In many ways designing Cursed Destiny was rather easy. I was actively trying to evoke the other productions being spoofed so using the same costumes from them was a no brainer. I am infamous for color-coding my characters, sometimes to a ridiculous extent, so naturally I had to color code the characters in this.
Catlanta (played by Margaret Olson) was obviously a combination of Cat (Pandora's Box) and Atlanta (
The Gift Bearer), but I chose to go with the blue of Atlanta (played by Christine Komiskey) rather than the red of Cat because it balanced better with the other two lead characters. She also embodied all the tough, strong, independent female leads so I wanted her wardrobe to reference the other characters as well.
Her ballgown is the gown Maria (played by Holly Simons) wore in a dream sequence in Episode 2 of
Dream Chasers. The main character in
The Curse, Zandra Anderson (played by Liz Schafer), wore a lot of flannels over t-shirts and the blue and white flannel Cat wears at the end is a nod to a shirt that Zandra wore in Episode 5 of
The Curse.
I chose green for Minwah (played by Kate Weber) - who is a combination of Minerva (The Gift Bearer) , France Wah (Pandora's Box), Molly & May (The Destiny Trilogy), and all the other crazy, weird, and wonderfully insane characters - partially because Minerva (played by Morgan Thomas) did wear green sometimes, but mostly because I wanted to put her in the notoriously terrible Molly & May OOPS shirt at the end. Although her personality is more like France Wah (played by Rachel Anderson), her clothing does not include and France Wah references. I was originally going to put her in the vest France always wore, but I couldn't find it.
The rest of Minwah's clothing were silly t-shirts, including one referenced in the script, and her ballgown. I had a green and white regency dress that fit Kate and that worked out great because I wanted each one of the three sisters' ballgowns to be from a different historical period. Catlanta's is pseudo 17th century, Periara's is 18th century, so having Minwah's be 19th century was perfect.
Periara (played by Brittany Ann Whalen) was a combination of Peri (The Gift Bearer) and Diyara (Pandora's Box) both of whom wore pink as one of their main colors. The second shirt Periara wears actually has a collage of Peri from The Gift Bearer on it.
Periara's ballgown is one of my personal favorite costumes and but I was only able to use it twice before, once for Princess Elaina (played by Jill Hutchison) in Destiny and later for the "princess" in
The Long Take (played by both Margaret Olson and Gen Stasheff). It didn't really fit any of the other productions, so I was super happy to be able to use it for this show! It was actually designed and built by my mother, Mary Stasheff, as Cinderalla's ballgown in a middle school production of Cinderella where my sister, Gen, played the lead.
When they end up in post-apocalyptic future, aka Pandora's Box, Periara changes into a skirt that Peri wore in Episode 5 & 6 of The Gift Bearer and a peach peasant blouse style shirt that, while not actually worn by Diyara, was reminiscent of Diyara's style. She also wore the vest made for El Banyo (played by Rachel Zoralee) in Destiny III, but that's just because it was the only pink vest I had and I didn't really feel like going out and finding another one. Pink vests are not as easy to find as you might think.
Her final outfit was a pink and black t-shirt and the worst pair of pants like...ever. I wanted her to wear pink pants but I didn't have any and was only able to find one pair of hot-pink pants at the thriftt shop which were too big and too long, but I made her wear them anyway. They looked awful, but you didn't see the bottom half of her much...sort of. They had to be uncomfortable too.
Prince Loverboy (played by Bryan Kieft) embodies all the romantic male leads and general good guy heores, but primarily Ketlan (played by Chris Hutchens) from the Destiny Trilogy. He really only wears two costumes and the second one is General Studmuffins' costume so it doesn't really count. His main costume had to be 18th century because it's in the script that it coordinates with Periara's ballgown.
Honestly, I would have loved to put him in a pink and white 18th century suit to completely match Periara, but I didn't have one available so...oh well. I originally planned to use the white 18th century outfit that Balthazar (played by Jacob MacLeod) wears in Destiny III but...I couldn't find it. My mother's costume collection was HUGE, vast and disorganized, so it's honestly no surprise I couldn't find it.
I settled for using the purple jacket I restyled for Ketlan's ball outfit in Destiny III since purple is considered to be a "royal color" in European color schemes and Ketlan wore it so...yeah makes perfect sense for Loverboy to wear it too. The vest he's handed to wear in the "future" is actually the same vest that Ketlan wore with the under the purple jacket in Destiny III. Fun fact: the jacket is satin on the outside but so sort of flannel on the inside so I think it's actually a fancy pajama shirt...but...you can't tell that unless you're wearing it and I added gold trim to jazz it up so it's all good.
Under the jacket he's wearing a white "floofy" shirt - as one does under fancy pajama jackets - and a gold and silver vest that has been worn by many other characters over the years and is my go-to vest for the "rich/noble 18th century" look. The brown pants were a
oh-s**t-I-forgot-to-get-pants-for-Loverboy-here-these-brown-ones-will-fit-even-if-they're-too-big-oh-well-they'll-still-work last minute replacement, so there's no meaning attached to them.
One last thing I have to talk about is the crown, I know it's a weird detail, but I purposefully got a cheap looking plastic crown in reference to the crowns I used in the Destiny Trilogy/mini-series. I made the crowns for the first movie and they were falling apart by the end. I used some crowns my mother made from a pattern in the second movie but they were endlessly mocked for looking too much like the crowns from Burger King. I realize now - just now as I'm typing this - that I probably should have just gotten Loverboy a Burger King crown. Dang, missed an opportunity there. I'm sixteen years too late. Oh well.
In Destiny III I spent time and money jazzing up gold cardboard crowns but all the pearls and jewels made them too heavy and they kept flopping around. So I made a big beautiful crown out of paper mache but I didn't bother measuring anyone's head and used too much paper so it was too big, too heavy, and extremely uncomfortable. After that I gave up. Although I bought the cheap plastic crown to make fun of my own versions it actually looked pretty good and I clearly should have bought one for the first movie instead of making my own. Again...oh well.
