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This isn't exactly related to costume craftwork, specifically, but it's definitely costuming, and it's a pretty cool project.
The theatre i work for, the PlayMakers Repertory Company of Chapel Hill, NC, hosts as its biggest fundraiser each year a formal event called the PlayMakers Ball. This is an enormous black-tie affair held throughout six of the ballrooms at the historic Carolina Inn. The Ball has a theme which changes each year; this year's theme is "Great Journeys." Each of the six ballrooms has a sub-theme and is decorated accordingly--something related to the overarching theme but more specific. The Department of Dramatic Art at UNC-Chapel Hill provides actors which host each ballroom, either singly or in pairs, and who are costumed according to the theme. This year, i am the costume designer for those actors.
So, the event coordinator in charge of the Ball sent me a list of the actors and what the different roles will be for each room, and my responsibility is to put together costumes for them from what we have in our costume archive. Most of them are fairly straightforward costumes--for the room theme "The Far East," for example, I pulled a couple of lovely silk-painted kimono and an obi, and our wigmaster is dressing an ornate Geisha wig. The actress is going to do the full makeup and, we hope, the guests will be impressed with how cool that all is. Easy, no construction, instant neat costumed hostess.
The most challenging (and therefore the most fun to costume) of the rooms' themes is "Around the World in 80 Days," hosted by "Phileas and Aouda Fogg," the characters from the Jules Verne novel.
Granted, we have a large section of historical menswear, so costuming Phileas himself was no trouble--I pulled a grey frock coat, some herringbone trousers, an ascot, a figured velveteen vest, some dove gloves and spats... Add a collapsible silk top hat and some vintage goggles and he's good to go, an adventurous gentleman of the 1870s. Aouda, though, is a challenge. She's formerly of Indian Parsee royalty, having been rescued from death by Phileas and his manservant Passepartout. She returns to London with Fogg and eventually marries him, presumably adopting the lifestyle (and fashions) of wealthy English society. So, what would she dress like?
I admit i went into this with the good fortune of having followed from conception the dress-diary progress of an Aouda costume being created by San Jose costumer Trystan L. Bass for an "Around the World in 80 Days" costumed event hosted by the Greater Bay Area Costumers' Guild in Northern California. I love Trystan's use of a sari to build her gown, but that option isn't open to me--the director of my department isn't going to let me cut up a sari from our stock, and I don't have time to pattern and build any of the costumes for this event anyhow. It's got to be assemblage from extant garments, with minimal alterations easily handed off to a stitcher.
Bear in mind that I'm shooting for an 1870s bustle silhouette, appropriate for a formal Ball, something along these lines--decolletage, bare arms, but loads of drapery around the hips and bustle, trim a gogo, etc.
( So...what'd I do? (four photos) )
The theatre i work for, the PlayMakers Repertory Company of Chapel Hill, NC, hosts as its biggest fundraiser each year a formal event called the PlayMakers Ball. This is an enormous black-tie affair held throughout six of the ballrooms at the historic Carolina Inn. The Ball has a theme which changes each year; this year's theme is "Great Journeys." Each of the six ballrooms has a sub-theme and is decorated accordingly--something related to the overarching theme but more specific. The Department of Dramatic Art at UNC-Chapel Hill provides actors which host each ballroom, either singly or in pairs, and who are costumed according to the theme. This year, i am the costume designer for those actors.
So, the event coordinator in charge of the Ball sent me a list of the actors and what the different roles will be for each room, and my responsibility is to put together costumes for them from what we have in our costume archive. Most of them are fairly straightforward costumes--for the room theme "The Far East," for example, I pulled a couple of lovely silk-painted kimono and an obi, and our wigmaster is dressing an ornate Geisha wig. The actress is going to do the full makeup and, we hope, the guests will be impressed with how cool that all is. Easy, no construction, instant neat costumed hostess.
The most challenging (and therefore the most fun to costume) of the rooms' themes is "Around the World in 80 Days," hosted by "Phileas and Aouda Fogg," the characters from the Jules Verne novel.
Granted, we have a large section of historical menswear, so costuming Phileas himself was no trouble--I pulled a grey frock coat, some herringbone trousers, an ascot, a figured velveteen vest, some dove gloves and spats... Add a collapsible silk top hat and some vintage goggles and he's good to go, an adventurous gentleman of the 1870s. Aouda, though, is a challenge. She's formerly of Indian Parsee royalty, having been rescued from death by Phileas and his manservant Passepartout. She returns to London with Fogg and eventually marries him, presumably adopting the lifestyle (and fashions) of wealthy English society. So, what would she dress like?
I admit i went into this with the good fortune of having followed from conception the dress-diary progress of an Aouda costume being created by San Jose costumer Trystan L. Bass for an "Around the World in 80 Days" costumed event hosted by the Greater Bay Area Costumers' Guild in Northern California. I love Trystan's use of a sari to build her gown, but that option isn't open to me--the director of my department isn't going to let me cut up a sari from our stock, and I don't have time to pattern and build any of the costumes for this event anyhow. It's got to be assemblage from extant garments, with minimal alterations easily handed off to a stitcher.
Bear in mind that I'm shooting for an 1870s bustle silhouette, appropriate for a formal Ball, something along these lines--decolletage, bare arms, but loads of drapery around the hips and bustle, trim a gogo, etc.
( So...what'd I do? (four photos) )
