Durability of materials

Looking at the costumes as a part of the whole production, it is imporant to consider how they would fit into the schedule of the performance.
The Nutcracker for example is usually performed only in December, arround Christmass because thats the main heme in the performance. Here, in West side story we are looking at a two year long tour.
Looking at budget of a production which is the main aspect of my project, the durability of the material can also emerge questions such as: If the materials arent durable enough to last the period of production, would it be more expensive to recreate them instead of creating more durable and more expensive costumes from the begining? Therefore, while creating my concepts I've been researching the durability of each recycled material.
 Plastic bags for example the highest durability from used objects, they are also don't fall apart and damage through different weather condition. For that reason, I've chosen plastic bags as the only material for extending layer of a skirt as eventual draging wouldn't affect the material. And also it's the only material which has a contact which the skin - in the upper layer for the work dress. Therefore, I've chosen that smaller size of the upper layer of the work dress as a bigger one can cause discofort at the dancer.
Cellophane has also good level of durability as it is also used for packaging of frozen food. That means it could resist at least an year in frozen conditions and for other types of food such as rise it lasts years. Ive chosen cellophane for the wedding veil as it also resists to different foldings without damaging the material
Camera roll tape - Like the other plastic materials it has high durability.
Drinking straws - they can be made of paper, silicon or plastic.. I've chosen plastic ones, as paper is less durable and the silicon ones are more exprensive. They also provide good durabilityy
Camera Film Roll. Glueing them to a dress could affect their durability and they might fall but sewn on, they can't easily be damaged
CD material - the cd is the more sensitive one. For that reason I've used it only for  the decoration on the top and as the doople skirt's consistant movement could easily affect the material and it will fall.

Materials most likely to be damaged through the 2 years tour:
CD material which ,however, wouldn't affect the budget as a package of CDs cost only 1£ and consists of 5 CDs enough  to be made 2 decorations like this one. As a substitude glitter can also be used which is also as the same price, but a pack contains enough material for making 3 or 4 decoration. I personaly prefer CD material because you can manipulate the size of the needed pieces and is more untypical to use in costume making.


References:
Logomasini, A. (2008) The Whole truth about plastic bags, [online] Competitive Enterprise Institute. Available at: http://cei.org/op-eds-and-articles/whole-truth-about-plastic-bags [Accessed September 15 2014]
McKeen, L.W., Massey, L,k. 2004. Film Properties of plastics and elastomers. [book] William Andrews

Materials and prices

1.Evening dress

• Camera film rolls for the decorations - 2£ for one pound from ebay
• Drinking straws for the decorations - in pound stores
• Transperant Plastic bags - can be found for free in Tescos and other big supermarkets. If the production requires more or different colors, I've used a plastic carrier bag from tesco with red and orange letter on it to keep the colors set for The Sharks. For this lower layer around 20 bags will be enough. If the production requires 9 (for example) costumes  like this which are too many to be collected for free at once, on ebay also could be found good deals on plastic bags in many different colors varying between 1£ for thicker ones (60 in a pack) and 2£ for thinner ones (100 in a pack). That means that in a case of creating 10 dresses like this one, to the cost of each costume will be added 0,30 p.
• Cotton fabric - 3 meters , 2,00£ per a meter

Total price:  9,00£

2. Work/home dress

• Transperant plastic bags for the upper and extending layer which can be found for free from large stores such as Tesco. There are also extremely useful for in terms of countity because you can get as many as you can using it as key element for more than one costumes.
• White sponges - a pack of which can be found in pound stores. A pack consists of 8 which can be enough for making as least 2 or 3 belts.
• Looking at second hand nightgowns on ebay I found this one which is ideal for my design. The lace piece around the decolletage will be remove and the silk fabric will be adjusted to the sillouette of the gown. The silk gown will add some romance to the design and at the same time will make it better looking on stage because there the other materials are quite simple. It costs 5,30£ (with the delivery included)
• In addition as a linning of the gown will be added an inner cotton layer on the top part in other to look as a finnished dress (Stiffer) not only a nightgown. A metter of cotton can be found in the Sneiton market in Nottingham at a price of 2.00£

Total Price: 8.00£

3.Wedding dress

• Cellophane wrape for the lace decoration - can be found on ebay in great variety of colors at a price of 0,99 p.
• A pack of recordable cd - can be found in pound stores
• Leotard fabric for the top - around 1,20£ per meter in Sneiton market - around 2 meters needed
• Netting - 1,20£ per meter in Sneiton market - around 3 meters needed
• Cotton for the linning 2 pound per meter - 1 meter needed
• Magnetic button - 1£ from ebay

Total: 11.00

Maria - wedding dress, photoshop work in progress

Thinking of the material, my first idea was to use the fabric of a second hand wedding dress and adjust it to my design but the prices on ebay start from 50£. Considering my previous practise with the ballerina costume, I desided that they would perfectly fit to my design and they will also provide the low cost I was aiming at. Additionally, the choreography of West Side Story is seriosly influenced by ballet movement which will also fit the fabric into the concept. Looking at the design, the dress is slighty shorter than the other ones which comes mostly from the netting fabric which adds puffness to the design. Another reason for that is that in the main scene with that costume the character are on thei knees. The lenght will prevent draging of the dress revealing her sillhoette. On the other hand the plastic bag layer which will be seen from tabove will add depth to the dress. The orange color is kept on the three design as a notes which relates the character to The Sharks gang following the approach in the production (There to that element responds the red belt.)

