A trip back in time to Beamish

A part of my cut and construction module we are running a live brief with Beamish Museum to produce a range of costumes that represent the North East of England during the 1950s.This forms part of a new 10 million pound development at Beamish to create a 1950s town. In preparation for this the college in connection with Beamish Museum arranged a visit to Beamish to discuss in further detail the requirements of the brief.

While there we were given a tour around some of the areas like their costume and clothing archive and their sewing work room where they make all the period costumes for their volunteers and staff. Beamish is a special type of museum known as a working museum were all staff around the display areas are clothed in costumes from certain periods of time connected to the areas they work in, like the Edwardian and Victorian Eras and many will give talks to visitors about the area and that period of time.

We also had the chance to look at in detail and feel a number of 1950s clothes the museum had which was a good primary resource to kick start my research for this upcoming project.


I had put together a collection of images of the 1950s clothes taken during my visit to Beamish  as well as a small number of images from around the museum itself.

1950s womans shoes 

1950s womens black fur hat.

1950s Mens Trilby Hat

1950s womens red feather hat

1950s males wool jumper/vest

1950s Dress worn by the winning of a local beauty show. 

  Below are a few images from other areas of the museum. 

I will be working on recreating a 1950s cinema outfit for a doorman as most Cinema at the time had a team of staff providing the highest standards of service. The doorman was usually located outside collecting tickets and monitoring the queue to people waiting to see what ever production was on at the time.

Once the costumes that we are making are completed they will be put on a catwalk display during a two day summer event held at the Beamish Museum.

Images accredited to:

Beamish Museum,

Beamish, 

County Durham 

DH9 0RG

  

Photoshop Work - Design and Illustration Module

As part of the Design and Illustration Module I had to produce a range of finalised designs for characters based on the play An Inspector Calls by J B Priestley below are some of my final designs that i produced using Photoshop. This was the first time i had used Photoshop and i enjoyed learning how to use the software and would like to continue using this in the future to produce other design work.

Design 1 for Inspector Goole

Mr Gerald Corft

  
 

Design 1 & 2 for Eric Birling




Design 1 & 2 for Shelia Birling


 

Design 1 & 2 for Mr Birling

 

Design 1 for Edna the Maid





Design 2 for Inspector Goole

I think i would like to continue using digital software in my design work in the future as i feel it can give a more professional look to my design work which can then be used to produce a well presented and quality portfolio i can present at interviews or presentation in the future.

Useful links for Information on job roles in the costume industry

As a student studying a BA Hons in Costume Design if is useful to know what sorts of career opportunities are available and link to help get into the industry. through my research i have complied a short list of useful website that might help others looking for similar information.

http://creativeskillset.org
Is a great site that gives you information an all sorts of roles and career opportunties in the the creative industry. In terms of costume  this full link:

http://creativeskillset.org/search/59?tags%5B%5D=&tags%5B%5D=Costume&q=

Provides Information on the following job roles

• Costume Daily
• Costume Assistant
• Costume Design Assistant
• Costume Designer
• Costume Maker
• Costume Supervisor 
• Wardrobe Supervisor

Next up is the national careers service: https://nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk

This website provides in formation on a whole range of careers but for those looking for costume designer specific this link:

https://nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk/advice/planning/jobprofiles/Pages/costumedesigner.aspx

will provide the costume designer job profile page.  

Finally is a list of costume design companies or theatres where many previous students have took up work placements in order to gain experience in the Industry it is a good idea to contact these type of places if you are looking to get your first step into working in the costume industry. 

* but be aware most places will be unpaid work placement and not all may take on students for placement so it is best to check with individual companies but if you get in the door and show a keen interest and good skills then you may be offered paid work with them*

Links:

http://www.rsc.org.uk/

http://www.angels.uk.com/    

http://www.royalexchange.co.uk

http://www.arielct.co.uk/

http://www.sewellbarn.org.uk/

http://www.theatreroyal.co.uk/

http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/

The Sherlock Holmes Museum - Baker St, London

While on a college trip to London i took the time to visit the Sherlock Holmes Museum in London. Over the years many TV series and Films have been made based on Sherlock Holmes and as a student of costume  design i felt it would be a nice stop off during my visit to london, as many items found at the museum would have been used to replicate props and costume accessories for those TV series and films. 

