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Igor Stravinsky’s L’HISTOIRE DU SOLDAT (THE SOLDIER’S TALE)
Die Vereinigte Kirche (The United Church)
1920 G Street NW, Washington, D.C.
March 23rd
Prince William Symphony Players
De’Andre Anderson, narrator / David Montgomery, conductor
World Premiere showing of The Soldier’s Tale images by Clive Hicks-Jenkins
She’s wonderful, I love her dress!
It was fun to make, Chloe. Costumes with strong divisions (where overlaps can be situated) make for good maquette designs.
She is delightful and I agree with Zoe, your fabric solution is very clever. You are correct concerning flowing fabrics, I’m working on classical garb but most of my maquettes may end up buck naked :}.
LG
Ha ha! ‘Buck naked’ was not an option I gave much thought to for the Dancing Princess!
(-;
Long neck, high cheek bones, tiny feet,..very elegant! Big frock…Love it!
Once a choreographer, always a choreographer!
I know what you mean, I’m in the ‘once wardrobe always wardrobe’ bracket. I’m rubbish at drawing the figure but if you gave me a pile of fabric I could make you the frock whatever the period
I had brilliant hands on training at the Octagon Theatre in Bolton under the watchful eye of Wardrobe Mistress Mary Horan who was a superb cutter and would hand me a pile of cut out bits with a note pinned to them saying ’8 bodices’, ’12 cloaks’, ’5 togas’ etc for me to work out myself; it was a good grounding and even now nearly 40 (aaargh) years later I find myself looking at clothes thinking front, side front, side, side, side back, back. Hard work and long hours but I wouldn’t have changed it for a minute such amazingly creative people.
That description of your time under Mary Horan made me smile. Toward the end of my career in the theatre I designed a number of stage productions, the costumes for which were made in the wardrobe department of the Welsh National Opera. The Supervisor was the late Terry Parr. Terry ran a tight ship and could be really quite scary when she had a mind to be, but luckily took me, green as I was, under her wing. Humpty Dumpty at the New Theatre, Cardiff, required over a hundred and fifty elaborate costumes, and so my first experience of designing for the stage was certainly an in-at-the-deep-end one, though thanks to Terrry I didn’t make too big a fool of myself. I couldn’t have asked for a better ‘wing man’. By the end of the ‘make’… which lasted the best part of a year… I could cut a pattern like a pro! And you’re right Jacqui when you write that those skills stay with you. I’m the bane of shop-staff when we go looking for Peter’s work suits. Nothing escapes my eye when it comes to tailoring, thanks to Terry having once been my eagle-eyed mentor.
Yes millions of memories. I’d only been at the Octagon about three weeks and I was introduced to the indusrial overlocker, a hugely powerful fast beast of a machine that everyone used standing up, so I was also taught to overlock standing. First costume – a mans green silk dressing gown, all going well until I realised that the fabric had a fold and I’d overlocked it! Of course when I took it out and undid the overlocking there was a huge hole in the fabric where it had cut off the ‘excess’ fabric. I could have died right there I’d never been so scared I thought I’d be thrown out, but Mary was so calm and just went and cut another piece. Hard lesson learned but never forgotten I still stand to overlock – always check for folds though!
Ha ha! I’m surprised you ever overlocked again. I got a weekend job when I was a pupil at the Italia Conti School, working at Angels, a famous costumier business in the West End. On my first day they gave me a Pearly King suit and about a thousand buttons to sew on it. I sat cross-legged on a table sewing until my fingers bled. To this day I’ll go round the block three times to avoid putting on a button!
What an interesting exchange this is… Really enjoyed it!
Sometimes the comments wander off down unlikely byways, Marly.
oh, she’s beautiful!! and golden, how appropriate
and you managed the skirt so cleverly–i’ve found the tango skirt to be so cumbersome. the black space comes across almost as a ruffling, completely had me fooled at first.
and it might be a strange comment, but he has great hands
I suspect it’s easier to costume a maquette in a ‘structured’ gown that holds it shape… as this one does on hoops and petticoats… than be dealing with something flowing and changing shape with every movement. You made life difficult for yourself with that decision, though I think you solved the problems with ingenuity. And remember that should a costume not work the way you want it to, you can always make different versions to substitute as required, so that difficult positions can be negotiated with the help of multiple pieces. There’s no problem that can’t be solved. You’re in charge! (-;