General Studmuffin (played by Michael Steen) is a combination of all the male villains in the various productions like Balthazar (Destiny Trilogy), General De Carlo (Pandora's Box, played by Chris Hutchens), and Victor Drake (The Gift Bearer, played by Ja'e DeSoto). Obviously I had to have him wearing the Balthazar costume. Unfortunately I couldn't find the Balthazar costume at the time we were filming. That's right, I lost my boyfriend. My mother had just finished costuming a Shakespeare production for a local high school and had no idea where it could be (it turned out to be at the dry cleaners along with the France Wah vest and many other items I couldn't find).
Luckily Mike Steen just so happened to have a black doublet and pants that he wore to Renaissance Festivals so that worked. All I needed to do was add the Balthazar cape and hat and he was good to go! Although I also had trouble finding the Balthazar hat, so I used the one Drake wore in The Gift Bearer. So...I had the Balthazar cape and that was it.
Because Studmuffin is supposed to turn into a good guy at the end, I decided to have him slowly "de-villainize" using his costume. The first scene he's in the full villainous get-up, but in the next scene he shows up without the cape and hat. After that he trades the doublet for a black vest and - of course - the Black Shirt of Death. In the last scene where he's a villain he just has the shirt (and pants and boots of course). To show his change from villain to heroic romantic lead he switches costumes with Loverboy at the end.
Asarina represents the female villains Asarai (played by Annamarie MacLeod in The Dragon & The Unicorn) and Zarina (played by Nina Samii in Pandora's Box). She only has two costumes - the first is a dark red and black ballgown that in theory represents Asarai who had a black, red, green, and gold color scheme but in reality it was an awesome dress that fit the actor so...yeah, gotta use it. Her other outfit was almost the same as the General outfit that Zarina wore in Pandora's Box so there was no subtly there. The shirt and pants were different but they were both black and the tunic and collar were the same. I lost the belt and cuffs otherwise she would have those as well.
When it came to Annamarie's costumes there were some issues. Her main character - Lefflily - was a combination of General Leffridge (Pandora's Box) and Lily (played by Nina Samii in The Dragon & The Unicorn). Her costume was basically the same as Leffridge's costume, but the white shirt had some ruffles and lace and she wore a short white skirt all of which alluded to Lily's innocent heroic-damsel look.
That costume was easy, the problem came when we need to duplicate all the other characters Annamarie had played. In order to defeat the villains, the sisters made their own army by grabbing the characters Annamarie had played out of the other movies. Weird to write, but it worked and was funny. Unlike the other costumes these were supposed to be exactly the same, not just representations or allusions to the costumes.
However, it had been ten years since we the first movie, Destiny, and in that time some of the costumes she wore had been either lost, sold, or were lost-at-the-dry-cleaners. She had also cut her hair and the early "versions" of Annamarie all had long hair so we needed a wig. Melantha's Destiny costume was fine but Lavinia's Destiny II costume had been used for a high school's madrigal group and had not yet been returned. Luckily I had the same fabric that the dress was made of so we turned it into a tunic, threw on the same cloak we used, and hoped the shot would be quick enough that no one would notice the difference. It was not. The difference is staggering. The hair alone is all wrong.
Finesse's outfit from The King of Elflin's Daughter was completely wrong! Not one single piece of her outfit was even close to correct except for the hat. The shirt, vest, pants, and boots that Annamarie had worn were all either lost, sold, or had been so trashed from being used in other productions that they were thrown away (looking at you gray-vesty thing). In the clip of her being taken we used a gray tunic (the same one we used for Lavinia) to fake the top but for some reasons she used a different vest for the Army of Annamarie line up.
Mimi (The Perfect Combination) was supposed to be a little girl and originally had a cute black and white gingham "Shirly Temple" style dress, but that was sold at a costume sale we had in 2005 so...oops. We substituted a black and white check 1950s dress and jacket and if you poke yourself in the eye it kind of works as a substitute.
Captain Vesper's outfit (Mind Games) was pretty easy to recreate despite the fact that the original red blazer had been peed on by a cat and needed to be thrown away long before we filmed CDPGB. I found a blazer at Good Will that was close enough to the dark red color of the original that it would work - unfortunately it was like two sizes too big, but we fixed it with some safety pins and you can't really tell since the shots are quick and far away. It also had none of the patches and insignia the original blazer had. I don't know if they were still on the jacket when it was thrown away or if I took them off or what, either way I couldn't find them when I needed to gussy up the jacket.
Asarai's (The Dragon & The Unicorn) outfit was a black shirt and black and gold vest that a different character wore in the movie but it still fit the style and worked great. Obviously we had Leffridge's costume and since Annamarie still had the same shirts that Katie (The Vigil) and Mary (The Gift Bearer) had worn those outfits were easy to recreate.
Then there's Baste. The scene they kidnap her from is not the scene where she wore the costume she's in - and that costume isn't even correct. It's like a
suggestion of the costume and that's about it. Annamarie didn't have the Baste outfit she wore for the tree scene, but I still wanted her kidnapped from the tree. Not sure why they didn't kidnap her off the horse where she wore the costume we were...referencing, but oh well - hindsight is 20/20. That really would have worked better though because Annamarie couldn't climb the tree while wearing those specific black boots. Why? We'll get to that later.
Anyway, I like the Baste costume we were trying to duplicate - it's actually #3 in the
Top 5 Costumes by popular vote - but it was thrown together with pieces that were mostly missing. The black lace shirt and red tank belonged to Jen Weber who couldn't find them at the time, and I had no idea what happened to the black skirt which might have been Jen's as well. Yes, I raided her closet to cobble together an outfit for Baste - an outfit that turned out to be a fan favorite, so...go me? She also had a turquoise and gold belt that once again had gotten lost.
The only parts I had for the costume were the white leggings and the Egyptian collar necklace. None of the rest of the outfit was correct. We used a random red tank top, turned up the bottom of a longer black skirt to mock the mini-skirt and said "screw everything else, this is good enough". Baste's hair was also not correct, but Annamarie's hair wasn't long enough to braid into the cat-ear-like buns and I had no idea what happened to the necklace we used on her forehead. Although I said "it's close enough" it really wasn't, but it was enough of a suggestion for people who had never seen the original anyway so...it worked?
