Beauty and the Beast Costumes

For my colleges production of Beauty and the Beast this year, I designed the costumes for the main characters of Lumiere, Cogsworth and Babette. I also constructed the textiles elements mainly from upcycling old garments, and with an extremely tight budget...

Costume Design Board:

 Babette:

For Babette, the feather duster's costume, I merged the idea of traditional Victorian maid and modern French romance/attraction, so the garment included tempting cuts and hemlines but with traditional trims of frills and inclusion of an apron, etc... As she is quite a sexual, seductive character, I used quite a provocative pleather fabric for the skirt with a thigh-high slit. As the enchanted objects have to transform back to their original human state, I created a Velcroed waist belt of feather boas which sat of her hip as this is where the actresses main movement came from in characterisation.

Lumiere:

After designing Lumiere's costume for the suave man he is, I was able to create the god suit-like garment, one of my favourite aspects being that the actor would be able to use their hands still as a lot of other costume designs for this character don't allow. I created flame ruffles in the cuffs but decided to have the main frame of the candelabra going across the shoulders. However, there were a lot  technical difficulties rigging this up and I ended up deciding to have it lower down on the back. The transformable parts of this costume were the candles.

Cogsworth:

 Originally, I was set to play Cogsworth in this production but I had to pull out, so I initially started designing a costume for myself and my characterisation of the enchanted object. But when someone else took over my role, I had to rethink aspects of the design. Without using a sandwich-board-like structure, I tried to create the shape of a clock, using a grandfather clock as inspiration with the pendulum the length of the body and face as the actual clock. In the transformation, the entire bodice comes off, head pieces and key for back... This was a more quirky costumes with elements such as clock handles as a moustache.

Elphaba's Act 2 Dress, Wicked

Elphaba's act II dress in Wicked is my favourite theatrical costume. Designed by Susan Hilferty, I believe that the incredible detail and depth this dress possesses, truly makes it one of the most beautiful and meaningful costumes in the theatre. The dress fits Elphaba's character in act II perfectly as the story gets darker and her character becomes more complex like the detailing in the garment... As she matures throughout the show we see her grow into her 'witchy' style and this costume is the pinnacle of it, especially when complete with the hat, cape and broomstick. The darker, earthy colour/textures, in comparison to Glinda's bright and floaty dresses shows how grounded and "connected to the earth" Elphaba is - "green for good" being a phrase. 

The fabric for the bodice of this dress is not just simply one fabric, but around 20 different fabrics quilted together (no bigger than 3 inches a piece), 40 yards of fabric is needed to create the ruffles in the skirt of the dress and it takes 1 person 2 weeks to sew the entire piece together! Crazy! It is also said that this particular costume weighs around 40 lbs with a value of between $10,000 - $20,000!

Matilda Set Box

At West End Live 2014, the 'Theatre Empourium' showcased different elements of the theatre, such as costumes, make up, designs, etc... Here is the Matilda set box which I was particularly attracted to because of its amazing detail and aesthetics. I can definitely see how this came alive in the show and the innovative, creative design of the stage does Roald Dahl story justice. :)
http://uk.matildathemusical.com/