Costume Drama 2018 Inside Out

Hair Charlotte Murphy
Make Up Iliana Sawtelle
Model Tristin Vitriol

Catagory : Revisionist History

I picked the category of Revisionist History because I love historical clothing and I felt the category would lend me freedom of exploration.

Initially I was inspired by a picture of a 1860’s hoop skirt and some knitting ribbon I found at the Restore. I decided to approach the idea of Victorian underclothing as outer clothing. Exposing the artifice of the  sculpted form for the sake of beauty.

I started working with the hoop skirts original material of wicker, after hand dying; I started forming the wicker letting the shape develop organically.  Adding in paper as a backdrop for the hoops choosing newsprint on craft paper for the color and texture, using hand pleating and fusing techniques.

And of course no outfit would be complete without a hat.

A Look at the creation process

So my original pick category was Hardware and my original concept was a Arthurian knight. After I applied I realized that this concept and category would be very hard and a huge money sink. So I started thinking about what else I could do instead. I came across a picture of a hoop skirt that enchanted me with it’s beauty and got me thinking about the underclothing of the Victorian era. Once I found out my category  I spoke with a friend, Kristin Tidwell about my thoughts and she suggested using wicker. After looking into it I found out that you could dye wicker. So I went to a Earth Guild downtown and bought wicker and dye. I have not dyed many things yet so it was a interesting experiment, I tried to get a variegated look to the dye but I am not sure it worked. Then I soaked the wicker and started shaping it using my models measurements. While I was doing this I used a crinoline underneath to remind me of the shape I wanted and I caught myself thinking about how good it looked. So I decided that I would add in a paper crinoline underneath to give the shape more form. I was always planing on doing a corset but I had to work out how to do this with paper now and not have it tear right through. Then I decided we needed a hoop corset as well. The concept changed a few more times in smaller ways as things progressed. I feel like creativity for me is pretty fluid like water and sometimes you shift to get where you need to go.