Now for the boots. The black boots Lefflily wears were gifted to Annamarie after we were done filming Mind Games. I have no idea where they came from, they just showed up in the basement of our house once day and no one else claimed them. I think they were a size 6 which was a little too small for Annamarie, but they looked super cool and shiny so I made her wear them anyway. I can't remember if the problem was that she was wearing two left boots until I found the right one, or if one of the boots was a size 5 and the other a 6 but one of those two things happened and she had to deal with doing a lot running in mismatched boots for part and/or all of Mind Games, so kuddos to Annamarie for being a trouper!
At some point we did get a matching pair which were given to her and she proceeded to wear them in several other productions including as Leffridge (Pandora's Box). The boots were first used in 1998 and by 2006 they had been so used and abused in productions over the years that they were literally falling apart. I think one of the heels was coming apart which made it very awkward for her to stand on the thingy in that scene with the extras and impossible for her to climb a tree with them on. I think they were declared dead after CDPGB wrapped filming.
Throughout the movie there are extras wearing costumes that were used in multiple productions. Some of them were just because I had them (that was the case for "sorting the extras" scene) but some of them were specifically in there to reference other movies. During the ballroom scenes (which are not in a ballroom because I couldn't get access to the Great Hall where we filmed all the Destiny ballroom scenes) the some of the background extras are wearing specific costumes. Annamarie is wearing an outfit very similar to the fancy garb Finesse wore during the Fairy Dance in King of Elflin's Daughter (wait...why didn't we kidnap her from
that scene? oh well), and Jen who is the extra who dies a lot (because she died in multiple films) is wearing a red velvet dress that is either similar to or the same one she wore as Ruby Redd in Frumpy Gets It.
Other deliberate choices were the vests that Minwah and Catlanta are wearing. Catlanta is wearing Turlo's main vest from Pandora's Box and Minwah is wearing Esteban's main vest (and one Asarai wore) from Destiny III. One of the extras in the sorting scene is wearing the robe the Illisharian Musicians wore in Destiny, and another is wearing Dottie's evening dress from The Dragon & The Unicorn. These were deliberately included in the large lot of random costumes I gave to all the extras because I knew someone would probably wear them. There are lots of sashes, hats, accessories, and other little details that have been used multiple times in multiple shows so it's a fun game (for me at least) to figure out what was used in which productions.
Okay, that was A LOT to read, so congrats if you made it through. You either really like costumes or are possibly a masochist. I promise the other entries in this list won't be nearly as long. I got carried away with Cursed Destiny because I wanted to talk about all the references to other productions. I'll try not to get that detailed with the later posts so please keep reading if you're still interested.
#4 - The Gift Bearer
The Gift Bearer is all about time travel so it was a ton of fun to costume. I wanted to do a TV show about time travel specifically so I could use the all the period costumes I had access to. The Silverstone sisters never visited any time periods where I didn't have enough costumes to cover everyone and that was done on purpose. No trips to Ancient Egypt, China, the Ottoman Empire, or many other places I did not have the costumes or sets to cover.
As always I first decided to color code my main characters, something I swore never to do after Pandora's Box but failed. Atlanta, being boyish and tough, had the main color of blue - a notoriusly gendered color that also suited her personality with it's cool tones. She wore a lot of t-shirts and jeans, and dark or bold colors whenever possible. She hates pink with a passion which is why Minerva dresses her in a pink outfit in Episodes 3 & 4. That had nothing to the fact that I did not have a blue outfit in that time period - nothing at all.
But if she hates pink then why was she wearing a pink striped shirt in the first episode? That's because Christine Komiskey got almost literally thrown into the part of Atlanta on the first day of filming wearing whatever she wore to the set that day. She showed up to be crew and the on-set photographer and ended up as one of the lead actors. Poor Christine, that was not something she was prepared for.
Minerva had a more random color palate which fits with her random character. Officially her colors were green and purple but she wore a lot of other ones as well including maroon/burgundy and black. Her style was supposed to be eclectic with flair to match her personality.
Peri, being girly and flirty, wore a lot of pink and sometimes red (again very gendered) as well as the occasional black shirt and/or pants. In general she wore pastel colors whenever possible and had a warm "spring" palate to her clothing choices. She wore stylish shirts and faux leather pants in order to seem more grown up since she was supposed to be 16. The evening gown she wears in Episodes 3 & 4 is very sophisticated and it's clear she's trying too hard. Also I freaking loved that gown and was super happy to finally a have chance to use it.
However, unlike all the other productions on this list, I didn't have complete control over all the clothing choices. Anything takes place in a set time period of a fantasy world allows me total control over the wardrobe, but when the show is set mostly or entirely in the modern world that's not the case. I mean I could buy modern clothes for all the characters multiple wardrobe changes, but then I'd be even more broke them I was. Since the sisters live in the modern world and eventually go to college, at least half of their wardrobe consisted of clothing they owned and I only dealt with the historical/period costumes.
I just now - literally just now - realized I probably should have sat with each one and talked about their wardrobe before we started filming and planned their modern outfits together but I'm twenty years too late to do that now. My bad. Luckily the actors themselves had clothes that tended towards their characters general wardrobe as well so I lucked out. For everyone else it was the same deal - I took care of the historical costumes and they chose the modern clothing from their own wardrobes.
I did insist that all of the Drakes (Victor, Hela, Tez, Loki, and Morgana) wear black clothing when possible in the first season when they were" bad guys". Luckily, Ja'e DeSoto's wardrobe happened to have a lot of black already, including his coat. Hela wears black pants but a red satin shirt when she is introduced in Episode 11 as the sexy villainess and Xavier's past lover since red is often (in the Western world's color palate) associated with love and passion.
