I need a Hero

oh but here she is...
so it's fine.

Hero's Bridal-wear... (with the addition of a veil for the final scene)

This has taken the longest of all the designs in terms of rendering.... so many accessories.... and shiny bits....

Fabric Sourcing in London

Over the last few days I embarked on my second round of fabric sourcing- to tie in with a trip to the Paralympics (which incidentally- was rad).

I spent Monday completing Goldhawk Rd- where as usual the fabric was in my price range- but most of the finishes were way too modern- too many synthetics and whatnot- most of it was cheap but looked cheap. Although  in saying that, I did find some gems.
Interestingly I completely neglected to consider the potential embarrassment of showing my Much Ado Designs to all the fabric shop owners- most of whom seem to have Indian heritage...
Leonato certainly inspired a few laughs to say the least....
But the good thing is, no-one reacted with offense... so I guess I can't complain.
On Tuesday I hit Berwick Street. As most of my garments will be sourced rather than made, the fabric sourcing that I'm doing at the moment was not as focused on budget as it might have otherwise been. Primarily I was collecting samples that I felt gave the clearest impression of how I want the garments to look, but the sampling will not lead to actual purchase of that fabric, and will merely inform the supervisor when sourcing the final piece, therefore I could have plenty of fun sourcing expensive stuff from Broadwick Silks and whatnot.
Despite relative success, there are still some fabrics I am struggling with. For one, no-one will let me have a sample of Tweed- so sampling for the Don Pedro design featuring Green Herringbone Tweed is becoming a problem. Also I'm finding it hard to source for Beatrice, I got a lovely selection of turquoise trims, but nothing in terms of the deep red Silk/Silk-Chiffon for the trousers, and no patterned yellow fabric either!
So I think Southall is the next stop.
A problem that I REALLY didn't expect is that the orangey yellow of the Uniforms seems to be a very hard colour to come across. This spells less trouble for the actual production (As at the moment I think the most likely option is sourcing white military dress coats and dying them) but I would still quite like to have a sample of exactly the right colour to go with the designs. Maybe I could do some dying now- but it seems such a waste just for a few little samples.

Here are just a few selections from my sample-book I've been building-up:

Only Hero left to go!!!

...... of the Principle Characters anyway.
I'm a little worried because on paper I still have so many designs to do, but in reality these are for costumes that will only be on the stage for a matter of minutes... so I can't design anything tooo too elaborate. Still it's integral that they maintain the same standard as the rest of the costumes. I'm just hoping I can get them done  a lot quicker.
Fabric sourcing in London next week... hopefully I will be sucessful.

Here is Don Pedro's Military uniform design.
I was worried that due to my hat choice, he would look less authoritarian than Don John, however, I am really pleased with the end result, and I think his high power and status definitely comes across... I think it was the braiding detail that did it... and just simple additions like the gloves.

Don John

Antonio

Antonio's costume is quite simple, but this is because he is quite a minor character. The only potentially complicated item may be his hat, as I have never seen one like it before (only as illustrations in the British Raj books I've been looking at) maybe we could make it? I'm not sure we'll have time though.
It's such a beautiful hat, and the simplicity of the costume really relies on the careful addition of the accessories such as the umbrella and the hat to make it work.

I'm sure we can find or make something fairly close to it, and I'm not too bothered if it means the colour of it has to change, as I'm still of two minds about the teal/turquoise.

Benedick's Second Costume...

Benedick's 'Dandy Daywear'.

Benedick changes costume mid-play, ditching his uniform and his beard, favouring instead 'the British Look' To try and impress Beatrice...
This outfit is intended to be fairly comical, including a beautiful pair of massively over-sized cream jodhpurs!!

 

Here comes Leonato!

Design for Leonato's base costume!

Plans for tomorrow: Benedick's Dandy Daywear and Antonio's base costume.... we'll see.

Also today, bid on a water-pump on ebay. 2 days left and if no-one else bids then I will get it for 99p. It's perfect, but maybe a bit on the small side, measuring 66cm tall.... I'm not sure.... but you can't go wrong with 99p, I thought the water pump mighht set me back up to £100! hooray!

The one on the left is the 66cm one I've bid on for 99p. The one on the right is my favourite, a bit taller at 83cm but a bit pricey at £66 inc. delivery. The middle one is at £12 (89cm) at the moment but we'd have to do something about the colour.....