Saturday 15 January 2011

V&A 'Boroque Boroque' Events Program

1st Yr costume students dazzled audiences at the V&A museum with Baroque Costume Talks and a parade as part of the 'Baroque Baroque' events programme, which included a celebrity tour of the exhibition by TV personality & Interior Designer Laurence Llewelyn Bowen.
BA Costume Interpretation & Design students presented costumes that they had created in groups over a period of just two weeks.  Audiences at the V&A found out about the creation of their garments during Costume Talks, where students spoke in depth about the making processes behind the pieces. After the talks, the students then presented a Baroque Costume Parade which ran inside the museum from the Sakler Centre to the John Madejski Garden.









Friday 14 January 2011

Wimbledon students represent at the UUK Creative Industries Launch!




Image: (above left to right) James Dickey, Maddy Jenkins, Nigel Carrington, Geoff Crossick, James Caan, Aisha Caan, John Bird & Nell Robinson


Four Wimbledon College of Art costume students recently participated in the UUK Creative Industires Launch event, which took place at High Holborn on Wednesday 1st December 2010. Lubica Halmova, Nell Robinson, Maddy Jenkins and James Dickey all contributed to the event, either designing or wearing costumes that had been made in Wimbledon studios.
The event, which starred guest appearences from James Cann, entreprenour and Dragons Den panellist and John Bird, founder of the Big Issue and who also attended Chelsea, highlighted the crucial role higher education plays in boosting the UK creative economy. Other speakers included Nicola Danrigde (Chief Executive of the UUK), Geoff Cossick (Vice-Chancellor of the University of London and Nigel Carrington (Rector of the University of Arts London). 
The creative industry that is worth almost £60bn to the economy, demonstrates why sustaining that contribution with continued investment will become increasingly important to economic recovery.
Nigel Carrington said: “The contribution of creative graduates to an innovative knowledge economy must be recognised and celebrated if the UK is to maintain and enhance its standing on the world stage

Within their courses, universities are increasingly creating opportunities for hands-on experience in industry as a way of enhancing the employability of their graduates and creating a valuable resource for participating organisations.
John Bird stated, “That experience [studying at Chelsea] totally and utterly changed my life. I stayed in love with art and when I started The Big Issue I looked upon it as a creative, artistic enterprise. The long and the short of it is that my whole life has been formed by the only little piece of education I ever got, which was at art school.”


Image: (above) James Caan, entrepeneur and Dragon’s Den panellist


Image: (above left to right): James Dickey, Nell Robinson & Maddy Jenkins

Off Shoot of Costume Courses - Short Courses in Corsetry & Millinery run by Artscom


Courses are run over the Summer, Chistmas & Easter breaks. For more information go to UAL website.

CORSETRY
Corsetry- Run by Eileen Newton Associate Lecturer & Senior Technician for UAL- WCA Costume Interpretation & Design Courses, and is freelance Interpreter for TV, Film & Theatre.  She studied Costume Interpretation (BA) & Visual Language of Performance (MA) at WCA.
Website - www.eileenewton.com
This exciting intesive course is suitable for beginners as well as students with some previous experience. Students will have the opportunity to make a basic non-period corset or a period corset for the more advanced.  Students will learn how to draft up a coret pattern (block), and manipulate the modern block into period patterns.  They will learn how to fit the corset then complete final garment.  Students will then be taken through final fitting and completion of the garment.













Student sent in photoes of finished corset, she went on to make bustled skirt to match very nice, love to see students enthusiasm ! 




MILLINERY

Millinery- Jane Smith Visiting Lecturer has worked as a milliner for film, television and theatre for the past 39 yrs, on movies including Pirates of the Caribean ll & lll, and The Other Boleyn Girl.


The course covers the construction of historical hat making up to the 20th century.  Following on from the basic techniques of sewing straw plait, you'll learn how to cut a pattern and make up a 19th c bonnet or hat.  If you've a little more experience, you'll move on to making hats from original shapes which you haven't tackled before.





Fittings




Costume fittings take place at different stages 
from fitting the toile to final fittings.
Costumes are redesigned and evolve over several fittings.
For some actors the costume is an integral part of how they 
develop their character's presence on stage. 
 .
Second Year Interpretation Project final fittings








Wednesday 12 January 2011

National Theatre Open Day Visit Oct 2010



This was an open day at the National Theatre that they hold every year it is a chance for students to see what goes on behind the scenes, and to meet the people from all the different departments.

Store Room
All the haberdashery neatly put away for easy access.





Dye Room - Lizzy Honeybone Head Dyer
Dying and printing among numerous other things is done in house they also do a lot of breaking 
down of costumes to make them look old and worn.



This dress had been printing with flocking to make it look like 
embroidery a quick easier way to achieve an effect.

Costume Props Room - Reuben Hart
Costume Prop Department designs & makes costume items and technical elements of costume, such as jewellery, armour or millinery.  Working with the designer's concept for the costumes, the costume propmakers explore the use of different materials to create the desired effects.




Wig Room
The wig Department is responsible for hair, wigs and special makeup.  Wigs are quite often worn when a character needs a particular hairstyle but doesn't have natural hair which is entirely suitable.  The National has an impressive wigs department and  handmakes its wigs, and most are made to measure or adapted from existing stock.




Quick Change Demonstration
Crucial to the process of putting on shows are the 
dressers and maintenance staff in the running wardrobes.