Costume Illustration | lily-designs

Costume Ideas

These are costume designs drawn up during my three years at Wimbledon College of Arts and a few after graduation. I enjoyed what a wide variety of genres we were given to look into and the freedom we had to explore the different angles we could approach a play with. Sometimes we could re-interpret a play for ourselves, for example imagining a whole new location or time period.

Valerian (Directed by Luc Bresson)

Thanks to the 'Talenthouse' website, my Wimbledon friends and I were alerted to this design opportunity. Even though there are probably thousands of designs sent in it was still lots of fun to do as design practice.

The information provided was: "Aspiring artists, fashion and costume designers from around the world are invited to design a costume for the upcoming film Valerian and The City of A Thousand Planets from visionary writer/director Luc Besson.

Designers are asked to create a piece that could be worn by a human, alien, humanoid or any other intergalactic creature you can think of. The scene for which you are designing will take place at a political cocktail party inside a space station called Alpha and the year is 2580".

I had originally planned to design a futuristic women's cocktail dress but then the website posted a note that they were looking for more suggestions for men and aliens. This was a much more challenging idea but I thought I'd have a go.

I took a lot of inspiration from the traditional robes of a Venetian Doge in Renaissance Venice. I was trying to convey a sense of continuity and stability by recalling a powerful figure who is already part of human history, ruling centuries ago.

I hope that the scale of the robes and the excess of fabric creates a sense of dominance and authority, showing that power derives from lineage.

The Seagull by Anton Chekov

Peter Sorin	Eugene Dorn	Eugene Dorn
Ilia Shamraeff	Irina Arkadina	Irina Arkadina
Masha	Masha	Nina Zarietchnaya
Constantine Treplieff	Constantine Treplieff	Paulina
Paulina

Dance Project

'Suspension', choreographed by May O'Donell 1943)

For this project we were required to choose a dance piece choreographed in the 20th century and modernise the costumes if we believed they looked dated. I chose to make the costumes as abstract as possible so there is more focus on the dance movements and less on the context.