My good friend Emma Belli invited me to collaborate with Nottingham Trent University (NTU) this month on their “Alice Re-Imagined” project. She said that she couldn’t imagine anyone better suited to the role 😊 NTU wanted to produce a short film showcasing seven different costumes inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, and I was excited to accept Emma’s offer to be Alice for the day.
On this project, I worked with two departments from the University: “Costume Design and Construction” and “Filmmaking”. I visited NTU for a day of costume fittings, where I met the participating Students and Lecturers. It was great to see how they were starting to bring their designs to life.
Later in the month, I drove back north to join a team of NTU students and lecturers, where we worked together to film material on the beautiful grounds of Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire. The final video has now been edited and will be featured alongside the costumes in an exhibition at Newstead Abbey. The exhibition is part of Newstead Abbey’s “Storybook Christmas” event, which you can attend between Saturday, 26th November 2022 – Monday, 2nd January 2023.
As I appreciate that travelling to Nottinghamshire is not so simple for many of my blog friends, NTU and Newstead Abbey have kindly allowed me to share photographs and the final video with you via my blog. I will share them with you next week and still encourage those who can visit Newstead Abbey, to have a festive adventure, as it is a beautiful historic house with whimsical grounds to explore.
This week I will focus on the concept drawings created by the design students, which formed the basis for their final costumes. The students were tasked with creating a version of Alice inspired by a particular costume theme. The themes that were chosen for the students to explore were:
- Cyber Punk
- Classic Punk
- Pirate / New Romantic
- Space Disco
- Warrior
- Mysterious Teddy Girl
For Designs 1 – 6, a group of students worked as a team on each design, from concept to creation. Here are their concept drawings to give you a taster of the outfits to come.
I can’t wait to share with you behind-the-scenes photos and the final film soon.
Classic Punk
Libby Roberts – Supervisor
Erin Hill
Hannah Sowter
Ellie Preston
Olivia Zeoli
Lucy Hill
Warrior
Phoebe Godsmark – Supervisor
Alice Adams
Colin Fiore
Amelie Bradshaw
Scarlett Royle
Katie Singsby
Teddy Girl
Paige Green – Supervisor
Niamh Colling
Lola-Rose Cripps
Holly Lowe
Sarah Bowler
Emily Applegate
Space Disco
Delaney Hoyt – Supervisor
Evie Skinner – Supervisor stand in
Ruier Li
Grace Curran
Jieru Sun
Monica Kelly
Cyber Punk
M Godfrey – Joint Supervisor
Rachel Usher – Joint Supervisor
Olivia Rebori
Blossom Weal
Hannah Western
Jennika Bunney
New Romantic
Isi Roberts – Supervisor
Yixuan Yang
Molly Jarvis
Anna Horackova
Scarlett Wood
Honor Schwartz
