Candide. A uni project that has taken over my life for the past 2 months. Originally written by Voltaire the story of Candide takes the Catholic philosophy that "despite all the evil in this world this is the best out of all possible worlds", throws a lot of horrific stories and adventures upon one man who takes this view optimistically and questions if this view is really true. Written in the 18th century and then turned into an operetta in the 1950's. So this was the show that was given to us for our Concept in Context project. Costume Designer Johanna Muessig was inspired with black and sepia colours as well as the obscene decorations the 18th century was crazed with.
My character is one of the women of Venice that Candide meets on his travels. They are essentially prostitutes but the Venusians have a little more class about them compared to other prostitutes Candide comes across.
Creating this character wasn't the easiest of makes I have had but then again I wasn't expecting it to be either. For starters the main dress is a sackback dress. This already makes my dress being a big make with the amount of fabric I had to pleat. This also came with the financial realization that my costume was going to cost a lot and that doesn't even include the designer's expensive taste in fabrics. But possibly taking Candide's optimistic view it was a challenge I was willing to overcome.
Next crazy task. There was a subtle pattern with the design. I tried to find fabrics with a subtle pattern that looked 18th century pattern style. i did find one perfect sample.... except from the slight problem that the fabric was white and it wouldn't dye so easily. So what crazy idea do I come up with? How about screen printing the pattern onto 6 metres of black silk dupion. What idea did the designer that I even more crazy to do? Stitching round all the screen printing. All I can say is thank God for Radio 1 and a fellow student doing screen printing for keeping me company in the dye room for 3 and a half days and a big thank you to my box sets of Family Guy for getting me through 2 days of manic sewing. Although i must say I do enjoy making crazy fabrics and doing this kind of textily costume stuff has made me think that I may want to go with this element of costume, whilst doing the odd freelance makes on the side.
Snood. First ever head piece I have made. Surprisingly a quick make too. :)
The back view of my costume. Told you there was a lot of fabric.
So there you have it. the 18th century in a nutshell. i have learnt that the 18th century is extremely time consuming as well as money consuming. I feel I have turned into the box pleating and the screen printing queen. The most iomportant thing I have learnt that if you want to save the environment the sackback dress is not the best way to go. I may be held responsible for a few trees after the amount of pattern paper I have consumed over this project.
The back view of my costume. Told you there was a lot of fabric.
So there you have it. the 18th century in a nutshell. i have learnt that the 18th century is extremely time consuming as well as money consuming. I feel I have turned into the box pleating and the screen printing queen. The most iomportant thing I have learnt that if you want to save the environment the sackback dress is not the best way to go. I may be held responsible for a few trees after the amount of pattern paper I have consumed over this project. 