Wednesday 7 December 2011

The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls

Sketchbook, sketchbook

With the Circus project handed in, it's now time for the Final Major Project! I'm rather excited about this, since I chose to do some costume design based on a book written by one of my favourite musicians - Emilie Autumn's The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls.



On a whim, I decided to make my sketchbook look appropriately fancy. I've got all sorts of stuff to go in there. I've never really bothered with making sketchbooks look interesting, but my last one looked so much better with a little bit of red and brown paper thrown about.

Really looking forward to this project. EA has quite a distinct style, and it'd be quite interesting to replicate that in the setting of the book.








Culled directly from EA's real-life diary entries, the story begins with Emilie's suicide attempt and prompt imprisonment inside a psychiatric hospital. Sparing no detail, Emilie shows us exactly what goes on inside this house of horrors, exposing secrets that the general public could never have guessed at. Narrated with the sarcastic and self-deprecating humor present in all of EA's works, much of the subject matter may be considered controversial. Still, as in her song lyrics, Emilie tells the truth at all costs, thrusting the brave reader into a play-by-play narrative of her bi-polar episodes, even providing photos -- blood, cuts, and all.
The tale takes an unexpected turn when, whilst still in the psych ward, Emilie discovers evidence of a parallel dimension -- a world that soon becomes indiscernible from her own. As the days go by, the seemingly disparate worlds of the story's two lead characters (Emilie and Emily, EA's Victorian counterpart) begin to merge, leaving the reader, as well as the book's author, rather confused as to whether the accounts are truly autobiographical or whether EA has managed to seamlessly morph from true-life tale to extremely well-researched historical fiction. - mamstore.co.uk



Cirquepunk

The finished Ringmaster tailcoat.



I'm rather proud of getting this finished and getting it finished this well. I got ill, then my sewing machine broke, and then I got ill again. Not quite sure how I managed, really. The other one there is my Knife Thrower costume which I made alongside the RM one. 


 I don't find this one nearly as impressive as the tailcoat, but I guess it's not all that interesting without the rest of the costume with it. But oh well. It's still good, and I do still like it, just not as much.

I'm really looking forward to be able to do a photoshoot with these.

Tuesday 25 October 2011

Sun Wukong




Second year costume project; Chinese Opera
Based on the character of Sun Wukong, the Monkey King

Tribal-Steampunk Headdress




Second year costume project based on 'hats'.
The most amazing fake fur, but real little antlers from a deer up in Scotland. Various clock parts salvaged from old mechanisms and beads from all sorts of places. I've got a fossil strung up on the back there too.

Friday 21 October 2011

Ringmaster II


Aaaand here we have the final design for my Ringmaster. Just a little bit of faff with fabrics and I can get started on that jacket.

Saturday 15 October 2011

Ringmaster

My current chunk of work is my minor project for my degree, in which I'm designing and making some costume bits for a little circusy troupe with a theme of playing cards. Who doesn't love playing cards?

First up in the Circus Deck is the Ringmaster, of course. Going with some military junk along with the tailcoat and top hat because, well, card soldiers. It's a common enough idea. And since he's the ringmaster, he's the boss, so he gets extra fancy epaulettes and big-ass cuffs.


That's the design set for Mr. Ringmaster. It's mostly just a change in the jacket, since that's what I'd be making for this project, but it gets a bit more military-y with the design on the front and the shoulder-cord things. It's probably going to get more tweaks before the final-final design, but the third one is the look I'm aiming for.


And the second set, which looks like a super-bling ringmaster. He's based off of the face cards, like the Jack and so on, hence why he's got yellow and zig-zags thrown in there too. I must say, I do love this (especially the second one with the military stuff of the first mixed in), but it's not the look I'm after. It's not dark and grungy at all.