Thursday 18 November 2010

Costume designs for Iris Murdoch's 'The Unicorn'

These are costume designs for a hypothetical film adaptation of Murdoch's classic novel The Unicorn. 
The story's about a modern young woman, Marian Taylor, who goes to a completely unknown and remote part of the country to stay in an isolated manor house, Gaze Castle. She finds the people there odd and secretive, and eventually she discovers that the lady of the house, Mrs. Crean-Smith, is a prisoner. 
To recreate the lost and frightened feeling that Marian would feel, I've designed costumes that don't seem to have any particular setting, so it's unclear which part of the world the story actually takes place. I've combined contemporary influences with Victorian silhouettes and Middle Eastern embroidery, reflecting upon the imprisonment of Mrs. Crean-Smith and women's rights currently and historically. 
Marian Taylor
Denis Nolan
Alice Lejour
Max Lejour
Maid from Gaze Castle
Effingham Cooper
Hannah Crean-Smith
Jamesie Evercreech
Philip Lejour
Maid from Riders
Gerald Scottow
Scottow's Mother
Violet Evercreech

Monday 1 November 2010

1920s film costume

 i whipped this dress up yesterday


and this is ma faaaace (slightly frazzled by the end of the night)