Website!

I now have a fully functioning website! You can check it out if you want to at

http://www.wix.com/lauren_elise/costume


None of the photographic material or information may be used or reproduced without the prior permission of Lauren Elise English. 

Mirror, Mirror: The Untold Adventures of Snow White.

For this Project, My Final, Final Major Project, I am creating two full costumes from the new film Mirror, Mirror, by Tarsem Singh.

Here is the trailer for you to watch if you are interested. I am currently making Snow White, and Prince Andrew Alcott's full costumes, swan hat and all from the ball scene.

I do not own the copyright for this film, and as such, cannot be held responsible for the use of it. For terms of use please refer to YouTube for more information.

None of the photographic material or information may be used or reproduced without the prior permission of Lauren Elise English. 

Janet Arnold, 1902-3 Day Dress.

For this project, We had to chose and accurately re-create a costume from one of Janet Arnold's three Patterns of Fashion books. I chose to make the 1902-3 Day Dress, which can be found at The Gallery of English Costume, Manchester.

http://www.manchestergalleries.org/our-other-venues/platt-hall-gallery-of-costume/

I went to visit the actual dress, and to extensive notes, (five hours worth to be exact!) and hundreds of photos of every single detail, in order to enable me to re-create the dress, using accurate techniques, as accurately as possible. Yes I realise I said the word accurate a lot then!

I chose the fabric in accordance with the original, it was the correct fabric, the correct weighting, and a slightly different colour to the original fabric, but hey, you can't have everything and two out of three isn't bad!

I did really enjoy this project, even though I was majorly stressed for most of it! My favourite part was the buttonhole stitched eyelets! I am very proud of them :)

I still need to add the Fleur De Lys decoration, but when I find time to do it, I will put the photographs on here!

This Project has helped me a lot in my construction processes, and I have learnt many new skills throughout this project to use in future costumes!

None of the photographic material or information may be used or reproduced without the prior permission of Lauren Elise English. 

Elphaba, Wicked!

This costume was created for my 2nd year Final Major Project. The brief stated that we could make any costume, as long as it was from a film or created for a film. I fell in love with Wicked the musical when I first saw it on Broadway, back in 2007. I was absolutely hooked, the music, acting, hair, make - up, and especially the costumes. I think this musical is where my love of costume began.

As many of you probably know, Wicked! isn't actually a film, however, there was rumours of it being made into a film, and to be really honest, this is all I needed to make my case to make this costume, I wasn't really going to take no for an answer!

I used the original Stage show design, by Susan Hilferty, of Elphaba's second act costume for the dress, but there were obviously no designs for the underwear, so as I do, I decided to design the underwear myself. Talk about giving yourself extra work! I took inspiration from the same things Hilferty used to design the original dress, mainly the twisted Edwardian/Victorian feel for the garment. I finally came up with this...........

So, using this, and Hilferty's design.....................

I came up with my favourite costumes to date!  The Photographs were taken by Lynsey Northall, at Emotion Studios Portrait Photography. Info can be found here...

http://www.emotionstudios.co.uk/

I really enjoyed this project, and one day, fingers crossed, I may be able to work on Wicked! the Musical! :)

None of the photographic material or information may be used or reproduced without the prior permission of Lauren Elise English. 

Tailoring

Apart from my Final Major Projects, this has probably been my favourite project to date. It was something I had always been interested in, and when the opportunity arised, especially getting to work with Monica Tyler - Head Tailor at the Welsh National Opera, I couldn't wait!!!!

This project was based on Architecture, so having previously been able to travel the Australia, it was only fitting that I focused my project on the Sidney Opera House!! I based my design on the sails or peaks of the Sidney Opera House, and also took inspiration from architecture from a visit to Witley Court, Worcestershire. Information can be found here: http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/witley-court-and-gardens/

I got to learn from scratch how to make a tailored garment from my own design, and I thoroughly enjoyed this project! Needless to say, I can't wait to do tailoring again!!

   

    

None of the photographic material or information may be used or reproduced without the prior permission of Lauren Elise English. 

There's Nothing Like A Dame.......

For this project we were put into pairs and had to design and make an outfit for a pantomime dame, for scene in the pantomime we were given. I was paired with Rhiannon Gillick and we had to design and make for the Dame 'Widow Twankey' in the pantomime 'Aladdin'.

We started by researching into the character, who she is, what she does etc... and also looked at the time the pantomime was written for inspiration. The final design was drawn by myself, and was a mixture of both mine and Rhiannon's ideas. The costume was designed for the 'walk - down' scene at the end of the pantomime.

This is the final design:

For the making part, we made body padding, (Bra and Knickers) and played to both of our strengths in terms of making and decorating the costume. We both really enjoyed the project and it was an amazing opportunity to work as a team and learn new skill. I got to use a range of my textiles skills, from Shibori to 3D puff binder - I was in my element! We went on the win the award for best Soap Star and the Panto Dames Exhibition 2010/11.

None of the photographic material or information may be used or reproduced without the prior permission of Lauren Elise English. 

A Midsummer Nights Dream

For this project, We had designer and maker, Paul Shriek as a guest lecturer. For the project, I had to design for the character of Demetrius and for a Fairy from Willian Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Nights Dream'. The theme of the project was Steam-Punk and the costume designs needed to reflect this. Below are my designs for this project.

For the making part of the project, I had to make a fairy from my own design, but a main character from someone else's design. I don't have a picture of the design that I had to make from, but the character was Theseus. He was drawn wearing a red and black waistcoat, with gold decoration. As the original design wasn't particularly of a 'Steam Punk' style, with the help of Paul Shriek, we managed to tweak the design and I created the red and black suede waistcoat with gold embroidery pictured below. 

For the fairy corset, I created my own fabric by trapping threads, beads, sequins and scraps of fabric between golden brown netting. I created wings by shaping wire to a set pattern, attaching the pieces together with Araldite, and spray-painting them antique gold. I finished them off by sewing beads and sequins along the outer edge of the wings to catch the light. I created wing channels at the back of the corset, before finishing off the edges to allow my wings to be slotted into place.

None of the photographic material or information may be used or reproduced without the prior permission of Lauren Elise English.