Folies Begere Costume & Headpeices I Crafted for 'Nine: The Musical'

We have now finished the performance 'Nine'. I admit, of all the show I have worked on here, this is the one I am most relieved to have finished. I really worked hard and I am looking forward to a few days rest. 

As the costume designer, I showed the ability to be incredibly resourceful; I undercut the costume budget by a significant amount. I did this by being resourcing and imaginative when shopping. This is incredibly satisfying as I know that for a company with such a small budget, an undercut of 200 euro is a serious amount. A few things were brought from new but apart from that I was as cheap as possible. 

My role during this show required thorough planning and organisational skills to meet our deadline last week and cover the vast amount of work I had. I am an excellent organiser in fact, and I am now utilizing this skill within my work to get the best results.

The project gave me confidence in my leadership skills the ability to allocate practitioner roles. The particular moment I am referring to in this reflection is here:  A Costumista's Catalyst

All the costumes and head pieces in the photo's are designed and created by me.

Folies Begere head pieces close ups 

La Fleur and her Follies Girls in full costume

Saraghina the volumptious, gypsy prostitute 

Saraghina's four gypsy sluttons

The Chorus members in their Overture costume

One of the fellow students filmed the show for his personal project and I was lucky enough to receive a copy. These are stills taking from the film of the performance. 

The overture scene

Louisa and Guido both in 60's fashion, and reporters

Guido's Italian mother in a Roma apron

Guido and the women in his life

Saraghinas sluttons dance, I love the lighting on this

Guido and Claudia, his muse

Louisa and Guido, Louisa in mock 60's glasses

Folies begere dance

Claudia, the muse

Carla, Guido's mistress in a genuine 60's leopard print coat and bag with a sexy red dress

Market bargains - Carla in her babydoll cami 

This was by far my best experience so far working with the theatre. My abilities were put to the test and I worked really hard - it paid off. I got lots of good feedback from people in the audience after the show about how amazing they thought the costumes were. A friend of a friend even asked 'Wow what was the budget for costumes this year?' .. that was really satisfying to hear knowing how little I spent.