Inspired by Newstead Abbey
Newstead Abbey is a perfect location to film a Alice in Wonderland short video due to its array of corridors, little sets of stairs, and gardens filled with manicured hedges and trees. Before going I didn't realise who well the gardens would fit in with the story, however I am now considering whether I would prefer to film outside. This is making me question if I wold like the colours and shapes of my costume to fit in with the natural colours of the gardens or the darker, wooden tones of the interior.
Whilst walking round the abbey I mainly picked up on the variety of patterns I discovered there, such as: the wall paper, textiles, carvings, picture framings, ceilings,
A lot of these patterns were quite detailed, and created a tangled, confusing effect, perfect for the Alice in Wonderland which I see as a mad, confusing story.
Overall, I am please with my final design as I feel like my costume would allow the performer to feel powerful and confident in it due to the shapes, and pocket placements. This fits in well with my theme Teddy Girl, as the main aspect I took from my research is the idea that these group of girls rebelled on authority and had attitude. However, during my rough drawing phase I never took the time to experiment with a variety of ideas, instead I narrowed my sight by just developing the one idea I had at the start. This meant that my final design may not be as creative as it could of been, so in the future I plan to be more experimental and try out a lot of different ideas before fixing on one.
As my design got chosen to be made, I worked with my group to make some alterations to the design in order for it to be achievable and practical. to do this we made the jacket stick out less so that the performer could move around in it more easily, and so we would have to spend less time on the construction. We also added some new ideas including stripy socks as well as neck scarf, and come lace gloves to add more texture. We also added a sleeve to heighten the sense of asymmetry, and also to have one side symbolising Alice before she fell down the rabbit hole, and the other to show her in wonderland, all distorted and missing her jacket sleeve.
I found the turnups to be the most time consuming due to most of it being hand sewing, however I found the creation of it to be a lot easier than it would of been due to the fact I used techniques that I had just learnt in millinery. I used buckram and millinery wire to create the robust shap of the cuffs, this meant thaat the cuffs could support themselves, and also be reshaped easily in case they became squashed on their way to Newstead Abbey.
Overall, I am really pleased with how my project turned out. I especially like how I created a textured effect using creases in calico, this piece of fabric manipulation is something I might include in future projects, or might develop further in other experiments.
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