Honestly, most of the modern clothing was just "wear what you think your character would wear" which worked most of the time. The one exception was for Season 2 after the Silverstones move in with the Drakes. The Drakes provide clothes to them and I specifically asked the actors to wear something their characters would never wear. I wanted the Drakes to get back at them a bit by providing clothes the Silverstones and Xavier would hate which is why their Season 2 clothing is kind of weird. I should have been more specific but it did get the point across...I think.
The vast majority of the period costumes were "wear what fits and looks good". Although I did my best to go with my general color scheme for the characters in their period costume choices, my options were limited due to distance and size. Luckily a lot of the costumes I brought with me fit the actors well enough.
The problem of distance was that, although my mother had a LOT of costumes, I was filming The Gift Bearer in Southern Illinois - about 200 miles away from her costume collection. I had to bring as many as I could with me when I moved into the dorm and could only get more when I went back to CU for school breaks. I had a single, for my own mental health and the health of any potential roommates (I'm bipolar and was sporadically medicated at the time).
My room was designed as a double so there were two closets - which was good because all of one closet and half of the other were stuffed with costumes. My clothes were shoved in the dresser as much as possible to make room for more costumes. Even with that, however, there were still some costumes missing or that didn't fit and I had to get more or exchange them whenever I would go back to CU.
The problem with size is that I only had a few of the actors cast before I went back to college. I knew that Morgan Thomas and Brittany Ann Whalen would be playing Minerva and Peri respectively but I had no one cast as Atlanta, or Xavier, or Drake. I chose the costumes I wanted to use but also tried to choose ones that were on the larger side when possible. Safety pins can make a costume that's too big fit a smaller person but not the other way around. In the end some of the costumes barely fit the actors or had to be changed or altered. If I had known the sizes of everyone before I went to SIUC I could have costumed accordingly, but I was in the dark until after the auditions. Luckily my mother has costumed a wide range of people so had a good range of sizes to choose from.
The historical scenes looked pretty cohesive and well-rounded in the end, but some where definitely better than others. I relied on accessories like hats, capes, and gloves to cover the holes and hide the problems. I'll talk more about the specific sets of clothing that I put together in another post. I'm sure you can't wait. Reading even longer ramblings about costume details is just what you wanted, right?
#3 - Pandora's Box
Pandora's Box took the longest to film and produced more final product than any other production with a total of 24 half hour episodes taking almost two years to complete. There were a LOT of costumes used and unlike The Gift Bearer and four out of the six other TV shows none of it was set in the modern world. However, I was able to use modern clothing as part of the design which definitely made things easier.
The show is set in a post post-apocolyptic future, about eight hundred years in the future, where everyone wears vests for some reason. I like vests and no where is that more obvious then in this production. The idea of mixing modern and historical stuff together in a way that would work was enticing and the general idea of the show was what if we had horses
and cars (not that we actually had horses of course), used guns
and swords. Rements of modern technology were there, but limited. I wanted the clothing to reflect that...so vests and jeans?
I actually spent a lot of time and thought on the costumes for Pandora's Box. Over the two years of filming I used a lot of the ones available from my mother, of course, but I also bought a
ton of clothing from thrift shops, boutique shops, and even made a few of the outfit items myself. The ones I made often didn't fit well - usually a little two small - and since I never used a real pattern that makes sense. So I learned it was better to buy and borrow clothing rather then make it myself.
My biggest design element for this show, however, was
color. I was very concerned with color and how it reflected both the characters personalities and the overall meaning of the show. Every character had a primary and secondary color. I went
way over board in color-coding the characters, refusing to let them wear any colors that deviated from their assigned palatte with a few - very few - exceptions.
Colors mean
different things in different cultures. Take
red, for example. In the Western World red is seen as a color of passion, war, and sexy/mature love. In some Asian countries, including China, red is a color of luck, joy, and happiness. In Russia, red is the color of beauty. In South Africa, red is the color of mourning and for Celtics red was the color of the afterlife and death.
In general, I always use the Western world's meanings for color because that's what I grew up with. Usually, in America we tend to think that white means innocence and purity, black means evil and bad intentions. If that sounds racist - it is, although I have no idea how intentional it was because I'm not sure how far back these generally accepted color meanings go. I didn't realize how racist it was until I was giving a lecture about costume design to a high school class. When talking about the meaning of colors such as black and white I noticed some African American students looking angry and upset. Suddenly I realized that what I had taken for granted as obvious color choices for good and bad were in fact kind of racist.
So when I was working on the costume design for Pandora's Box where the rebels were the heroes I wanted to flip some "traditional" color meanings and assign new meanings to them. In the Pan Box world white and black are both used by the people in power - the villains of the show - and all the heroes wear lots of color. The general meaning of this is that color is good, black and white are bad. That also works very well with the general theme that the world is not one thing or the other - there really is no "good or bad", there's "us and them" and even that idea has many shades of gray.
If you watch it you will notice that most people in the Empire/Army Faction wear all black or all white as their base clothing. Even characters who wear white or black shirts or other clothing items have some connection to the Empire/Army Faction. Cat sometimes wears black but she was once a part of the Empire's military so it's part of who she was and can't be forgotten. The same is true with De Carlo when he becomes a rebel. Turlo, who was once a noble, sometimes wears white.
I went with the
artistic idea that black is the mix of all colors and white is the absence of color - basically all or nothing. Those who wear white have very little conscience or understanding of right and wrong. White and pastels are also the colors of nievity and ignorance. Those who wear black understand everything but choose to ignore their conscience for the sake of power. Black, in this show, represents death and the power that death holds so black is seen as a color of power along with gold for obvious reasons.
In this show white is also associated with royalty and nobility which is why Zarina wears only white and silver when she is the princess and later empress. When Zarina is kicked out of power and abandoned by everyone she wears color for the first time - green which is a color of nature and rebirth - and in her life with Thebe she wears lots of colors. After Thebe dies and Zarina joins the Army Faction in disguise she spends the rest of the show wearing black and gold once she climbs to the rank of general, the colors of power.
