2024), dir. Con Costi
Inferno - Costume and Co-set Designer. Australian Brandenburg Orchestra (2023), dir. Con Costi
Melbourne, Cheremushki (Shostakovich) - Costume Designer. Victorian Opera (2023), dir. Con Costi
The Barber of Seville (Rossini) - Costume Designer. Opera Australia (2022 National Tour), dir. Priscilla Jackman
Orontea (Cesti) - Costume Designer. Pinchgut Opera (2022), dir. Con Costi
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Britten) - Costume Designer. Sydney Conservatorium of Music/NIDA (2021), dir. Kate Gaul.
48th United Arab Emirates National Day Celebration, Abu Dhabi - Set Design Associate. Betty Productions (2019)
Werther - Costume Consultant. Opera Australia (2019), dir. Con Costi/ Elijah Moshinsky
The Van De Maar Papers - Set and Costume Designer. An Assorted Few (2017), dir. Alexander Berlage
Woyzeck - Set and Costume Designer. NIDA (2016), dir. John Sheedy
A Midsummer Night's Dream - Set and Costume Designer. NIDA (2016), dir. Iain Sinclair
Rats in the Walls - Exhibition/performance co-designer. Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design (2015)
SCREEN:
Play Dirty - Cast Prep Costumer. Amazon MGM (2025)
The Fall Guy - interim Assistant Costume Designer. Universal Pictures (2024)
Finding Jedda - Costume Designer. Orange Entertainment (2021), dir. Tanith Glynn-Maloney
Three Thousand Years of Longing - Costume Design Assistant. Kennedy Miller Mitchell (2022)
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings - Costume Digital Assets Manager/ Design Assistant. Marvel Studios (2021)
The Matrix Awakens: Unreal Engine 5 Demo - Assistant to Kym Barrett (costume designer). Epic Games, (2021)
Boy & Bear - Telescope (MV) - Costume and Production designer. (2019), dir. Nick Waterman
Sweet Tooth - Costume Designer. Bull Ant Productions/AFTRS (2019), dir. Shannon Ashlyn
Picnic at Hanging Rock (TV) - Costume Assistant. FremantleMedia/ Foxtel (2018)
Fitting - Production Designer. Cosmia Production (2018), dir. Emily Avila
Sheppard - Coming Home (MV) - Production Designer. Tasy Pictures/Decca (2018), dir. Nick Waterman
Sink - Costume and Production Designer. Billfilms (2018), dir. Cloudy Rhodes
Willow Beats - Be Kind to Yourself (MV) - Production Designer. (2017), dir. Oren Lavie
WILSN - Walking for Days (MV) - Costume and Production Designer. Triple J/Rage (2016), dir. Priscilla Jackman.
AWARDS AND NOMINATIONS:
Thelma Afford Award for Costume Design in Stage and Screen, 2024
APDG AWARDS 2024 - Nomination - Costume Design for Live Performance - Melbourne Cheremushki
APDG AWARDS 2024 - Nomination - Multi-discipline Design for Live Performance - Il Tabarro
APDG AWARDS 2024 - Nomination - Multi-discipline Design for Live Performance - Inferno
GREEN ROOM AWARDS 2024 - Winner - Best Design of an Opera - Melbourne Cheremushki
OPERACHASER AWARDS 2023 - Winner - Outstanding Costume Design - Melbourne Cheremushki
APDG AWARDS 2016 – Winner - Emerging Designer for Live Performance - A Midsummer Night’s Dream
APDG AWARDS 2019 - Nomination - Emerging Designer for Screen - Sweet Tooth
APDG AWARDS 2019 - Nomination - Concept Design Visualisation - Madama Butterfly
William Fletcher Foundation Grant for Stage Design, 2016
EXHIBITIONS AND PUBLICATIONS:
2019: Innovative Costume of the 21st Century: The Next Generation - A.A. Bakhrushin State Theatre Museum, Moscow.
2016: Keeping the Body in Mind: Recovery Narratives - The Black Dog Institute, Sydney.
2015: Costume at the Turn of the Century - A.A. Bakhrushin State Theatre Museum, Moscow.
2015: Rats in the Walls/ Exham Priory - Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space, Prague.