Creative/intellectual property rights

The below does not constitute legal advice, does not form an attorney-client relationship, and should not be relied upon to take or refrain from taking any action.

With very few exceptions, clothing designs may be freely copied by all. Because no intellectual property rights attach to clothing designs, your premise that you "never signed away my rights to my designs/creations" is, unfortunately for you, simply not valid. Absent some contractual right, you have no "rights" in the clothing designs that you created for the actors in the original production.

You may, however, have a contractual right to control how the costumes that you designed may be re-used. That contractual right, if it exists, will depend on what you and the producer of the previous show agreed to five years ago. There may also be union rules that control how your designs are re-used (though I don't know what union, if any, is involved in theatrical productions).

Clothing designers have bemoaned for years this lack of legal "protection" for their creations. Congress considers the issue periodically but never takes action. European governments have protected clothing designs to a degree but our apparel industries are very good at blocking any such equivalent protection. In the case of designs that are not even put in the stream of commerce -- such as theatrical costume designs -- there is very little public policy rationale for creating any such protection. That's what contract law is for.

You may have luck appealing to the producer's sense of morality in order to negotiate a designer's attribution on the playbill. But I think that's all you're entitled to (absent a contract right or applicable union rule). Good luck.

Unfortunately costuming a stage show is not a service that the trademark office protects, and while clothing, as goods, can be trademarked as coming from a specific source, costumes and the service of costuming are not things you can claim rights to either under trademark law or copyright law.

As the other response has noted, the fashion industry has always coped with this throughout its history, and it's forced to rely on constant innovation rather than on enforcing rights to its existing creations to keep its market share.

Absent any union rights, contract rights, and moral arguments you may have with the producer of this show for some kind of credit on thsi current show, I think you will just have to create new designs.

Disclaimer: Please note that this answer does not constitute legal advice, and should not be relied on, since each state has different laws, each situation is fact specific, and it is impossible to evaluate a legal problem without a comprehensive consultation and review of all the facts and documents at issue. This answer does not create an attorney-client relationship.