Ellie Finch

This week saw the annual performance costume show at Edinburgh College of Art. This show stopping costume of 'Marian' is by Ellie Finch designed for 'The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood' by Howard Pyke.
The English folktale is retold in contemporary Mexico focussing on the economic inequality and rise in violence due to the drug trade. Marian's headpiece is adorned with syringes and poppies that are reflected in the kaleidoscopic design of her full skirt which is a complex pattern of syringes, machine guns, and cannabis leaves.

Laura Rose Moran-Morris II

'Dóchas, 'The Morrigan and Tualtha' A fairytale from future earth, inspired by Irish Mythology. Tuathla, the Demi Goddess overcomes obstacles battling The War Goddess The Morrigan, in a love story crossing parallel universes. This magical fantasy world is brought to life in an immersive, outdoor promenade experience.' Laura Rose Moran-Morris   

Laura's winged costumes had elements of puppetry, for the manipulation of the wings. Both costumes were incredibly intricate and beautiful with fantastic attention to detail.

"The War Goddess is a deadly and seductive in her leather corset and laser cut feathered wings. Tauthla's magical bones shimmer and under a knotted molded leather bodice piece. A warrior deeply connected to nature, her head dress represents  this with resin cast horns and preserved flowers." Laura Rose Moran-Morris

Lily Bailie

Above: Photo: Laurence Winram

This is Lily Bailie's opulent menacing costume representing the twisted relationship between religion and violence in Northern Ireland. Golden vestments printed with the paraphernalia of church and terrorist, entwined in beguiling patterns, a soup of misused wealth and power encrusted with golden soldiers.
This is a terrifying costume full of accepted tradition and belief, with sinister almost invisible undertones of terror and war.

Eilidh Bass

Above: Photo: Laurence Winram
Eilidh Bass created two amazingly crazy costumes for 'The Magic Roundabout', as her graduation project for performance costume at ECA,  with Florence's dress featuring a mechanical revolving roundabout.

Above: details from Florence's costume, Below: Dougal. 

"I visited The Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in Coventry to see an exhibition entitled; 'The Story of Children's Television'. I was inspired to highlight the variety of design seen thoughout this genre. I wanted to recreate a bygone era. This interpretation also aims to allow both children and adults to recognise the importance of the development of children's television in our expanding multi media society. Finishing with a sprinkling of magic from Zebedee, all that is left to say is, 'Time for bed'." Eilidh Bass

Lydia Hann II

Details of Lydia Hann's 'Wooden Maria' by Carol-Ann Duffy. This costume a dress has digital prints of carp hand embellished with sequins.

"Maria is a princess in trouble, running from an unwanted engagement, with the help of four impossible dresses. A 1950's crinoline provides unexpected buoyancy as she sets sail with the help of the glittering fishes. Combining digital textiles with the glamorous silhouette hints at otheworldliness, contrasting with Maria's scrappy pragmatic personality."

Megan Gallacher

Megan Gallacher's 2nd year ECA costume for the 'L'enfant et les Sortileges' was a grandfather clock that featured a massive surreal collaged head piece, which managed to look incredibly contemporary whilst also reflecting costume/ animation through history.

Zoe Longbottom II

Above details of Zoe Longbottom's crocodile costume for Peter Pan and below (photograph by Laurence Winram) the full costume modeled by Bejoy Sanjeev. This costume and mask, featured clock elements to visualise the theme of time andreference time standing still in Neverland.

Zoe Longbottom I

This is Zoe Longbottom's mermaid costume for Peter Pan. Zoe's adaptation in costume is set in a post apocalyptic world, which twists the perspective of the story imagining Peter as the evil spirit who steals children and takes them to Neverland. Her mermaid was a statuesque punk of the 1980's with armored shoulder pads and the accentuated hips and skirt length carrying the impression of a tail. 

Above: detail of shoulder pad, below details of sequined tail scales. 

Amanda Rathney-Quinn

A stunning bejeweled bird with jewel tears by second year ECA performance costume student; Amanda Rathney-Quinn.

