Actually making the costume proved to be much more challenging than anticipated. Hessian is a difficult material to work with as it is far from opaque and had no elasticity. We had to attach the hessian to cheap clothing so that it was no longer see-through, though the final product has the desired effect as when cut the hessian frays creating an interesting effect.
The first piece I worked on was Jacob Kay’s top to be worn while he was one of The Creatures. I followed the design drawn up by our head costume designer Aiden which consisted of a vest top with a tail-coat inspired tail and one loose sleeve. I used varying styles of stitching on this top to create different appearances and textures, for example I made a thick strip down each side which added an extra dynamic to the top.
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A major part of our aesthetic for the show is showing process and development. Any mistakes such as a dropped stitch or an uneven hem were left to be a part of the costume. We also did the stitching on the outside keeping the process visible. This came into play when a huge oversight was made with Rolo’s top. With her undershirt being stretchy, once the hessian was sewn onto the undershirt it was far too small. A quickly thought-up solution consisted of cutting away at the sides and adding on four small strips of hessian to hold it in place. I used the mistake which was made and turned it into a positive whereby I could make something even more visually stunning to look at with an interesting display of progress and process.
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The boy’s trousers are made from excess pieces of hessian, rather than throwing these pieces away we glued them to the base trousers creating a patchwork style effect. I used larger pieces of excess hessian to fashion wrap skirts for the girls. This idea of using things which would otherwise have been thrown away again relates to the creation process of our set, finding the beauty in the rubbish.
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Works Cited
Fig. 1 – 6:
Lincoln School of Fine & Performing Arts (2017) IAOWAYH photos [image]. Available from https://www.flickr.com/photos/61839232@N02/with/34016768033/ [accessed 27 May 2017].