Emo, Steampunk, and Shakespeare - Oh my!

So my next show at North Shore Country Day School is coming up in October, and a few weeks ago I got a chance to sit down with the director and talk about her concept.  The show is "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)".  If you haven't heard of it or seen it, the basic idea is that a very small group of actors performs every play Shakespeare ever wrote - in under 2 hours.  Yeah.  Complete hysterical chaos.  The best way to summarize the director's concept is "Emo kids put on a show in the park".  It made me think of eccentric, thrown-together, pseudo-artsy costumes and set.  It also gives me a chance to incorporate one of my favorite fashion genres, Steampunk.

What's Steampunk, you ask?  Picture a modern world stuck in the Victorian era, where mechanical objects are still run on steam power instead of electricity.  You've probably seen movies that use the visual language of Steampunk but didn't realize it.  This website has a great list and definition, if you're curious to know more.  I just love the idea of using the historical fashion of Steampunk combined with the dark gothic look of Emo for Shakespeare.  I'm not the only one, apparently, because while I was researching I found some really awesome production photos from Curio Theatre's "Twelfth Night".  These are the kind of photos I love to find when I'm researching, because I can see what someone else has tried, what did or didn't work, and use that to build and enhance my own design concept.  Why re-invent the wheel when I can build a jet-pack instead?

So enough talking - here's some inspiring research to get this thing started!



Add a few neck ruffs, make the colors a little more dark and garish, this group's ready for some Shakespeare!



This girl could have gone to my high school.  Perfect goth-emo-steampunk mix.



The original Steampunk Twelfth Night.  (Anyone who knows my husband, look where they're from!!!)



I could fill this whole page with pictures and not scratch the surface of my research.  And did I mention that another inspiration for my design is the TV show "Carnivale"?

I really love dark, dirty, strange looks.  And since this show is just one week before Halloween, it'll be perfect to raise the weird factor a few notches.  Now that my mind is racing with ideas, it's time to go do renderings!

It's my first post - So who am I, and what am I doing here?

The first post of a blog is supposed to be profound, right?  It's a new journey, a first step, a commitment to setting down your private thoughts on virtual paper.  Dramatic enough for you?  Damn it Jim, I'm a designer, not a playwright. (yes, you will see occasional Star Trek references here, get used to it)  My thoughts are usually expressed visually, but I am taking that first step into the written word.  So why?

As I said before, I'm a designer.  A costume designer.  And I never thought it was anything exceptional until I got the chance to start answering the question "so what do you do?" with that answer.  The responses fall into two categories: those who nod and say "oh, that's nice" like I just told them I beg for spare change dressed like a robot on Michigan Ave, and those who say something like "Wow.  So what exactly do you do?"  And I never really have a good answer for them.  The reason is I do so much under the mantle of Costume Designer that I never know how to start. 

So here's my answer to those people out there that what to know what the heck I do for a living.  I plan on putting it all on the interweb for you to see.  Step by step, project by project.  What's my goal?  Well, like I said, it's a good way to explain what I do.  But I also want to show any one who's interested some tricks I've learned, shortcuts for making things look awesome, and just share my general enthusiasm for creating really cool things out of nothing at all.  And hey, just maybe someone will find my blog and want to hire me.  Because seriously - this is a fun job!