Rosie's pink hackle wig

[labricoleuse]

A collaborative project on this show between myself and Candy McClernan was this fun pink feathered "bob" for the character of Rosie, one of the Kit Kat Girls, who is played by Maren Searle. These kinds of close-fitting hairstyle-esque hats were popular in the nightclubs of the time, and are made from hackle pads.

For this project, we didn't have a rendering to work from on the hat; instead we had a research image provided by designer Jen Caprio:

Research image of Louise Brooks in a bejeweled hackle "wig"

I ordered a dozen pink hackle pads and took a hairline trace of Ms. Searle. The hairline tracing gave me a guideline from which to cut the base cap for the wig, so that it would fit as closely as possible to her head and cover her own hair completely. I then made a basic skullcap from Fosshape on which the feathers would be mounted. Then i handed the hat off to Candy for finishing.

An ornate feathered hat from our costume collection,
which Candy inspected for techniques on how to hide hackle pad joins.



Hackle pads come in a teardrop shape, but Candy cut them into smaller shapes to better take the sleek curves of this "hairdo." Above you can see her positioning them on the Fosshape base cap.



Once all the feather pads were applied, Candy added these large pink sew-on jewels.



Another view of the wig in our shop.



Maren Searle as "Rosie" in the feathered bob onstage.
Bravo!