Dressing Downton

 

My friend Mary and I had the absolutely best day at the Dressing Downton exhibit.  We saw costumes from the series on display at the Driehaus Museum.  The Driehaus is in a huge stone mansion just off the Magnificent Mile in Chicago.  It provided the wonderful, wonderful clothing with the perfect setting - an American counterpart of the upper-upper crust life that was showcased on the series.  Mary and I treated ourselves to the scrumptious high tea served in a most amazing hall within the mansion.  I just can't find enough superlative adjectives for the day we had!  Honestly, I just can't stop looking at these photos.  Wooooo!!

The gowns on the left and right in this photo were worn when the Downton ladies went to court and curtsied to the King.  There were strict rules about what was to be worn, such a headdress with three white Prince of Wales plumes and a short train.

Renaissance Gown

 

I made a Renaissance-style gown for myself.  I belong to a little group that plays for English country dancers (as seen at any ball you've seen in movies of Jane Austen novels).  When we play for the Christmas Madrigal feast at one of our member's churches, we go in costume.

When I make costumes, I always start with the internet.  I found some great illustrations for style inspiration.

Then I went resale shopping.  I decided to combine a maroon velvet jumper, a nicely patterned navy tablecloth, and a woven blue decorator fabric scrap for trim.  I much prefer having a base piece of clothing or two to start with than working totally from scratch.

Ballet Costumes and Inspiration

Welcome to some pre-holiday fun.

I recently visited Victoria Dancewear, a local ballet costume company.  Victoria designs ballet costumes, and has been in the clothing and costume biz all her life.  Victoria is my friend Julia's aunt, "the" Julia who sends me all the fun vintage clothing to repair for her Etsy shop.

Both Victoria and Julia credit their ancestor Basya Berkman for their love of clothing and design.  In fact, Julia named the Etsy shop in her honor.  It is so heartwarming that such an obviously creative and loving woman has such a wonderful legacy.

Ice Skating Costume

This friendship goes way back, 14 years and counting.  My son met Chris Davis in a gymnastics class when they were 6 or so, and his mom and I struck up a great friendship sitting on the benches outside class each week.

Chris has gotten seriously into competition level ice dance.  At this point, I consider him another son, so when they come to me for costume help, I am right there!

Vintage Music

At an estate sale, I found some wonderful old music magazines.  I bought a few and gave them to a musician friend for her birthday.  A couple are from 1910, and a couple from 1933.  I photographed some interesting bits to share with you here.

Covers went from black and white to color at some point during the intervening years.

  

   

James and the Giant Peach On Stage

Here are photos from Thin Ice Ensemble Theater's production of James and the Giant Peach.  Costume sketches and a discussion of the design goals are in a previous post.  More photos and costume portraits are on my website.

Aunt Spiker and Aunt Sponge

 The insects: Earthworm, Ladybug, Grasshopper, Glowworm, Spider, Silkworm, Centipede

James and the Giant Peach

The next Thin Ice Ensemble Theater play is "James and the Giant Peach," based on the Roald Dahl book. We have 28 actors, aged about 6 to 11.  Here are the sketches for their costumes.

The bodice of Aunt Sponge's dress is stuffed with fabric.  The actress is wearing two bum rolls and 3 very long, very full petticoats that hang from shoulder straps.  The dress is now too full to zip closed, needless to say.  The back opening is secured with three elastics, and she will wear the matching apron as a capelet to hide the back.

The bottom ruffle of Aunt Spiker's dress was removed to make a straighter line, and leave her ankles showing to add to the illusion of height.  Black trim is being added to emphasize the vertical, and the ruffle will become a turban-like hat.

Romeo and Juliet - Costume Details

Here are the stories behind putting together some of the outfits worn in our recent Romeo and Juliet.  The story of the overall design process and photos of the production are in the previous post.

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

 

Romeo and Juliet - Costume Design

Last weekend, our high school students performed Romeo and Juliet.  They did a spectacular job with the deep emotions, the stage combat, and the lengthy script.  But what I am going to write about is the costumes.  Of course.

Eileen, our director, set quite a challenge for the costumes.  She asked that the look straddle the Elizabethan and the modern eras, expressing the timelessness of the story.  And she asked that the costumes be haute couture and edgy.

Antique Silk Jacket

Here we are at the intersection of two of my interests / careers:  costuming meets vintage clothing.