Maria - home/work dress, adjustments & photoshop work in progress

 This dress was first design on paper with puff short sleeves. However, later on these sleeves became to look unappropriate.
In general puff short sleeves aren't very desireable for dance production as the elastic at the end of them could cause discomfort in the dancer during performing different movements.
On the other hand, looking at the images of the other at the other images of the bride dresses I realised that the work dress has to fit under the wedding dress. Therefore, I removed the sleeves from the concept of the home/work dress sketch.
Another issue of the relation between the two dresses can cause the additional upper layer. For that reason, I was looking at ways to make it easy removable so Maria can remove it without interrupting the tone of the choreography. Initially, I was think of adding some buttons which to attach to layer, but every sharp movement can easily tear the plastic bags if there are button sewn on it. For that reason, I decided to create the plastic bags' decoration double layered and the elastic strips of the dress will be situated between the two layers and will hold the dress. Thus, Maria will easily remove the layer and then put the wedding dress on which will perfectly cover the work dress.
This approach is very adequate for two other reasons:

• the scenes with this dress are both romantic and do not include intense dance movements hence there is no possibility to layer to fall before the character to remove it.
• the scene after requires changes in the set as it happens in a different location. That provides the opportunity the layer to be removed with the sets. (the character can leave it on the stands with the other gowns which can be seen behind the characters)

Image from West Side Story

Now here are some work in progress sketches of the dress:

Maria - evening dress, photoshop work in progress

With all of the sketches for Maria,  for first time I've been using another photoshop technique which I hadn't using in my previous photoshop sketches. The image has not been directly outlined on the marker sketch but drawn alongside just looking at the paper image. Also I've drawn the characher in a different body position. Drawing hands on photoshop for me seems a lot easier than on paper.
Here are some work in progress images:

For the final sketch I changed the usage of casette tape to camera film roll as it's wider, which make it more noticeable. At the same time it will also strengthen the effect of the flowing unsewn down side of the stripes. The holes on the two sides of the camera film roll will add diversity to the shapes used in the gown. On the other hand, they will facilitate the sewing process.

Maria - Wedding dress, sketch and references

Image from Shutterstock

For the wedding dress I was looking at images of wedding dresses in the 1950s due to historical accuracy. I decided to base my design on the lace trend which was very popular during the 50s.

Image from Fifties Wedding

Image from Caroline Arthur

The next step was to chose shapes for a lace.  I decided to come up with a pattern which I designed reminding of a lace. For that purpose I took a very common lace curved element (see the image on the top) and combined it with a typical pattern from the 1950s - dots. And that is the result I achieved:

A technical issue about this dress can rise from the fact that it should be put above the home-work dress during the choreography. For that reason the other wedding dresses don't seem pretty much as a dresses but more like wedding shirts. Here I decided to come up with a braver desicion. My design also has a cut on the front but fits strictly to the body figure. In order to be achieve this effect of a dress instead of shirt, there will be 3 magnetic buttons on the area from under the breasts to the waist (on the narrowed area). The button will buckle at the moment which the dance put it around her body saving her any time during the choreography.

Recycled material:

The wedding dress like the first one also includes shiny materials as the first one. The decoration aroung the around the decolletage is made of tiny pieces of cd material - the glanced layer between the between two sharp disks on which the data is recorded. The lace on the skirt will be made of cellophane decoration sewn on the fabric. My desire to use cellophane referencing Jennifer Henry's work had additional impact on my choice of simpler shapes for the lace texture (because of the sensitivity of the cellophane material). the hair accessorie is also made of cellophane which will be taped on the side side of a diadem which will hold the veil to the head of the dancer.

Maria - home/work dress, sketch

This dress is worn by the character in two scenes: the balcony scene and the scene at the bridal shop The image I was looking for creating this gown was a more simple and ordinary considering the fact that at the bridal shop Maria is at work. I also followed the line creatide in the production adding some rebellion notes to the concept. In the production the these notes can be found in the extra seams on the surface of the dress. respectively in my design they can be found in the upper and the enxteding layer of the dress.

Recycled Materials:

The materials on the dress unlike on the previous one are not shiny due to the casual style I was looking for (again following the concept created from the director and the costume designer in the initial meetings)
The belt is made of washing sponges sewn on the fabric. The upper decoration layer and the extending layer on the skirt are made of plastic bags again adding to the rebellious notes in the dress. Unlike on the previous dres, here the extra layer of the skirt is made as an extension of the skirt  and is sewn on the surface of the fabric.