Emilia
Lady Katherine
Emilia is a show that is about women, how the world treat them, and how women choose to operate within the world they are forced to live in. Lady Katherine is a woman that trained with Emilia before she makes her appearance in the court. She dreams of landing a man of high standing and living the life that she thinks will bring her happiness. After she gets married, Lady Katherine learns that being married to a lord is not what she wants. Her husband abuses her and she decides to fund Emilia's writings against men.
I have not made a lot of costumes from this period. The costume stock did not have the under structures, so I was given the opportunity to make a wheel with reed boning. I used the Jean Hunnisett book Period Costumes for Stage and Screen for the pattern of the wheel. I made it out of cotton drill, reed, and steel bones. Because of the quick changes, it was decided to create a boned bodice.
Shakespeare
If Emilia is about women, then Shakespeare is the character that is the foil to Emilia. He enters her life and they bond together over their love of writing and poetry. They begin writing together and Emilia thinks she has found someone who sees her as an equal. But, in reality, Shakespeare is using her to write his plays and becoming famous off of her writings. They fight with Emilia calling Shakespeare out for using her and Shakespeare says that her writings don't matter. This is when Emilia finally views Shakespeare as the snake that he is.
For this costume, I made the pants, shirt, and vest. this was my first look into making menswear. This time period is know for using basic shapes. Shakespeare did not have any quick changes in the show and I was able to think about the construction of this costume non-quick change closures. The other thing that I needed to figure out was were a 14 inch long rose could come from. It took some testing to see if it could be pulled out the vest like a magician, but it did not work. It ended up being a pocket in the pants. The rendering has blackwork on it. It was originally thought that It could be done by hand, but that was quickly dismissed to layering on different black laces to create the same look.