School of Performance Productions 2012: Cementville

The third show, at the end of November, was Cementville, a show dominated by its cast of female wrestling characters. The costume I made was for one of these such characters; a performance costume of 'Tiger's called Bloody Mary. 

The design, a wrestling performance costume, by Natassia Green (Level 6 CwPD student), was not that complicated in terms of its basic construction. I used a pattern made up by CwPD tutor Mark Dexter for the lycra bodysuit. The complicated part was the application of the design. I spent ages putting samples together for the applique of the red diamonds, and had to cut two layers of lycra for the entire bodysuit to accommodate the 680 eyelets punched through the costume.

The finished costume looks perfect on the actress. It helped her to bring her character alive and it really stands out against the filthy, grimy backdrop of the set, and is quite different from all the other costumes. I was really pleased with the outcome, considering I had never worked with stretch fabric before, and would be able to tackle another project using similar fabric with much more confidence. The show was a refreshing contrast to the fairly traditional shows which had gone previously, and I really relished the opportunity to work on something completely new and different.