I wanted their clothing to reflect their personalities using their color. Zarina was a spoiled princess-turned-Empress and her elegant gowns with weird details reflected that. Some of her outfits looked nice but a lot were strange and it was clear no one was willing to tell her that big puffy sleeves and lots of lace were not fashionable anymore. Her "transitional" outfits when she was with Thebe were soft, flowery, and peasant styles - a complete opposite from her previous wardrobe. In her climactic confrontation scene with Thebe she's once again wearing black and white. Her later clothing was obviously miliaristic since she was a general in the army.
Cat's primary color was red and secondary color was black. Her full name is Catalina Crims and obviously her last name is a reference to her color - crimson. I chose red not to symbolize passion in terms of sexiness or maturity, but to symbolize anger and blood. Cat's past is drenched in blood and her hands will always be stained with it, and her recklessness and emotional instability at times gets her (and everyone else) into trouble.
Her clothing was both utilitarian and somehow piratical? She was a rebel, after all. Most of her outfits were bold yet simple. Her outfits reflected her current state of mind as well and were more simple and relaxed when she was. She wasn't one to dress up and only wears a skirt/dress four times in the whole show.
The first time is in a flashback scene in Episode 4 when she is dressed up in a black and white gown for an Imperial banquet. In Episode 15 she is wearing a beautiful red and purple evening gown that Margaret provided herself, and in Episode 16 we see her wearing her wedding dress which is a red velvet with cream brocade and lots of beading, embroidery, and flowers. It's not very Cat but at the same time it works since it's her wedding.
The one outfit she wore that I hate and really wish I could redo is what she wears at the end of Episode 11 when she reunites with De Carlo after he joins the rebels. She's wearing a white blouse with little puffed sleeves and white satin roses as well as a long black floral skirt. It was supposed to symbolize her nievity and lack of relationship experience as well as give her a softer, more femine look but it just makes it look like she's trying too hard or that someone else dressed her. Either way it doesn't work.
Diyara was the innocent ingenue and the Chosen One of the druids, so I chose green for her primary color and pink for her secondary color. In general, green symbolizes nature and rebirth and pink is seen as girlish and immature so I kept those meanings since it fit her perfectly. The scenes were she is acting more innocent or niave are the scenes where she is in pale colors and the more strong she is the darker the shades of green are.
Overall she wore long, flowing gowns with ruffles or flowers, and lots of chiffon. She also wore flowers and wreaths in her hair. Only twice did she wear pants - once in Episode 13 and during the final fight in Episode 24, because I wanted to show battle-ready maturity and because it's just not practical to fight in a skirt. She does also wear lavender a few times too and yellow once but mostly because I really like those dresses despite the color.
Zarconia Gold was a thief who loved glitz and glamor but didn't actually have any real fashion sense. Her primary color was yellow/gold (obviously) and her secondary color was...well, every other color. To say she was colorful was an understatement. She wore as much bold colors and patterns as she could and they often clashed. Her red and black striped tights were her signature item that she almost always wore along with as many stolen accessories as she could get. Bright, vibrant, bold patterns and colors suited her sunny and funny personality. I've often described her as looking like a pineapple stir-fry. I'll talk more about her fantastic wardrobe in a later post (you have been warned).
General De Carlo's primary color is Black and his secondary is gold, until he becomes a rebel then his primary color changes to purple and his secondary becomes black. Obviously his general uniform symbolizes his power as one of the strongest warriors in the Imperial Army and is basically an inversion of Zarina's white and silver combo when he serves as her glorified sidekick.
During his nightmare sequence in Episode 11 he loses his uniform, then his plain black clothes change into pure white ones symbolizing his ignorance and lack of concience and understanding when it comes to right and wrong in serving Zarina.
Once he becomes a rebel his wardrobe changes. Technically he didn't become a rebel just to get with Cat, the only love of his life, but it was definitely a huge bonus. He is a very co-dependent person who needs to be needed by someone. He was devoted to the military and Cat, when he had to choose he chose the military and Zarina, then chose Zarina over the military for...reasons.
When he leaves Zarina and joins the rebels he instantly attaches himself to Cat and in a way goes from being Zarina's sidekick to Cat's sidekick. Although I prefer to think of Cat and Darion as equal partners, it's true that she's in change and he supports her. His wardrobe actually reflects that because it's basically the same as Cat's style except with purple instead of red. Even their wardrobe pairs up.
I chose blue for Turlo's primary color and pale or faded purple as his secondary color, although I stop using that color on him when De Carlo joins them. Blue is generally associated with calmness, coldness, and sometimes logic, All reasons why it has been traditionally associated with boys in the Western world as girls are seen as emotional and boys are viewed as logical. That's total BS, I know, but I thought that the calm and cool color of blue did work really well for the practical, scientific, and even-tempered Turlo. Plus I was starting to run out of colors. The fact that he's the only guy in a group of girls for like 10 episodes has nothing to do with him being assigned a traditionally male color, I promise.
He doesn't wear purple very much but when he does it's mostly either faded or pale because he's a fallen noble (ie was kicked out of the aristocracy) and purple is considered a color of royalty in the Western world. And then there's Turlo's wardrobe. *sigh* Turlo's costumes were not great because I made some bad costuming choices earlier on and only by the end did his costumes get better. I'll be talking about the bad choices I made when costuming Zarina and Turlo's in a latter post.
Those are the primary characters and their primary colors. There's a lot of other fun costumes the secondary characters and guest-stars wear like Brother Bob's monk outfit and Cordero's King of Cutthroats garb. The Royals and the Underworld have their own color schemes, but this post is too long already so I won't get into it here. There's also deep meaning and symbolism behind General Leffridge's outfit, but I covered that in the Character 101 post about her, so you can read the reasons why the most powerful soldier in the Empire dressed like a cupcake here.
The main way I approached the other costumes was in a general hierarchy of tops and bottoms. Soldiers, warriors, and those who love fighting and killing wear tunics and pants. Rebels and those who are willing to fight but would rather find other solutions wear vests and pants. Those who do not want to fight and would rather make peace wear robes, dresses or skirts. Also, cloaks are for everyone regardless of rank or murderous intent, especially for those extras who are main actors in disguise.
