RUMPELSTILTSKIN AND THE MILLER'S DAUGHTER

Throughout my final year at The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, I developed a keen interest in the way in which characters from well known classic tales are subverted into modern day fairytales. I wanted to explore in depth how costume plays a crucial role in the depiction of these characters. I was inspired to create a book and wanted to broaden my knowledge of how fabrics, colours, silhouettes etc, are important to the way characters are portrayed.

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A character's appearance conveys important information to the audience about their wealth, social status and personality. The beauty of a modern fantasy setting is that the worlds are completely fabricated. They can be twisted to create a new social structure with different traditions, history and languages from well known original stories. I focused on these elements when choosing which shows I wanted to specifically research, including different areas of the industry: opera, ballet, TV, film, theatre and musicals.

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I concentrated on how the atmosphere and look for a show is created by a team of people and what their responsibilities are, in creating the final piece that an audience is exposed to. I interviewed industry professionals, including costume supervisors, designers, makers and running wardrobe. This project ultimately resulted in myself designing and making some costumes for a theoretical fairytale project. Through my costume choices I tried to challenge the original story and put a twist on the characters.