A good friend of mine, Karen, is a supreme costume mistress. She has turned a love and hobby into a warehouse of costumes like no other I've seen!
This spring she is has been hired to outfit a private school in Mount Royal for their annual Glee season.
My project included outfitting 8 adults for an Abba montage and 50 + teens for the song Jai Ho.
Who doesn't love ABBA??
With measurements provided I had 3 mens outfits and 5 women. This was FUN!
For the Ladies: Dressing all the girls but the front runner in a one piece stretch with frills and swag, the costumes were all made out of vibrant and eye-catching combos. Oh and Bell Bottoms all the way baby! Most of them were adorned with metallic ruffle, inserts or accessories giving them a feminine touch.
You can see here, my girls having little fun in them before they go to stage.
PS I think "The King" was actually part of a Cinderella Pantomime I was working on at the same time, so he made it into the girls fashion/dance show. LOL.
Now for the Fellas: There were only three, so creativity was a must. They each had a base of a basic elastic waist pant and a pull over in stretch. From there they got all blinged out with Bell-Bottom inserts, metallic to match the ladies and one what fringed on shoulders, down the back and along the hem line. My all time fav though was the one fella that wore the plunging "V" in nude mesh and applicade chest hair. Oh how I couldn't stop laughing at how funny I thought I was.
And....Here's the the real show
I think they all carried the vibe quite well.
Jai Ho (from Slumdog Millionaire)
The theme of this task for me was "speed assembly." I didn't actually have traditional fabric for the Sari plus we wrestled with the idea of teen-Glee girls wearing the cropped top and the logistics of draping a long piece of fabric to:
A) stay in tact as they were dancing,
B) be able to remember the sequence of assembling a Sari between numbers.
The solution was to assemble a circle skirt from donated organza with a metallic band around each bottom and at the waist. The kids could all supply a matching T-shirt and a matching scarf was sashed shoulder to hip.
For the boys, it was easy to knock up a number of mix and match vests and sashes that were worn around their waists as a belt. They each supplied a black legging and away they went.
I have to say, I love the concept on stage that begins with one or two entertainers and grows into a crowd. The power of the performance for the song, dance, whatever gives me shivers when everyone blends their individual contributions into one amazing message.
Easier to feel in a live performance, here's a glimpse of what this number grew into:
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| These kids were absolutely amazing. I was mesmerized! |
