The main sources for the costume pieces were:
- our own collection
- a bin full of unfinsihed samples and prototypes generously donated to us by clothing designer Alice Berry
- Annie's incredible shopping spree at the Salvation Army on a 69-cent Saturday sale
- loans and donations from Julia at Basya Berkman Vintage Fashions
- the closets of the actors and costumers
Capulet and Montague
Cape and coat both from the Thin Ice collection.
Montague's coat is a vintage coat with huge shoulder pads and lots of beads, donated by Julia, with fur trim and chain closure added.
Tuxedo shirts, slacks, and belts, all from our collection.
Neck ruffles, newly made.
Lady Capulet and Lady Montague
Lady C's gown and jacket, Thin Ice. The jacket was used before in The Man Who Came to Dinner, with a different gown. I used some of the leftover bead trim Annie had added then to make matching earrings. The gown's matching shawl was draped at the back shoulders as Renaissance-style cape. The extra-long skirt was gathered up in in foofs, which proved very impractical, and needed care after every performance. Thanks to Nora for persevering with that project.
Lady M's gown came from our collection also. Marita added the sleeves and hip sash, and Hannah decorated them with ribbon and bead trim.
Romeo
Shirt by Alice Berry. Jacket also by Alice Berry, with buttons, cuffs, and trim added by me. Pants by Annie, made from the skirt of a 69-cent Salvation Army gown, with trim - fabric from resale shopped curtain panels - matching the jacket. By the end of the week, many, many people were coveting this jacket. The cut and fit are wonderful - many neatly planned panels with both straight and bias-cut fabric create the shape and drape.
The coat is a raincoat from our collection. Same pants plus a peasant shirt.
This gown is one of the marvelous 69-cent finds. The top layer of tulle on the skirt had some large rips in it, most likely the reason that no one had bought it. That was solved by another miracle - I went to my fiber arts group meeting, and there was giveaway of a huge pile of fabrics, on the bolts, that had been donated to one of the members. One of them was a glistening organza of exactly the right color. It looked way better than the original fabric.
Juliet's second gown was loaned by Julia. Without the cape, it doubled as her nightgown. Not only was the print lovely with Romeo's big raincoat, but inadvertently, we matched styles with both R and J having caped outfits. I love it when things work out on their own better than any of my plans.
Both Juliet's gowns were located after trying a long, long string of dresses, none exactly right. It was kind of tense for a while there.
Nurse
Dressing the nurse was also a bit of a trial. The goal was to make her look nice, but not too fancy, put together, but not too avant garde. The blouse came from our collection. We took off the sleeves, which were large, buccaneer style and would never fit inside the jacket. The jacket was an Alice Berry item, with added detailing. Patty made the skirt from a resale store dust ruffle.
Benvolio
Benvolio's shirt is a blouse from our collection. He bought the leather jacket for himself, as we were starting to plan the show. The leather pants belonged to his dad, and had been languishing in a closet, just waiting to appear on stage I guess.
Mercutio
I knew right from the beginning that Mercutio had to wear some of our cowboy boots. I wanted his clothes to express his humor and set him apart from the other characters a bit. For a while, I considered giving him a hippie look. But when we found that this jacket fit him, that ended that thought. The jacket and shirt are from our collection. The pants are by Alice Berry. The cummerbund was newly made, by Nora.
Tybalt
I think Tybalts' costume was my favorite. It fell together perfectly on the first attempt, which is always wonderful. The pants are by Alice Berry, and the rest is from our collection. Our actor enjoyed using the long, swingy coat to the max.
Escalus
Our version of the play has Escalus as a princess rather than a prince as W.S. wrote it. She is wearing another of the 69-cent gowns. This gown, like Juliet's, also was the solution to many gowns tried on and none working quite right. Annie made a cape of cut velvet to go with the gown. Her tiara is made from a resurrected broken necklace attached to a small headband.
Paris
Paris is wearing a blouse from our collection with knife-pleated collar and cuffs, a jacket loaned by Julia (which in real life has a matching skirt), and pants by Alice Berry.
Friar Lawrence
Our friar is actually more of a Mother Superior. She is wearing a cassock from our collection and a newly made stole.
chorus
We limited the chorus palette to browns and black. Most of their clothes came from our collection or from their own closets. After that famous prologue, "Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene.....", they changed vests, jackets, and skirts, adding other colors, to become many other roles.
Sampson and Abram, Balthasar and Gregory
servants and citizens:
party guests:
Blouse and skirt from our collection, with ribbon and bead dangles added. (left)
Red velvet skirt found at a costume giveaway about a month before the play. (right)
Gold dress donated by Julia, sleeves and skirt extension added by Patty. (left)
Capulet's cousin: blouse by Alice Berry, 69-cent skirt. (right)
Capulet's cousin: blouse by Alice Berry, 69-cent skirt. (right)
This show was probably one of the most difficult I've done. It certainly takes the prize for most costume pieces pulled out and not used, because I was so unclear on my tactics at the beginning. In the end, I was pleased with the result. Phew.
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