Sarahfuller: 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.