For my presentation, I used the freezer bags to put the pictures in, and simulate some blood. The blood refers to Woyzeck's tumor, which would burst open during the play, covering his plastic jacket. I also wanted to visualize Marie as a mother (covering up her child with her coat) as well as a lover (showing of her body with her dress).

Here are some more pictures to illustrate my interpretation of Woyzeck.

The play we started with in our 2nd year of school, was Woyzeck by Georg Büchner. It's about a soldier who ends up killing his wife in a rage of jealousy, under the influence of an experiment he's being part of (at least, that's my interpretation). I used this experiment factor as my main concept theme.

The idea was that everybody who has been part of the experiment, developped a handicap, which would be shown directly on the costume. Marie had an extra part on her coat, to hide her down syndrom child. Woyzeck had a big hat to cover up his brain tumor. His shirt was made of plastic freezer bags, so that the doctor could easily examine it's progress and make notes on the coat. I also made a structure, in which the actors could take place, to symbolize the elderly people. Stuck in a shape, not being able to move.

Some graphical work

Here you can have a look at some "working process" pictures of the Othello and Desdemona costumes. The pattern for the corset, which I made myself, is based on the model's measurements. For the boning, I used hard plastic. The golden flowers are sprayed on the silk. The pattern for Othello is based on a basic pattern of a vest. Before adding the black fabric, I made linings with a simple thread.

Here's another example of my work. For painting, I like to experiment with colour and material, using contrasts in artwork. This one is made with acryllic paint, very dry, background scratched off with some sand paper.

In my first year of theater costume design, we worked on Othello. For this play, we had to make a historical and a contemporary interpretation.

The costume for Desdemona is an historical interpretation. The concept behind is that, being accused of adultery by Othello, she uses her skirt to hide her lovers. She, nevertheless, only wants to use it as a "far away from home" shelter for her and her husband. The structure of the skirt was based on the structure of an army tent, the inside had an eastern touch with the gold decoration.

The contemporary costume, I made for Othello. The idea there was that "nothing is what it seems", "it's all in the mind"... Therefor I wanted to make a costume which, by first appearance seemed like a suit, but by second was nothing more than a dress "trying to be a suit". Like Othello, trying to fit in... I used black shades to emphasize the suit lining.

Introduction

Hello, I'm Sam, a 32yrs old graphic designer who's studying theater costume design at the academy of arts in Antwerp, Belgium. I've created this blog to share my work, interests and ideas about theater, fashion and graphic design. Enjoy!