Burgundy Riding Costume In Progress

 

As with many places and programs, we had to cancel two of our shows this year and find digital alternatives for the others. Sadly, one of the shows that had to be canceled was the production of Amadeus which has been an absolute wishlist show for me for years. Worse still, since the students who were most going to benefit from the opportunity to work on that show are graduating this year, we won't simply be able to reschedule it for next year, and because of leadership changes in the program we aren't likely to be able to do it for the foreseeable future. Join me in mourning.

There's always a silver lining though, and I picked one costume from the designs to have some of my more advanced students work on. It's a burgundy velvet riding jacket and skirt for the character of courtier Strack, who is usually played by a male, but which in our production was intended to be female. Students worked on panniers as part of their exploration of structured garments, and we utilized the mock-up of the jacket bodice to discuss draping and fit techniques. The wine velveteen over one shoulder in the photo is the fabric that the jacket will be made out of. 

One precocious student cut and put together the quilted velvet skirt using accurate 18th-century methods which, once hemmed, will be more or less finished. There's still a lot of work to do to make the jacket, trim it all in silver and purple passementerie, and create a little tricorn with plum silk veil, but I think they'll enjoy the process. Updates to come. This will likely take the better part of the semester to do as the students involved and I are only in the Costume Shop one day per week owing to Covid restrictions. It'll be like a slowly-unfurling flower.