There's one other costume I want to talk about because it's probably misunderstood. Most of the soldiers wear a black shirt and pants under a tunic of some kind , but General Leffridge wears a white shirt and pants. Her tunic is peach with silver sparkled lace over it and she wears silver collar, belt, and cuffs with gold and jewels on the collar and belt. She looks like a barbie doll who decided to join the army on a whim. She really does kinda look like a cupcake. This costume choice may seem silly but it was actually quite deliberate. There are three reasons I chose this color scheme. First, the all white base clothes and silver accessories is a direct challenge to Zarina as next in line for power. Zarina wears silver and white, and although it's never stated in the TV show those colors are reserved for the heir to the throne. Second, despite the army being open to women and having an official matriarchy, showing feminity is still discouraged in the ranks. The army wants equality in the form of making everyone adhere to more traditionally masculine attire - the tunics of medieval knights. Leffridge is actively showing off her femininity with her color choice. She has no problem being fierce, strong, and feminine all at the same time. She can fight off an army of rebels and look pretty while doing it.
The third reason she dresses like a cupcake is because of the disconnect it would cause to her enemies. If you see a woman running at you who is dressed in white and pink like a cupcake-baking Barbie doll literally covered in blood while waving a sword in one hand and a gun in the other and screaming a battle cry, wouldn't you be terrified? Leffridge is a truly strong, independent woman who embraces her gender rather then try to hide or dismiss it like Cat, and uses it to her advantage on the battlefield to terrify her enemies. "I am woman, hear me roar," would be her second catchphrase, right after "5 feet of cold terror, 110lbs of death".
Wow that was long. If you're still reading major kudos and I really do swear the next two won't be quite as long as the previous three!
Okay, maybe the last one will be long, but the next one won't be!
#2 - Spoon River Anthology
Spoon River Anthology is a collection of poems by Edgar Lee Masters about a small (fictional) town in central Illinois. All of the poems are by people in a graveyard telling their stories of life and death. Although the poems were first published in 1914, they are about people who grew up and died in the past 50 years or so. Any productions of Spoon River Anthology (stage or screen) set the show in the mid-late Victorian (1850s-1890s) era so I went with that as well, though I mostly used costumes from the 1870s-1880s.
This pick actually surprised me, however, because I didn't do that much work designing it compared to other productions. I put in a lot more thought for the costumes for the Spoon River Anthology segment I filmed for WILL-TV in 2007. Although it was completely set in historical times I didn't have as many costume options for this production as I previously did and was more concerned with the little clothing I had fitting everyone then really representing the characters.
Over the years we had been able to convince my mother to part with a few of her costumes in order to make room for more. We lived in the Homestead and even though her costume storage and sewing rooms took up the entire 3rd floor (6 rooms) as well as the multiple rooms in the basement, she was still running out of space. Thanks to the help of my friends, we managed to do a costume sale sometimes in 2004 or 2005 - which is where we sold the Mimi dress from The Perfect Combination.
Then in the fall of 2012 I convinced my mother to clear out a bit of room in one of her two storage units by selling some fantasy and steampunk style clothing at ChambanaCon (a sci-fi/fantasy convention). Between both sales we probably
got rid of loving parted with a couple hundred costumes, hats, shoes, and other props and accessories. That sounds like a lot but it was maybe 10% of her stock - if that. Probably more like 5% honestly.
In the summer of 2015, after my mother had been officially retired from costuming for three years, we (my sister and I) finally convinced her to give away/sell the remainder of her hoard of costumes. Although we had sold about 5-10% in the past, the costumes had multiplied since then (somehow increasing even after my mom officially quit...not sure how that happened). They had been living in two large and expensive storage units for almost ten years (ever since we moved out of the Homestead in 2007). My parents needed to cut back on their expenses and since the storage units costs a minimum of $4k a year we had to let at least one of them go.
It was bittersweet, but we held the Great Costume Giveaway and the vast majority of the wonderful costumes I grew up with and used in most SFF's productions were given good homes to people in the community who did costumes for high schools and community theaters. In my opinion, it's much better that they be used in the community they were acquired for then left to rot in a storage unit.
However, this did have put me at quite a disadvantage the next time I needed a bunch of costumes for a period production. I do, of course, have my own personal supply of costumes that I keep in giant container tubs, but it's much more limited and historically diverse. I had to purchase costumes for the first time in ten years. Luckily I had the internet and was able to acquire some nice period clothing at reasonable prices. I also still had some shirts, skirts, and vests that were time-period approriate and I had a bunch of bonnets and hats so I was able to make it work.
Both Annamarie and Michelle MacLeod, who played Edith Conant and Hannah Armstrong respectively, made their own costumes for the first film shoot in 2016. Morgan Thomas who played Mrs. Sibley, as well as Eric R. Patrick provided their own as well so I did not have to worry about any of them. For everyone else I considered the characters and did my best with what I had.
Lucius Atherton (played by Mark MacLeod) is a faded and fallen playboy so his clothes were faded, basic, and looked poor. Barney Hainsfeather (played by Daniel Zangerl) ran a dry goods store so he was probably well off and got a nice vest and a black jacket. Julia Miller (played by Christi Gerrish) is a middle-aged woman who married a much older man for shameful reasons but I decided she married a pretty wealthy guy and dressed her in a very nice jacket and ruffled shirt and skirt combo.
Zilpha Marsh (played by Brittany Ann Whalen) is a teacher who also communicated with spirits so I wanted something that would work for both. When Brittany was too tired to participate in filming for The Hill, Katie Johnson took over both her lines and her costume. I added a bonnet and the costume for Zilpha Marsh was now the costume for Dorcus Gustine. Hats are magic.
