Last June, I finished my 2 year endeavour to get a formal degree in theatre costuming. After working as a engineer for 5 years, I had switched to a part-time employment to free up time to go to costume design school in Fribourg, Switzerland. Of course, I was expecting it to be interesting and rewarding, but I could not have anticipated how AMAZING it would be. The courses are really practice-oriented and cover so many different topics that it made me realize how much more passionate I could become about creating things.
I also have to give it to the Drama teacher, because she made me discover how stage direction and artistic direction works and the creative process behind telling a story. I am not by any means good at this, but I am fascinated by those who are.
As part of my degree, we were assigned a play and had to propose a project for a set of costumes, a stage layout, and then create the costume for one character, made to measure for a comedian of our choice. We had about 2 months to do so, and then defended our project in a one hour presentation in front of a jury. Below are a few pictures of my project, starting with the drawings of the costumes:
The stage design:
I don't have any really good pictures of my costume yet, but here is the look on the day of the exam. My model is Marek Chojecki, a stage director friend who was infinitely patient with me throughout the fittings, makeup tests and pizza eating work...
Stay tuned for more pictures!
Thoughts on the project
The idea was to incarnate a description of the character as satan, a character of fire and flames, a fallen angel condemned to hell. The colours are fire colours, including the blue flame close to the center. This blue also symbolizes his inner purity and generosity, represented by his belief in republican ideals, and his love of freedom and self-determination. However, his blue purity is corrupted by the red flames of tyranny worn by the Duke of Florence. The cut of the costume is 16th century, inspired from historical patterns, including the cape with decorative sleeves. However, the 1830 french revolution is also included in the costumes by the use of 'culotte' trousers for the 'royalists' and the modern trousers representing the revolutionaries.
As a first ever project, the process was more chaotic than I had hoped, and I feel like I could have done so much better, in particular in my research of the meaning of each aspect of the artistic choices I made. I wish I had spent more time on the cape pattern and the choice of fabric for the doublet.
In conclusion, I'm overall very happy to have done this course, a bit nostalgic but ready to begin taking part in big exciting projects!
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