Project: Soaphead Church's Top Hat

For our current mainstage production, The Bluest Eye, i had a unique problem with millinery for the costume of the character Soaphead Church.

In the context of the play, Church is a mystic, a former holy man who has lost his faith, and implied former child molestor and possible convict. Our designer's imagery for him was steeped in itenerant tinker imagery, trickster imagery, and the iconic silhouette of the top-hatted voudoun loa Baron Samedi.

My problem became, how to make a brand-new top hat that looks wrecked and ancient, in a very particular fashion...


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