Costumes
Take a look at a selection of costumes I have made over the years. Many things have inspired my desire to design and create costumes, from working in the theatre world, to dreaming of owning a costume shop, to my adoration of film, television and history.
The Dryad.
I made this costume for Halloween in 2023. I was inspired to be a tree for Halloween because of my love for trees, and because I was working as a florist at the time. To me, Halloween is a time to explore the fantastic, and I have always felt a deep connection to trees.
The concept of using the cut edge of a tree stump as the bust edge of a corset, that flared out at the hips, where the tree’s roots would grow from, was a playful idea I wanted to explore. This idea also allowed me to have fun with another part of Halloween I love, exploring sexuality. I could fit and flare the shape of my body with the use of a corset and the tree’s roots and show off a lot of my body with its simplified design.
I made it by covering a pre-sourced corset in brown felt fabric, which I had needle-felted greens, browns and artificial moss to create a moss texture. I sculpted roots out of wire, aluminium foil and foam clay and stitched them to the base of the corset and used the needle felting to build the form around the base of the roots, to help blend the two and create a more organic tree-stump shape.
I sculpted mushrooms out of foam clay and foil with a wire core that I used to hand sew into the corset along with pieces of Ivy vine.
I decorated the piece with a luna moth I had made for a previous project, using wire and fabrics. I made acorn shaped earrings from foil and polymer clay. I finished the piece by covering the whole tree in layers of glitter.
Elphaba.
The Viking Project.
I am currently a part of a Viking Re-enactment group, which requires me to dress the part.
I have recently fallen in love with ancient crafting practises. After doing some research into Viking era fabrication I have a new appreciation for raw products and fibres and the processes involved to turn them into wearable clothing and accessories. This knowledge has informed my practise in many other areas, not just my re-enacting. I now want to learn how to weave, knit and crotchet textiles as well as sew.
This piece was machine sewn at its seams, and hand stitched at its hems and collar with linen thread, in a way as close to what I believe the Vikings would have done.
I am currently working on the woolen dress wore over this dress and a tablet woven belt of my own. After that I will try my hand at making leather shoes and a pouch.
18th Century Inspired Outfit
This bodice started as a top I bought from Princess Highway, I loved the fabric but never wore it. I had the idea to change it into an 18th century bodice after watching the Outlander series. Brightly patterned linen worked perfectly as a Brianna-inspired fabric, paired with a pumpkin-coloured linen skirt.
I followed a pattern a fan of the show had made to make the ‘show accurate’ skirt. I drafted the bodice pattern myself, by adding some well-placed pleats I was able to thriftily save myself the work of hemming the piece. I then used 18th century method of hand sewing in the sleaves first before closing the shoulder lining and outer layer to hide the workings. I boned this using cable ties, but the majority of its structure came from the op-shopped corset underneath.
I made a fully boned stomacher piece with the same toupee linen I used to line the bodice.
I whipped up a bum roll and petticoat to complete the look.
The Green Man
I made this costume for my partner for a Halloween costume.
I op-shopped old wool blankets and jumpers, tearing and stitching and shaping them together in layers, dyeing some of them and embellishing them with fibres, ribbon and greenery to make a cloak reminiscent of a ghillie suit - per the client’s request.
I hot glued artificial leaves together to resemble armour, to highlight the client’s shoulders. This was intended to express the strength of a protector of the forest.
I hand sewed a pauldron, photographed above, and used scavenged artificial greenery bits, artificial moss and yarn to create a texture similar to what I fancied magnified moss would look like.
I sculpted antlers from wire, aluminium foil and foam clay, painted them and covered them in fibres and glue to resemble lichen.
I cut large artificial leaves into an oak leaf shape, a symbol of the Green Man, and covered a mask with the leaves to complete the costume.
My inspiration for the pauldron came from a trip I, at the time, had just gone on to New Zealand, where I went deep into a rainforest. I travelling to Milford Sound, a place wet with hundreds of waterfalls, where every tree was covered head to toe in moss. This magical place has stayed with me ever since and has fuelled my exploration into creating textures reminisant of moss, microorganisms and lichen.
Below are some photos I took of these trees.
The Fairy Queen
This is a work in progress of a Fairy Queen costume I am making.
I made this dress by sewing layers of sheer fabric, cut into strips and spirals on to a dress I found at an op-shop. The original dress had its skirt start just under the bust and was tightly fitted. By adding layers of fabric, I was able to fit and flare a new waistline at the hip. I also turned the dress from a blue grey to purple through layers of colour.
I wanted this dress to feel as though it was made by the fairies for their queen, after years of scavenging bits of fabric and jewellery from the human world, held together with spiders’ silk.
I also wanted to explore crafting flowers, plants, insects and embellishments made from fabric, wire, beads and scavenged jewelry from the human world.
I used wire and fabric and thread to create the Luna Moth, and the Silver Falls greenery.
The work of Michele Carragher, the embroidery artist behind the Game of Thrones series inspired me a lot throughout this exploration.
Theatre Design
Into The Woods
In 2019 I started the process of designing for the musical Into The Woods, a production set to show in 2020. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19 the show was postponed indefinitely, however some of my preliminary designs still showcase expressive ideas and my love fantasy and whimsy.
This production is one of my favourites, as I am very passionate about folklore, history and fairytales. I dream of realising some of these designs despite the productions closure.
My concept for this production was to bring realism to the fairytale through texture and detail, with historical elements and folkish styling. I wanted to bring a vibrant and colourful spin onto 17th century silhouettes.
Client
Bijou Tasmania
Year
2019
La Boheme
During my time at The Victorian College of Arts, my final design project was to create a concept for the opera La Boheme, with two other production design students. One of them was focused on the set, one was focused on the technical design, and I was tasked with creating the costume designs. Our concept had references inspired by the culture and aesthetics of the Eastern European Traveller or Romani people in reference to the bohemian world. We wanted to explore themes of romance, whimsy and magic surrealism through the use of eclectic imagery. I wanted my designs to express a real sense of temperature and wanted the characters costumes to express their personality and values through the use of meaningful iconography and direct references.
Carrie was the last production I designed with the production company Bijou Tasmania. It showed at The Peacock Theatre in Tasmania in 2019.
I chose a simplified colour pallet for this production and wanted references to American current (at the time of the production) popular culture. Although specifically set in the modern day, I was inspired by popular fashions tendency to recycle trends from the past 20 years.
The show, and the production company, celebrates powerful women and I designed my concept to reinforce this idea also.
I also designed and realised the set for this production.
Carrie
Ruthless!
Ruthless! was the first professional production I worked on, again with the production company Bijou Tasmania. The production was held in 2017 and showed at The Theatre Royal Backspace.
The director wanted me for this role specifically because she wanted all of her cast to wear wigs during the whole musical. I had just finished a school production of Hairspray, where my wig related skills were on full display: styling, making and securing during quick changes and dance numbers. All six cast members of Ruthless! wore wigs during the production, some wearing multiple.
For Ginger Del Marco’s Act two look, my sketch for this costume is to the right, I sewed two wigs together, displaying skills I learnt from watching Drag Queens online.
I created two head pieces for Sylvia St. Croix, one of these is pictured in the photograph below.
I also designed and realised the set for this production.
