Spectacular designs at dazzling costume show
Colourful characters from a female wrestling group, a futuristic bird-woman and a monster based on religious icons will be part of a vibrant costume show.
For the first time, Edinburgh College of Art’s Engine House exhibition space will be transformed into a vibrant theatrical space for the annual Performance Costume Show.
The eye-popping showcase of designs by performance costume students takes place on 18 and 19 May.
Puppets and performances
Graduating students will combine their creative flair and technical prowess to create evocative performances, displaying costumes created for theatre, film, opera and dance.
Students from all other year groups will also be showing their costumes and puppets in entertaining group performances.
Lady wrestlers
The highlights include Poppy Stubley’s Formidable Ladies of Wrestling. Taking inspiration from a 1980s wrestling group, the student has created gutsy characters based on women that inspire her, such as OJ Simpson lawyer Marcia Clark and rapper M.I.A.
Katie Powell’s eye-catching clairvoyant costume features a woman with a huge red beak and cape covered in red veins. She has used a number of unusual fabrics – such as fibre glass and sushi paper – to create a futuristic look inspired by biotechnology.
Lampshade ladies
A Brazilian crime drama is the focus for Megan Gallacher’s impressive creation. Her larger-than-life totem costume references religious practices, monuments and icons from Rio, Slovakia and Glasgow.
Harriet Ogden bases her endearing outfits on a Terry Pratchett novel that imagines a whole universe within a carpet. Her humorous costumes reflect oversized specks of dust entangled with remnants of all the bits and pieces caught up in a rug pile.
Bohemian costumes for women from the Bloomsbury Set – a group of early 20th century English writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists – are the basis of Liberty Bramall’s designs. Her lampshade ladies have bannister walking sticks, lampshades for hats and patterned outfits covered in tassels.
Graduate success
Performance costume graduates have gone on to successful careers in cinema, TV and theatre. Emma O Loughlin won an Emmy and Bafta award last year for Game of Thrones and The Crown, Emily Bates won the 2018 Royal Opera House bursary award.
Other graduates have recently worked on Paddinton 2, Disney’s Artemis Fowl and Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs. Others have gone on to work at the Royal Opera House, the V&A Museum, Scottish Opera and Northern Ballet.
Related links
Study Performance Costume - BA (Hons)
All images © Laurence Winram