Costuming for the Stage: Chemical Imbalance: A Jekyll and Hyde Play

It's no secret that I'm crazy about theater. I love almost all aspects of it - directing, acting, managing, writing, and especially costuming. Right now my theater group is putting on a production of Lauren Wilson's Chemical Imbalance: A Jekyll and Hyde Play and I had volunteered to create the costumes.

Chemical Imbalance by TA. Image Tiia Tuominen @ Helsinki University Museum

The thing with amateur theater is that there's always a shortage of time and money. Most people have full-time jobs or studies and just don't have the time to make costumes from scratch. And fabric and other material can be pretty costly. So we have to make do with what we have - borrow stuff from friendly theater groups and buy old clothes, altering them to look period.

The play is set in pseudo-Victorian England so I could take quite a bit of liberty with costumes. So I decided we won't be using any corsets (it's a slapstick comedy, and corsets are just too restrictive) and we'll set it at the turn of the century, early-Edwardian era.

Edwardian couple

I went through our storage and found a few fabulous dresses. They just needed a bit of jazzing up to give them the feel if not the look of the era and a bit of visual comedy value. So, this is the story of a dress. A dress for a rich lady with horrible taste - Lady Throckmortonshire.

Lady Throckmortonshire

This is the dress I started with. The sleeves were puffy and the cut was all right. The wine red color worked perfectly for the character. It just needed more trimmings.  

My first attempt was unsuccessful. The gold and brown trim that I'd chosen made the dress look medieval. I tried following the sharp pointy waistline, but it was just not right for the Edwardian style.

I realized that what a Belle Époque gown really needs is lace. Lots and lots of lace. I wish I had more time to trim the hem as well, but I was a bit short on lace.

Lady Throckmortonshire is painfully overdressed. So I added some bows. With pearls and a cameo this was going to look great.

Lady Throckmortonshire and Caliope. Image (c) Stuart D. McQuade

The final result.

If you want to read my musings on costumes for this play, you can find the full post HERE.

Lucy Worsley Talks Regency Era

BBC never stops wowing us with wonderfully informative and beautifully done productions. Elegance and Decadence: The Age of the Regency is a three part series presented by Dr Lucy Worsley. The first episode is dedicated to the man himself - Prince Regent, warts and all.

Dr Worsley is also the author of If Walls Could Talk: An Intimate History of the Home, a book I'm dying to get my hands on.

Dress of the Week: Walking Dress

I seem to be running out of types of dresses.

The weather  is still anything but mild. It may be May, but it's positively Aprilish around here. The sun is shining, enticing a lady to go out, but how is she to do this with this horrid sharp wind blowing from the sea. Only one solution - I must don a pretty spring-y walking dress. Like this one.

Ackermann’s Repository, Walking Dress, April 1817

I love the lilac spencer. The color is so beautiful, and the high ruffled color is just what one needs to keep oneself from catching a chill. The matching bonnet has a really pretty trim and the flowers make it feel like a perfect accessory for the spring. But those little white satin slippers are too delicate for our dusty roads and I would be too scared to mar the lacy hem of this dress.  

Dress of the Week: Pelisse

The spring is taking its time getting started and it's quite wet and windy. A young lady must protect herself from these dreadful April chills somehow. And with a pretty pelisse such as this I can brave the harshest weather.

Coat (Pelisse), 1820. Met Museum

Coat (Pelisse), 1820. Back. Met Museum

Coat (Pelisse), 1820. Detail. Met Museum

A pelisse was originally a short jacket with fur worn loosely over one shoulder by hussar light cavalry soldiers.  Like many fashionable women's garments of the age, the Regency turned this military jacket into a piece of outwear for ladies. A pelisse was cut to follow the waist and the lines of the dress and was made of sturdier stuff than thin muslin gowns popular at the time. In winter the fabrics of choice were velvet or wool often with a fur trim; and in summer lighter fabrics were used - silk or sarsenet. 

This silk pelisse from the Met Museum is really lovely. The color is a bit dull and I'm afraid many a lady might look washed-out in it, but the puffed sleeves are fun and the military-style braiding, popular at the time, is a great detail. I also love the two flowers and a little ruffle at the back. Like all great things, they seem to defy all logic, reason and purpose.    

Pixar's 'Brave' - New Trailer

Are you excited? I'm excited! There is a new trailer for Pixar's Brave; a story about a feisty red-headed princess who goes out into the world to change her destiny.  



I can't wait to see this film when it comes out in the cinemas in June.