Below is a collection of items from the museum

Here we have a copy of a notebook or journal which at a time without mobiles and computers was one of the only ways of keeping records. 

Here you can see an early example of handcuffs which are clearly different from modern 21st century ones this is something to keep in main when researching and planning period costumes and accessories.

Here again is a few early examples of items a person might have like a hat and pipe, theatre glasses as there still was time for a social life among detective work.

Here are a couple of guns on display again different in appearance to those of the 21st century and another accessory that may need to be sourced to complete the look of a character or costume.

The last image is that of a writing desk as any good detective needs a base to work from again taking note of the various items arranged on the desk, these are the details that could make a production of a period TV or film a smash hit or a big flop. 

Images credited to

The Sherlock Holmes Museum

221b Baker Street, London NW1 6XE

The Harry Potter studios tour, London

While on my college trip to London among many of the places i visited like the V&A, and the Sherlock Holmes Museum I also when to the Harry Potter studios while there we were given special group talk in the academic learning centre, which is not part of the normal tour here we got to see up close some of the costumes and props used during the filming of harry potter before we proceeded onto the standard tour.

It was great to be able to take the tour looking at it through the eyes of a student costumier as you really can get a sense of what it would be like to work on such a big and long running movie production.

From this i would like to share just a small amount of the images i took while down there picking out the best and most relevant to those with an interest in the costume side of things.  

Top left we have a collection of Slytherin House uniforms

Top right we have a costume worn by Hagrid

Buttom left we have a costume worn by Professor Snape

Buttom right is a costume worn by Professor McGonagall

Here we have a collection of the wigs worn and made by many of the main cast.

More of the character costumes:

Top is potions teacher Professor Slughorn

Buttom is two costumes worn by Dolores Umbridge

Next up is a collection of the Death-Eater Masks

Here is a great piece of costume display, it shows how through the production of the movie many replications of the same costume had to be made showing different levels of wear and tear for many of the characters.  Here is one of Harry's which through various scenes in the movie harry would of encountered lots of wear and tear during battles with the dark side and this set of costume are displayed together to so this.   

Here we have some of the amazing work but the prosthetic and model makers that worked on the movies.

There is many more images i took while i was there too many to display but in the post i have tried to show off some of my favorites and those that show off some of the costumes for the main characters seen in the movies. 

The images are credited to

Warner Bros. Studio Tour London 

Studio Tour Drive

Leavesden

WD25 7LR

V&A Museum London

During a college trip to the capital in London i had the opportunity to visit many interesting places, one of those places was the Victoria & Albert  Museum. During this trip it allowed me to see some primary sources of research on costume and clothing from a wide time period. below are a few images with a bief description of what they are and when they are and the time period they date from.   

 Figure 1

Figure 2

Images figure 1 and 2 are are of a 1755-60 court dress viewed from the back.

This type of dress was required and the french court for all royal assemblies and balls.

Due to the shape and sheer  width of the dress it was a challenge to negotiate things like door ways and carriages while trying to maintain a level of gracefulness. 

 Figure 3

 Figure 4

Figure 3&4 features a ball dress  C.1820-25 made of silk satin and silk net embroidered with metal and silk bobbin lace.

 Figures 5 & 6

Figure 7

Figure 5-7 feature a Regency style day dress C.1817-20 comprised of a Spencer,skirt and bodice. figure 7 is a  tailcoat waistcoat and under-waistcoat C. 1815-20. 

Figure 8 & 9

Figure 8 is a printed wool dress C. 1835-38 while figure 9 is a doll for the same era C. 1830 note the similar style dress worn with large puffed sleeves and pleated skirt.

Figure 12

Figure 10-12 features the 1940-50s style tailored fit. Note how Figure 11 is a utility style ladies suit cut to minimise fabric wastage and the use of the 4 buttons was the maximum allowance under the clothes rationing regulation during war time Britain.

    

The V&A Japanese Armour section 

  

Figure 13- 16 are a selection of Japanese Samurai Armour popular ago the Edo period of Japan. 

Images credited to the Victoria and Albert Museum London

http://www.vam.ac.uk/