I am delighted to announce that the reason for my neglect of my blog (apologies) is that a very exciting job has come up that has taken over the last month almost entirely! I am now costume designer and maker for a circus/contemporary dance piece with a cast of 7 being performed by Remix Gold on South bank in a weeks time!
Bit of background info on the company, Remix Gold is an offshoot of Remix, which is an offshoot of the larger company of Diverse City! See the links at the end for more details on the show and the larger company!
It has been an incredibly fast turn around and definitely the tightest deadline I have faced as a designer before, going from starting designing to first fittings in 3 weeks! After a long discussion with the Director of the new, devised piece, I decided to keep the costumes relatively simple, striking 1940's/50's style of teenage rockers with a lot of colour semiotics.
It has been an incredibly fast turn around and definitely the tightest deadline I have faced as a designer before, going from starting designing to first fittings in 3 weeks! After a long discussion with the Director of the new, devised piece, I decided to keep the costumes relatively simple, striking 1940's/50's style of teenage rockers with a lot of colour semiotics.
While I have done carnival costumes and a lot of theatre and outdoor performance, circus is somewhat new to me so there were a lot of new considerations to take into account - not least of which being the risk of costumes catching on apparatus which could be disastrous! With this in mind, while still maintaining the look the costumes had to have the bare minimum of extras attached. Also, something the cast in particular was very keen on was a glamour to the costumes. With this in mind, I decided to use rhinestones to create the look of the accessories you would expect to see on clothes of the period, giving it some sparkle and glamour, preserving the look and making sure that the costumes are as safe as possible.
More info to follow!
