My final year at uni was a transfer from my costume construction foundation degree onto a top up year of Entertainment design crafts. I wanted to reflect my skills and abilities in my final project but also wanted to try new techniques and the use of new materials whilst I had the university resources. The most perfect, live project came up which gave me freedom in design, a real client to work with and the space to create a big structural costume. My church in Hartlepool decided to study the Bible book of Job and decided to make a short film on it to show to the church beforehand. For it they asked me to be the costume designer and asked me to focus on the costumes for God and the devil.
http://www.hopechurchhartlepool.org.uk/
God
The idea of designing a costume for God was a little overwhelming at first but after much research into various areas of inspiration I decided to be mainly influenced by the old Testament and its different descriptions of God and who He is as the costume was to be designed for film on a bible book. After many wacky, quirky grand designs I decided to go with the big, white gown theme after still wanting him to be easily recognisable as God but with unique additions. I used linen as this is described as a holy and clean fabric in the old testament and for the lining; a shiny, two tone 80s looking fabric that Tina Turner would be proud to take to the stage in. I free-hand machine embellished a gold tree on the back of the gown to represent His qualities of life bringer (tree of life) and being the Father over His children (family tree). The belt tied around the middle of the gown was made from the same fabrics with biblical verses describing who God is printed down the centre. I used image-maker to do this and gave a crisp, finished look. The embellishments on the upper and lower parts of the belt both represent the unity of the Trinity. The silk scarf was embellished using devore paste with Hebrew and Greek description words of God. I have to say I was very pleased with the overall result and dare say even God Himself wouldn't mind bringing out these fine robes for one of those heavenly partays!
The devil
This strapping young man who I persuaded to pose as the devil (that was an odd conversation) is my lovely husband Tim. I wanted to keep in theme of the biblical description of who the devil is as a fallen angel and also to keep in theme with the ancient, roman stylised cut that the God costume had. In the story of Job he comes across as a malicious character that wants to pull down and fight against the goodness that God and Job bring. Therefore I wanted to reflect that in a gladiator, warrior style costume with heavy metal spikes and dark leather. For this project I used many new techniques and experimented a lot with materials and structure in the wings.
I wanted to connect the costumes but show them as opposites; reflecting good and evil and anger and love. I used the same technique from the belt on the costume for God in the belt for the devil. I dyed the strips of leather red and in the same way printed on the same verses describing God but then graffitied all over them, defacing what the words were saying.
I made the body armour by moulding wet leather over a plastic shop manikin (even though my husband asked me to tell people I moulded it on his body, sorry Tim)and then dying it and embossing the leather with words that describe the devil. I then filled in the words with artificial blood to make him look really sinister.The leather skirt was made with randomly cut up black dyed pig leather and then laced up with black leather thong. This was done as diagonal cuts and obscure shapes makes people feel uneasy and the pigskin looks horrifically like really thick human skin.
The wings were the biggest part of the project both design and making. I constructed the frame from steel wire around the paper pattern pieces I made up which kept the shape well but was really light. I made reinforced wire strips across the wings to make the frame stronger. I then cut out buckram and stitched it onto the frame. The feathers were stitched onto a piece of dyed hessian both machine and hand sewn on for sturdiness. I really enjoyed the whole design and loved the opportunity to design the wings in particular and make up the construction process. And to top it off for my final project I got a grand ol 1st. Yus. I love costume.
A little photo with the devil- couldn't resist!
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