Madness of King George - Final Photos

Tailoring

Currently I'm studying tailoring and designing/making a costume for the Prince of Wales for the Madness of King George. I've gone for a gothic theme whilst sticking to the basic principles of 18th century tailoring. Below is the design for this piece. When it's finished I'll upload some more photos.

Film Project - Doppelganger

The basic plot of the film for this collaborative project was creation taking over creator. A girl creates a mannequin in the image of her distorted view of humanity and this mannequin comes to life, overpowering her, and eventually killing her. I collaboratively designed the costumes for the girl and the puppet come to life and did the final illustrations for this (below). I personally made the costume for the puppet come to life (far below). The 5minute film can be seen here: http://vimeo.com/14742284


Three designs for the puppet followed by one for the girl:

the girl

After the film was made as part of our course we then took the basic script and could interpret it as we wish. I took a more surreal approach and below is one of the designs I did for one of the new 'creations':

Corsetry

I made my first corset about three years ago using instructions from the internet ad garden wire. More came after using similar techniques and whilst they looked and worked great it was short-lived as my home-spun materials would cause a problem.

Below is my first corset made with all the correct pieces and in the traditional way:

Alice through the Looking Glass

A first year university project based solely on design. I was inspired by the theatre production of the Lion King and surrealist art for this project. I liked being able to explore as many avenues as possible in this project and loved being able to work with the narrative and background of the characters as well as the costumes.

The piece was intended for theatre and my inspiration for all centered around the idea of crumbling paint and aged fabrics and materials. This was to give the impression that this had been a lost world for some time until alice stumbled upon it.

The White Queen:

The performer is not behind the mask here, she is hold the mask up by a rod that can be rotated to change emotion. The piece is inspired by the chess piece described in the text rather than embodying it.

The White Knight:

The white knight is also inspired by its chess piece. The back of the horse is made like a spring to highlight the clumsiness (yet not ruin the costume) when the character falls over and 'of his horse' as he does in the text.

The White Paper Man:

It began by just wanting his suit to be made of old newspapers and letters but ultimately his face became paper too in the design.

Victorian

As a personal project I decided to create a dress in a Victorian style. This was done to show some skill with surface decoration, sewing and pattern cutting for when I applied for university. I had it in mind to be used for film so the details were very important. It is not entirely of the Victorian style but I was inspired by the image below from James Tissot's 'The Reception'. Far below are some images of my final costume:

Cool Britannia

Another Foundation project was to create a costume around the theme of 'Cool Britannia'. Again my designs will be uploaded later due to being out of reach but the basic concept behind this was the aim for a deconstructed and modernised form of period dress. I looked at the undergarments worn and worked from this onwards, using the colours generally associated with 'Cool Britannia' as the brief specified.

Looking back I would probably have done a few things differently. For example I would have looked at the ancient history of 'Britannia' and tried to incorporate that. Below are some images of the final costume:

Visual Studies Reproduction

During my foundation course for a visual studies project I reproduced the pre-raphaelite costume depicted in the painting below using more modern fabrics. Far below is the end result for this endeavour:

Macbeth - The three witches

A Foundation course project intended for theatre. The witches were inspired by information and images on  iconic trios of magical beings including the fates and the graces as well as the witches in Macbeth themselves. I also took inspiration from eskimo dress; at the techniques to keep warm, etc. as the witches would have been living outdoors for some time.

Unfortunately my designs are miles away right now so they'll have to be uploaded later so for now here are some photos of the finished pieces: