Barbara Maier was born in Zurich and trained as a textile designer at the School of Applied Arts in Lucerne and Zurich. From 1980 to 1989, she was a member of the organising team for the Zürcher Theaterspektakel. She has worked as a freelance costume designer since 1978, at venues including the Staatstheater Braunschweig, the Ernst Deutsch Theater in Hamburg, the Neumarkt Theater in Zurich, the Theater Basel, the Münchner Staatsoper, the Burgtheater in Vienna, the Schauspiel Hannover and the Schauspielhaus Zürich. From 2001 to 2016, she worked in the restoration department of the Graphic Collection at ETH. She has been a colleague of Ruedi Häusermann’s for a long time.