The costume for Syndi Eller, who played Elizabeth Childers, was a little difficult. She was an unusual size already and had recently had a baby but most of what I had available was either two big or two small - she was right in the middle of the size gap in my costume wardrobe. I had some Edwardian clothes that, while a little later historically then I was going for could have worked, except they were either too big, too fancy, or too cheerful for the character given the somber subject matter in Elizabeth Childer's poem. I settled for a pink taffeta skirt that wouldn't be seen much (and since it would be black and when I didn't mind the color) and a black jacket that still ended up being way too large. I took it in with pins, but it still looked a little off. Oh well. I added a bonnet to hide her short hair and although it wasn't great it worked well enough.
Rachel Anderson and Jen Weber were essentially extras for The Hill, but I did give them the names of other characters in Spoon River Anthology in the credits. Jen, as Faith Matheny, was stuck in a random shirt/skirt/bonnet combo that look nice and was probably fairly comfortable but the shirt was blaringly white in the sunlight so...oh well. Rachel Anderson, as Marie Bateson, actually wore a dress that had been used in every production of Spoon River I have ever seen on both stage and screen. It was one of the dresses that survived the Great Giveaway because it was made for my sister. Unfortunately it's dark, heavy and does not breathe so I'm sure it was quite uncomfortable to wear.
In 2018 we filmed five more poems and I faced the same situation with the costumes, only with less people to worry about. This time Annamarie was playing Aner Clute, a wealthy madam/prostitute and her clothing reflected that with a fancy outfit, big hat, and fur stole, and other accessories. Not gonna lie, Aner Clute's costume is my favorite of all the Spoon River costumes. It just looked so awesome and so perfect for the character. Go me.
*pats self on back*Wendell P. Bloyd (played by Drew Thomas) was an educated man and an athetist so I put him in a black and white period looking suit, nice but not super fancy. It was actually sold as a sheriff's costume, but I don't think you can tell without the badge. When we filmed Drew in the 2016 version of The Hill he was dressed in the same costume but had a black coat over it. He was worried that since his hair looked really different 18 months later it would look bad on film, so he choice to wear a wig while for Wendell P. Bloyd. Guess that means he was official someone else in the 2016 version of The Hill? Whatever, it worked out well and I think he looked great regardless of his hair color and style.
George Gray (played by Eric Patrick) is an indecisive man and luckily Eric already had a costume that worked for him quite well. Eric and Morgan both really like steampunk which is why they had a couple of Victorian costumes lying around. Eric wore a dark shirt and vest, but no jacket which is a strange look with his top hat, but it kinda works for the indecisive George Gray.
Jen Weber was very tall and very pregnant at the time (she's still tall btw, but no longer pregnant - it would be very worrisome if she was) so her character, Margaret Fuller Slack, ended up wearing the most size-adjustable period jacket I owned and the tallest skirt I had (which was actually a 16th century skirt made to go over large hip-pads, which is why it was so long), and a bonnet to cover her short hair.
Morgan Thomas played Nancy Knapp the wife of a respectable farmer who loses everything. Originally she was supposed to wear the outfit she had brought with her but she forgot a crucial piece and was only able to wear the skirt. I had a spare blouse and was able to throw on a shawl with definitely gave her a "farmer's wife" look and in the end I liked that better then her original costume.
When I was editing all the poems together in 2021 I realized that I was missing some lines from the ensemble poem The Hill. Luckily I had a teenage niece nearby, so I did my usual and
kidnapped her asked her if she would be willing to film the missing lines and
without waiting for an answer after she agreed I threw her into a costume and pushed her in front of the camera in the backyard. I had even less costume options to work with since the little that remained of my mother's costumes was in storage in Illinois and I now live in Texas. Thankfully my personal costume stash had a few items that would work and I bought a bonnet online and trimmed it up before filming. Since I wasn't in a graveyard I knew I would only be shooting her from the chest up so I didn't need to worry about the lower half, only the top. What I came up with worked surprisingly well, although the bonnet was kind of troublesome. Despite being filmed in a different season and location the footage blended pretty once it was in black in white.
I think what makes Spoon River Anthology place second in overall costume design is that the costumes blend very well together. None of the costumes really stand out which means I did my job as costume designer very well. I was about 90% certain I wanted to have the final video in black and white so I paid more attention to texture and patterns then color, so I think that also worked out well in the end.
Okay, I lied. That post was longer then I thought it would be.
#1 - Destiny II
Although Spoon River Anthology was a surprise for second place, the first place winner doesn't surprise me at all. I still consider Destiny II one of my best costume designs for a production. It checks all the boxes with meaningful color symbolism, adding to the atmosphere, and as much historical accuracy as is needed in a fantasy story.
Destiny was generally set in the 18th century in Liliya, but I wanted Traldon look like it was old fashioned so I had Balthazar's costume be from the 17th century. The frame plot of Destiny II is set right after the first movie so the characters are still in 18th century outfits (having taken back the 17th century kingdom and bringing fashion into the 18th century.)
However, the majority of the movie is a big flashback so takes place in a Traldon before Ketlan, the hero of Destiny, was born so I wanted it to have an older feel to it. With the medieval looking Great Hall of Wesley United Methodist Church available for us to film in, I wanted to use the rich, dark colors of a pseudo-medieval world as my inspiration. The film itself deals with a darker subject - the murder of Ketlan's parents - King Ferdinand and Queen Lavinia, so I wanted the general mood and atmosphere to reflect that.
Luckily I had access to not just my mother's costume stash, but also to all the Madrigal costumes at my high school (yes, I was still in high school when I was filming this), including costumes my mother had redesigned/reworked from my high school's supply. Whether she is building a costume from scratch or reworking an old one, all the work she does is amazing. Mary Stasheff is truly and incredibly talented costumer. In general Madrigal costumes are set anywhere from the 14th to the 16th century.
Madrigal clothing took care of about 85% of the costumes I needed and since they were all made to blend together as a group for the Madrigal singers, they blended together well for the movie. The other 15% of the costumes were a little more difficult and a lot more symbolic.
Queen Lavinia is from a kingdom called Akaya and offically married King Ferdinand in a political marriage (although they also happened to be in love). The first flashback takes place at their wedding and although everyone else is dressed in the medieval/madrigal attire she is wearing a white tunic and a red and gold veil - the colors and style of a Roman wedding outfit. It's clear she is from a much culture, one that wears Greco-Roman clothing.
