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.
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