Costume Designer Log – May 23rd, Tuesday, 2017

Yesterday was the showing of our production If An Orchid Was All You Had and I overall feel that the performance was very well received and executed to the best of our abilities. I think the costumes that I worked so hard to realize in the real world fit the aesthetic of the piece perfectly and, coupled with the hair and make-up and the set design of the piece, presented a really strong, unique, bizarre and semi-dystopian aesthetic that was the original goal of the entire design process. I feel like, once everything was fully painted and prepared and all the costumes had been tried on and practiced in, all the alterations made during the design process were for the best.

Despite this, I am regretful that I did not have time to implement some of the more intricate design points I wanted in my costumes. I feel like having some further individuality between the creatures would have only added to the general aesthetic and that the piece could have only benefited from this. If I had more time during the process to work on costume and more budget to get materials with, I would definitely have tried to create more dynamic mechanical elements within the costumes like I originally had in mind.

Working as costume designer for a show as unique and insane as this one has been a real challenge at times, however seeing the finished product on stage next to all the different pieces of set and hair and make-up really reinforces the feeling of accomplishment from having undertaken this job and seen it through to the end to the best of my abilities.

These Photographs were taken during our dress rehearsal. They show the costumes in the stage lighting and how each one of them looked on stage

References

– 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].