"The nightingale is a minor character from the 1925 Colette and Ravel Children’s opera; L’enfant et les Sortilages. She is a frail and fragile character who sings for the dragonfly’s loss. She is specified to be played by the same actress as the princess.The unitard and cap portion of the costume is made up of a grey one-way-stretch polyester velveteen, heated from the back to created a crinkling texture across the areas of the costume I wanted to draw attention to, such as the calves and the head. The beading is made up of apatite, amazonite, pale rose quartz and opalite chip beads along with 1mm clear and peach seed beads. 34 swavorski sun-catcher are used across the torso under the ruff and at the end of the tears. The whole costume is covered with 4mm flatback iridescent plastic gems and 5mm flat back mock-pearls in iridescent pale blue and white. LEDs are used behind the eyes to give the character a slight sparkle. The overall style of the costume is based off traditional commedia dell’arte style theatre blended with a stylistic but non-abstract interpretation of a Chinese nightingale. I think the most important aspect of the costume was that it read very clearly as a bird since the opera is intended for young children, but also that it communicated the character as a pretty, sensitive and feminine figure in the opera." Amanda Rathney-Quinn.

Yan Smiley

"In this project, I explored the character of Roy Lichtenstein. Through study, I unveiled traits of ignorance, innocence, and curiosity towards the female and her body. These said characteristics are often found expressed in his work. The costume embodies this curious nature, through performance the audience is encouraged to engage in their own curiosity- whilst simultaneously realising HIS fascination with the human form. With reference to puppetry, robotics and Lichtenstein's graphic outlining, the figure is divided, disjointed, enlarged and multiplied- to create a new manufactured figure. All this is obscured by the large fluid form, with detailing inspired by his 'drowning girl' and natural landscapes. It is the human emotion and depth he could never grasp." Yan Smiley

Lydia Hann

Above: photograph by Christina Kai-lan Arbenz, Below: photograph by Laurence Winram 

Lydia Hann 's costume creations from a project based on 'Galoshins'; a Scottish folk play tied to the Halloween and Hogmanay tradition of guising. The costumes are created to look naive and homespun. Exaggerated silhouettes old knitting and masks conceal the players identity from his audience.

Above: Lydia's model Elspeth Chapman relaxing between shows in her base layer of body morphing costume.

Yona Lesger

Yona Lesger created 'The Mummy' modeled by Jack Summerhayes. "The Mummy", an ancient Egyptian mummy is released in 1890s Great Britain to revenge the uncovering of the grave of his beloved High Priestess. 

Kharis’ mummified costume has a mask built up on a fencing mask base. The main costume consists of dyed linens wrapped in Ancient Egyptian patterns to recreate the look of aged, Egyptian mummies as accurately as possible. The fabric has been broken down with aquasuede to suggest dried mud. 

Klara Landin Larsson I

Klara Landin Larsson is currently in the second year of Performance Costume at ECA and this was her fantastic frog costume. I am looking forward to seeing what she creates over the next few years as she progresses through her degree.

"The frog costume is made as a padded body suit. That means, there's one layer of skin tight lycra onto which I have sewn layer upon layer of wadding and foam, (I'd estimate I used about 5 meters of wadding in total). This whole process was very much more like sculpting than tailoring since there was no set way of doing it. The top layer is one layer of disperse dyed mesh on top of another layer of lycra, which was draped on the final wadding shape and then sewn together." Klara Landin Larsson

Klara's model relaxing between shows. 

Claudia Johns II

"Witches could be anywhere at any time and have the aim to rid the world of children and their characteristics; fuss, mess and other fun things creating a more ordered, clinical and controlled world. Taking inspiration from constructivist art and Advance Style Blogs an all female army has been formed to recreate the traditional witch stereotype. A minimalist symbol of recognition has been developed for a contemporary camouflage representing the witches aim of mass control and capture creating a netlike skeletal world map."

Other traits are the angular and pointed elements used within the costume design acting as strange limb-like appendages that can be used mid-performance when trying to camouflage themselves and a strong, bold colour pallet with tactile layers to lure the children in." Claudia Johns