From then on whenever Lavinia is in public, like at the ball, she dresses like everyone else in the court. However, when she is in private she wears the clothing she is more comfortable in - the tunics and styling of her Greco-Roman home. Her color palate is pastels, primarily blue, also she does wear a peach robe, a greenish-blue tunic, and a lavender dress at one point. Akaya is an island kingdom so it makes sense for her to wear a lot of blue, but blue is also a calm color, often associated with intelligence and sometimes creativity.
Her sidekick is a fairy named Erion who leaves Akaya and joins Lavinia in Traldon after Lavinia's wedding. Erion's comfortable clothing is her Greco-Roman fairy dress, but when she is among the Traldon court acting as Lavinia's Lady-in-Waiting she dresses like everyone else and wears period garb.
This Greco-Roman design element sets them both apart as foreigners who come from a more fantasy-like land full of fairies and magic. It reminds the audience that Lavinia is a foreigner from a strange place and isn't like everyone else in Traldon. She blends in when she needs to, but never loses her connections to her home or her own identity as an individual.
After Lavina uses her magic amulet to see the future she decides to allow herself die in order to save her son - sounds strange but yes, that's how it works out. She goes to Esteban to tell him what the future holds and makes him promise to save her son and smuggle him out of Traldon that night before he can be assassinated. Until this scene we have never seen Lavinia in her Greco-Roman garb outside of her dressing-room and the Queen's apartment after her wedding.
But here she dresses up in the most regal and royal outfit from her home kingdom that she has. Dripping with diamonds and jewels in a rich teal and pale blue tunics, with a magnificent diadem as well as her crown, she looks very powerful and in control. She is not bowing to the traditions of Traldon anymore and is seizing the future in the only way she knows how - using the magic and knowledge she gained from her native kingdom. She is not dressing up as a power move to flex on Esteban, however, she is dressing up in the outfit she will die in. This is her beautiful funeral garb. She is preparing to take control of the future - she is preparing for her own death.
I also want to talk briefly about her hair. Annamarie wears a wig that is similar to her own hair color, although it's more auburn then her natural shade. I've always pictured Lavinia with dark red hair but, despite her plethora of costumes my mom did not have a lot of wigs. Why did I make her wear a wig? Two reasons: 1 - so she would look different than Melantha since she was playing a different but also major character and 2 - because I would be able to style it ahead of time. Melantha mostly wore her hair down, so I wanted Lavinia to mostly wear her hair up.
I also wanted to do the elaborate decoration that Roman women often wore with diadems, flowers, pearls, and/or ribbons. This had the unintended effect of making the wig rather heavy and even more uncomfortable to wear then a normal wig. But I would never have been able to style her hair on set because I never have time to do anything other then direct (and complain), so using a wig just made sense. The actors nicked it "the rat" but I still think it looked nice.
The only other costumes that are not madrigal based are Balthazar's pirate garb and Gergio's peasant outfit in the tavern scene, Ferdinand's blue doublet set and cloak, the 18th century maid outfits in the final scene, and of course Erion's costume when she pretends to be the bungling thief Ned who befriend's Esteban. Ned's outfit is completely anachronistic and was basically me throwing beads at the wall until an outfit emerged.
The scenes with the Traldon court have a dark and rich color palate with jewel tones. I wanted to give a lighter color palate to the scenes with Lavinia and Erion. Although I didn't officially color code these characters like I did with others later on I tended to use certain colors and styles on characters whenever possible. Lavinia as I said, wears blue while Erion wore pale or dark green depending on the setting - pale as a "greek" fairy, dark as a "medieval" human. King Ferdinand wore reds and blues - red for power and blue to match Lavinia. I put Esteban in earth tones like brown and green due to his poor treatment and his down-to-earth attitude.
I put Lord Geoffrey and Balthazar in as shades of gold, silver, and purple - a color historically reserved only for royalty (in Europe) which shows how much they think of themselves and their plans for taking over the throne. Of course, they also wore black as well or darker colors to represent their villianousness. Is that a word? Villianousness? Well, I guess it is now.
The only royal to wear purple is Gergio who is working with Lord Geoffrey and Balthazar to overthrow the King. His ball outfit is a dark purple tunic/coat, with black and gold embellishments. Later on, in the second half of the movie Esteban wears a light purple outfit trimmed in gold. I could lie and say that it was symbolic for him being accepted into the royal family despite not actually being a royal himself, but the truth is that I just really liked that outfit and wanted to make sure it was used.
I also made sure to put the bullied and abused Esteban in duller, and less decorated clothing in the first half of the movie so that he would look poorer next to Balthazar who I made sure to dress in elaborate and expensive looking clothes. Even the child actors are dressed up in costumes that show that difference. Balthazar is favored, Esteban is despised.
For the final fight between them I had to match their outfits at the beginning of Destiny since the end of the flashback scenes lead right into the opening credits. I still had Balthazar's outfit, part of which was supplied by Jacob & Annamarie but for some reason I couldn't find the gray velveteen doublet Esteban had worn. It was tight and very uncomfortable so it was probably just as well that it went missing. I also decided not to use the lace collar because it just didn't work for a sword fight. I substituted a long vest for the doublet that looked similar, except it had no sleeves and was a bit rattier around the edges where the sleeves should have been. I understand it was much more comfortable though and it had the bonus effect of mirroring Balthazar's clothing. It was basically a lighter version of Balthazar's dark outfit, which was a very nice combination for a fight between two brothers.
The overall dark and medieval design blends with the setting and the tone of the film, and the lighter parts involving magic have a lighter look to them. All of that works together to make this the production with the Best Costume Design. This was only the second production I ever filmed. Guess I peaked too soon.
Okay, so that was A LOT of random information about costumes. If you made it through all of that you are either a Saint, a Masochist, or REALLY love costumes as much as me. As a reward for reading it all I will design a costume just for you! I won't make it, I'll just draw you a design. Leave a comment below and let me know which period and/or genre you want your costume to be from!
