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I started off reading through the brief and requirements for this project and I highlighted some key points. I find myself mostly interested in costume design however I would like to explore my options more, I wasn’t very interested in the marketing design concept since I’m not very experienced or good at it, while costume design felt more familiar and interesting in my eyes.

Set design was intriguing as well since I haven’t done it before therefore i decided to investigate further with a few tests. I read through and analysed the visions furthermore I outlined unfamiliar words and wrote down their definitions to understand better.

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I annotated on the letter whilst reading through it. Similar to the brief itself they mentioned that I had to chose 3 characters and design costumes for them, and make or design a costume which is practical enough for a dancer to wear, reasonable research and experimenting for the design on the costume, that the design tells a story and it works well with the costumes for the other two designs for the characters.

This helped me understand the requirements and experiments required for this project.

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after reading through the commissioners letter I researched the stages of design to further plan for this project and get a better understanding of the process of designing. I used these guidelines to plan for this project starting with the requirements then to interpret the story afterwards to do primary and secondary research along with annotations on the visions and play, afterwards to develop ideas through collages and sketches. Afterwards I will have to design an outcome with all my research and experimentation then make it happen.

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I started to research the initial concept of ballet and opera through a mind map and look through ballet costumes from other plays such as Giselle, swan lake and the nutcracker to analyse the length requirements on a costume for a dancer to perform.

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after researching the initial concepts like ballet and stages of design I started researching on the play ‘winters tale itself’ I read through the book to find any details I would’ve missed in the synopsis and I researched each personality and likings of characters I find interesting. I also researched the writer of the play William Shakespeare who was one of the best poets and writers.

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To read the book I used Apple Books and highlighted any important parts that show the personality and insight on each character

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After reading through the story I also read through the synopsis to understand the story in brief parts and scenes this helped me understand the story a lot more since the book itself was quite complex.

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After researching the I broke down each characters story and highlighted parts in a mind map.

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we listened to the music in the play and drew according to the music. The music in Bohemia was quite festive and vibrant so I used a fine liner to do a continuous sketch of two figures and painted with what the music felt in my eyes.

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We visited the royal opera house for a class trip to see an opera ‘la Boheme’. Where I got to see real life sets, posters and costumes which inspired ideas for this project the set designs I saw in real life helped me understand how they move around the sets fast to prepare for each scene and how they need to be practical enough in height and width for the performers to move around and perform. As for the poster designs they embodied the stories and insights in an interesting way through one picture, I found them very appealing and inspiring. Although the performance was an Opera and the costumes would differ if I was designing a costume for a ballet it was still helpful to see how a costume could be made to be more flexible and easy to perform in.

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I made a collage out of the pictures i took in the royal opera house as a response to the royal opera house.

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After the trip I was keen on my decision to make a costume design however I still wanted to attempt a set design concept as a potential specialist therefore I researched Tacita Dean and her designs, her artistic take on the sets inspired me to create a design of the court in sicilia where Hermione stood trial, while sicilia is known to be a dark kingdom I wanted to illustrate a set using a few vibrant colours that may also keep the darkness of the kingdom. I used the shades teal, beige and brown watercolours for this test. During the court scene Hermione remained calm and denied the accusations until the death of her son while leontes kept accusing her even after she was proven not guilty. I used the teal to represent the calm and sadness of Hermione while the beige and brown shows the bitterness and devastation of the characters death. It also represents the anger and jealousy of leontes. I believe this this set could’ve been designed better with more representative and symbolic colours I would redo it with a better understanding of the scene and with more symbolism.

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I broke down the visions to be completely sure of the vision I will take for the rest of the project since I was more keen on going for costume design the vision ‘a moment in time’ felt more intriguing since it was quite diverse and I was curious to make a design in a time different the one in the play.

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after attempting at a set design I decided to start on experimenting with costume design. The vision a moment in time for costume designs would be quite diverse so I chose three of my favourite times in fashion to research. I looked through the Victorian era and art nouveau era however they proved to be quite impractical for a ballet performance. The heavy clothes and corsets of the Victorian area would be hard for movement and flexibility especially for a performance like ballet furthermore they would prove to be quite uncomfortable. The art nouveau period would prove right in the areas of comfort however they won’t be easy to perform in due to their length and form fitting designs.

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After choosing my directions vision as a moment in time I made a mood board of 1920’s fashion as a reference for the rest of project and designs I could make

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I also made a mood board for the art nouveau era since it was quite similar and the designs could be altered to the 1920’s style.

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I did some further research with the characters, since I have to chose 3 characters for my designs I chose queen Hermione, florizell and perdita due to the depth in their stories and characters.

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To understand the style and designs of the fashion in 1920 I decided to research a courtier of that time itself, she was a pioneer for the bias cut. I did a response with my own design inspired by her, I chose to keep the bias-cut and add frills a little below the knee. Although I could’ve done better to represent her work with colour and a more complex design I kept it quite simple and comfortable.

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After researching designs and the clothes worn in the 1920’s I decided to sketch out a few designs for the characters florizell, queen Hermione and perdita. I’m not very familiar with designing clothes for male characters since I’ve only made dresses for women, it was an quite difficult getting the proportions however I made 6 designs for florizell which I think would match his persona.

Then I made costumes for perdita and queen Hermione, I gave queen Hermione more complex

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I experimented with the anatomy and movement of the skirt part of the dress I would made and decided to use a whole circle as the pattern I will cut for the skirt. As for the top part I decided to make it a leotard for better movement and flexibility during a performance.

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I searched different fabrics that may suit the character, theme, vision and flexibility of the dress itself. I searched fabrics and patterns for the characters perdita and Hermione. For the patterns I looked at soft spoken, light shaded and simple patterns with little flower designs for perdita since she was raised by a Shepard in Bohemia for most of her life, for Hermione I chose dark royal colours with more detailed due to her status as a royal.

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I decided to experiment with colours to understand how each colour changes the emotion or feeling a costume may give. I found dark blue and dark purple give a more royal and elegant feeling while light pink or lilac gives a more free spirited feeling which matches perdita well.

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I continued to experiment with different mediums like water colours markers and collages till I got a result I liked

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I made two final designs for perdita and Hermione.

The white one being her wedding dress and the purple one being for Hermione which is similar to her original dress. I designed the blue dress for Hermione for her court scene the blue could represent her sadness of being accused and the feeling of being lost.

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I further experimented with movement and looked at perdita design in the play to help me understand her character more.

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I researched the roaring 20’s since they were quite similar to the art nouveau period and far more practical in that sense. They also used the bias-cut in their designs instead of corsets which was quite revolutionary for women’s fashion back then, which could represent the character development of the characters itself and the simple yet glamorous and elegant designs could show the personality of the character perdita who was raised as a commoner and was later revealed to be a royal.

I believe these designs could be made to be more flexible and practical for a performer to wear.