She was born in former Czechoslovakia in 1950. In 1968 she moved to the United States, studying at the Goodman School of Drama and the Yale School of Drama. She has designed costumes for opera houses and theaters in the USA and Europe for productions such as: Iphigenia in Tauris [Iphigénie en Tauride] in Glimmerglass Opera and New York City Opera; Tobias Picker’s Emmelin [Emmeline] in Santa Fe; Le grand macabre at the Salzburg Festival and Paris; Alcina and Matthias the painter [Mathis der Maler] at the Royal Opera House in London; The Fairy Queen at the English National Opera; Nigel Osborne’s The electrification of the Soviet Union; The magic flute [Die Zauberflöte] and Theodora at the Glyndebourne Festival; Picker’s An American tragedy and Verdi’s The Lombards [I Lombardi] at the Met; John Adam’s Doctor Atomic at the Chicago Lyric Opera; and, The flying Dutchman [Der fliegende Holländer] at the Seattle Opera. She collaborated with director Peter Sellars in productions: Adam’s The Death of Klinghoffer and El Niño; Messian’s St. Francis of Assisi [Saint François d'Assise]; Tannhäuser; Oedipus Rex; and, the world premiere of the opera Nixon in China. She also designed the costumes for Nixon in China for the GNO revival of the original production, staged at the Athens Concert Hall (2007/08). She taught at Harvard University, the Yale School of Drama and the University of California, Santa Barbara.