Emily State
Designer
Costume Portfolio
For my first year project I made a 19th century Victorian crinoline dress inspired by the portrait of Empress Eugenie andher ladies in waiting by Winterhalten. This dress is based on the attire of Countess De Montebello. As part of this project I had to make victorian underwear including bloomers, a chemise, a corset and a crinoline cage. The dress skirt is made up of three tiers of faced scollops.
Using the 1940's and 50's sex symbol Gypsy Rose Lee as a muse, this project was all about glamour. My theme for this dress was tattoos. I carried out a lot of research into vintage tattoo style and tattooed ladies in side shows. This lead me to design a dress that resembled a tattooed body. The section I am most proud of on this costume is the beaded koi carpe
Having been an admirer of Tim Burton's work for years I thouroughly enjoyed this second year sourcing project. The poem myself and Mandana Pourtahmasbi had to work around was Voodoo Girl. Rather than sticking to Tim's original character illustration, we twisted the poem to make Voodoo Girl a naïve young woman exploiting herself and having no clue of the consequences.
Gaja is a large scale puppet I made and designed for the Ark of the Animals production.
My design project in first year was Precious Cargo inassociation with Scarborough Museum and their charms exhibition that they hosted. With themes of British folk law and the Victorian superstitions, this was an extremely fun project to indulge in creating grotesque characters. Annie, as I named her, is a wicked owner of a Victorian apothecary and wears various charms to protect her from the perils of 19th century illnesses. 2011-2012 ~ Photographer Ruth Webster~ Model Emma Renard
Using the 1940's and 50's sex symbol Gypsy Rose Lee as a muse, this project was all about glamour. My theme for this dress was tattoos. I carried out a lot of research into vintage tattoo style and tattooed ladies in side shows. This lead me to design a dress that resembled a tattooed body. The section I am most proud of on this costume is the beaded koi carpe
New Age Calamity Jane As much as I adore the Hollywood musical of Calamity Jane, Iwanted to update it by giving the script a future post apocalyptic twist. Calamity is a strong, independent woman who is struggling with her gender identity. I hoped that applying post apocalyptic themes would provoke the need for environmental change now. This entire costume is sculpted from no new materials, but from found objects instead. 2013- 2014 ~ Photographer Emily State ~ Model Amba Illingworth
I chose to design around David Bowie's concept album "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders fromMars", transforming it into a contempory rock opera.Ziggy and his band mates are to spread a word of hope in a time of darkness for the Earthlings. The message, however, is smothered by Ziggy's excessive indulgence in a rock & roll life. He is submerged in a whirlwind of narcotics and sex, hurtling towards his own self destruction. 2013- 2014 ~ Photo Emily State ~ Model Daniel Jeffrey