Photo: Britt Schilling
Sarah Mittenbuehler, born 1988 in Freiburg, Germany, studied Integrated Design focussing on Fashion and Costume Design at the University of the Arts Bremen.
Aside from her studies, she worked as a costume design assistant at the shakespeare company bremen 2014 and the Schaubühne Berlin in 2010. As a scholarship holder of the Bremer Studien – Fonds e.V., she was a Design Assistant at the high end fashion label Georgia Hardinge in London in 2011/2012. After her studies Sarah Mittenbühler worked for three years as Costume and Stage Design Assistent at the Theater Freiburg. In 2015 she was part of the Juste-au-Corps Costume competition at the Theater Luzern.
Since 2017, Sarah Mittenbühler has been working as an international freelance costume and set designer. In collaboration with renowned directors such as Christian von Götz, Nicola Panzer, Miriam Götz, Bea von Malchus, Katrin Maiwald, Clara Kalus, Sam Brown, Rennik-Jan Neggers, Benedikt Grubel and Jana Vetten, she develops distinctive stage and costume worlds with a strong and individual visual language.
Her work has taken her to renowned theatres and opera houses in Europe, including the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen, the Dutch Reisopera, Leipzig Opera, Cologne Opera, the German National Theatre Weimar, Magdeburg Opera, Nationaltheater Mannheim, Theater Freiburg, Theater Erfurt, and the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre in Vilnius.
The production of Eine Frau von Format at Cologne Opera, for which she designed the costumes, was awarded the BR-KLASSIK “Operetten-Frosch” for the 2024/25 season.
Among her most recent international projects is the costume design for the world premiere of Žibuoklė Martinaitytė’s opera Upside Down at the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre in Vilnius. Directed by Nicola Panzer, the production is based on a concept by Robert Wilson.
Sarah Mittenbuehler’s unique way of working with colours, haptics, contours and shapes allows her to invent and develop characters, that tell their own stories.