Thin Ice Ensemble Theater is producing "Anne of Green Gables" this weekend.  One of our young actresses will be wearing a most exquisite antique silk jacket. We inherited it with a set of costumes created by the theatrical grandmother in one of our families.  The jacket will be worn by Mrs. Barry.

The tan jacket is lined with a tiny red and white stripe, both silks.  Then there are super wonderful gathered silk flowers with bead centers, and a metallic lace trim.  Here are some close-ups.  I am in love!

Cigarette Girl Costume

My friend Julia of Basya Berkman Vintage Fashions learned through the grapevine about a woman with a stash of vintage clothing.  This is one of the amazing items that Julia acquired.

The woman said that her mother had been a performer in her early life.  It's likely that several of her vintage things, like this outfit, were costumes worn during her mother's career before her marriage.  Her mother was most likely dancing in the 1920s.  A real find!

Costume Put-Away Day

Last Tuesday, we, that is the Thin Ice Theater costume crew, held a big Costume Put-Away Day.  Our costume (and props) collection is stored at 3 houses, mostly in big plastic bins with some special items on hanging racks. You can read about the origins of our collection here.  And you can read about about how we've re-purposed costumes for each show:  The Importance of Being Earnest, You Can't Take It With You, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Little Women: Beth, Amy and Jo and Meg, and An Ideal Husband.  

Our task was to sort and store everything from the past 3 shows - Witness for the Prosecution, The Phantom Tollbooth, and Arsenic and Old Lace.  Lots!

Being Organized

So.  What do you do when you have 26 young actors wearing 56 costumes and different sets of parents helping out on different days?  You get organized.  You get super organized.  Organizing the dressing room became nearly as big a job for this show as creating the costumes themselves.

A Good Day's Work

We've got just one month left to get ready for Thin Ice Theater's production of The Phantom Tollbooth.  Costumes have been designed, sewing is in progress, with many moms lending their hands and sewing skills to the process.

Today was set aside for creating miners' hats for the workers in the numbers mine of Digitopolis.  My costume assistant Cheryl and I made our game plan, and in two hours, voilà, all done!  The idea grew bit by bit between us:  plastic hardhats plus cat food cans plus Mardi Gras beads.  Here's how our afternoon went.

The cat food can.

Phantom Tollbooth Costume Sketches

Step # Next in the costume process for The Phantom Tollbooth.  It's a real treat to do this show.  For several years now, when we've come across some outrageously silly costume item in the storage boxes, we'd smile and nod at one another and say, "Yep, we'll use that for Phantom."  And now, here we are!

Here are the current working sketches.  Because we have 26 actors and something like 56 costumes, it's, well, quite a project.  (See the costuming progress here and here.)

Phantom Tollbooth

My next big costuming project for Thin Ice Theater is The Phantom Tollbooth.

We're producing the play by Susan Nanus, based on the book written by Norton Juster and illustrated by Jules Feiffer.  The book was published in 1961.  When I was in fourth grade, and the book and I were still both pretty new, my teacher read it to us, chapter by chapter.  It's been one of my top favorite books ever since, and both my kids are big friends of all the characters, just as I am.  I can't recommend it highly enough, so I am delighted to be part of this production.

The Importance of Being Earnest

So, the wonderful performances of "The Importance of Being Earnest" are over, the costume pieces are soon to be sorted and put in their appropriate boxes, and I will share a few of the stories of how we put some of the outfits together for this show.

Costume Sketches

Coming up this weekend at Thin Ice Theater is Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest."  I am serving this time as costume designer and coordinator.  

A few years ago, I started making little costume sketches as we create the costumes.  It's a good way for me to visualize color balance or conflict, what outfits will be seen together and such.  Once we get into the dress rehearsal period, the sketches can be very useful in the dressing room to keep actors and helpers aware of all the pieces that go into each outfit.

Horton Hears A Who

We (Thin Ice Theater) have just completed our second annual Dr. Seuss class. Last fall we presented The Cat In The Hat.  This year - Horton Hears A Who.

The format is designed to introduce young kids, ages 5 - 10 or so, to all aspects of play production.  Dr. Seuss stories are a great introduction to the theater.  The rhyming lines and rhythm help young actors with memorization.  And actually, the style is very much like Shakespearean scripts, so this is really a first step towards working with the Bard's great plays.

Goodies

Gleanings from this weekend's estate sale shopping:

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