New Beginnings

Now the Commedia project is over and done I'm moving onto new and exciting things. For my next university project I shall be working with leather and lots of natural materials, making costumes for a new and original feature film based on the work of Tolkien called Men of the North.

It's a really new and exciting project to be working on. The story has good, evil, battles, orcs, rangers, hobbits and all the rest!

This project is only 6 weeks long, but we are looking to make at least two costumes each, as well as doing a lot of adaptations to sourced items and a lot of breaking down - these costumes have got to be authentic! It's being filmed throughout June and is looking to be released in September / October time.

As part of this project we're required to document our progress and process on a Tumblr blog - so if you would like to keep more regularly updated on this wonderful new work then follow me on Tumblr: 

http://marniefitzpatrick.tumblr.com/

Most of my work and updates will be moving over there, but I'll still be updating here on extra-curricular things and hopefully some summaries of my work on Men of the North!

Les Miserables Costume Exhibition

What better to do on a miserable, grey, rainy Saturday than to go see the costumes from the epic on-screen musical extravaganza that is Les Miserables. A museum at the Portsmouth Historic Dockyards had a small selection of the original costumes from the film and some wonderful insights into the designers vision for the piece. As the location for the opening scenes of the film, the Dockyards were the perfect location to bring these costumes back to.

As a costume student who's just worked on a piece that is supposed to look authentic and 'lived in' it was amazing to see these broken down, worn into pieces. As a costumier, there is nothing worse than going at a costume you've just finished with a cheese-grater and some sandpaper, but that is the nature of the profession and often you have to breakdown your pieces so they reflect the character and their lifestyle. This exhibit gave me a fresh look into breaking down and really made me learn what it means to make a costume look authentic. It was a really wonderful little exhibition with a handful of costumes and took me right back into the thrill of the film and just made me want to watch it again!

Standing inches away from the costumes, and being able to look so closely at the construction process and fabrics used was fantastic. Especially as you could see that some of the costumes were completely hand-sewn and hand-finished. Clearly a lot of effort, work and thought went into these costumes and it showed in every inch of them.

Here are a couple of my favourite costumes from the exhibition.

Beautiful breaking down of a very fine, gauzy fabric.

The majority of this costume was entirely hand-stitched. Stunning.

Commedia dell'Arte: The Finished Costume

So my hand-in is on Monday and the time has finally come to get this costume off my hands and stop fretting over it!

I have thoroughly enjoyed the entire process of making this costume and the project has been engaging and interesting. I have learnt valuable new construction techniques and I think that my finishing skills and level of construction has improved massively, just as it does with every new project I undertake.

I'm a little sad that I haven't managed to get the costume back on my actor since the final fitting, so I haven't seen the complete look on him, but I know it's going to look great. And as my first attempt at male clothing I am really very proud of myself. We should be having professional photoshoots later in April with the actors so we can get some great shots of our costume at its best, but for now, here's a few that I took of it on the stand.

Everything you see is 100% hand-made by me.

Hand-sewn double layer ruff. Made from cotton organdie that has been tea-stained to give it the broken down look.

Ruffs are a nightmare, I don't know why anyone invented them!

Detail of the purposefully ordered and made buttons & cape cord (which I bought without taking a fabric swatch with me so I'm so glad it matches!)

This has been a massive learning curve of a project, and has taken up a good few months of my life. So I'm ready to get rid of it and move onto the joys of Independent Project now.