Bryony Hamer: Consolidation and Collaboration: The Madwoman of Chaillot

Finally I have a chance to update my Blog on my final term of my first year at University of the Arts: London College of Fashion. It has been very full on but extremely rewarding at the end of it all. I plan to practice dressmaking to fit over the summer and work a lot to save some pennies for my next project in October: 18th Century Men's tailoring. I will probably study this a little over the summer in preparation for it but I'm so excited!

This term just gone was all about consolidating all the skills we had learnt in the first term and being able to make a costume quite independently as part of a group of 3 Costume students and 2-3 Makeup and Prosthetics students. As a group we had analyse and break down the given script (The Madwoman of Chaillot [pronounced "shy-O"]) and come up with an overall idea and concept.

Salvador Dali - The Persistence of Memory 1931

We decided to focus on the main point of the play: it is mad! This led onto looking into surrealism and the Mad Hatter's tea party as part of our concept. We felt that each character was in their own time period and in their own little world so we really focused on this when designing.

Andre Breton

As a group each costume designer paired up with a makeup artist to design a complete look for one character of the play (3 characters in total per group).

Poppy Moorcroft's Costume design for
The Ragpicker

Anastaysia Hochar's Costume Design for
Josephine (1920s)

We had to decide on a scene in the play we would be designing for and design and build a set box for that scene.

Our stage was designed to have an interactive audience where not only the stage will be dressed appropriately for each act but the audience's tables and chairs as well. For both acts we wanted to create real sensual elements to give the audience a life like experience and really set the scene, eg. Act 2: the tables will be dressed with antique lace, fresh flowers and the audience and actors will be served tea, cake and honey.

I was collaborating with Elizabeth Hedley to design for the character Gabrielle: The Madwoman of St Sulpice - a sweet, light and fluffy old woman dressed in 1880s fashion who keeps canaries and hears voices from her hot water bottle. We decided to play on the idea that she's living in a bit of a dreamland with her head in the clouds.