Les Miserables

During my work placement at Les Miserables at the Queen's Theatre, which is set in the early 1800s, I was lucky enough to work closely with the costumes and made a trip to the warehouse the spare costumes are kept in. It was here that I noticed that Fantine's 'Factory Dress' was in the style that I am creating in my SDP.

This week I made a return trip to London to look at this particular costume more closely. As a working girl's outfit, it was very broken down to look dirty and old, and an apron is worn over the skirt on stage. The fabric was a sage green colour and had a floral pattern and, although the small detail of it could not be seen by the audience when on stage, the impression of the pattern it gave was enough. The seams were piped and the fabric was ruched at the front of the bodice for decoration. Construction wise, the bodice had curved seams at the front and back, whereas on my work, I will use darts at the front.

I found it really useful to look at a costume in this style that is worn on stage in the West End because I could see from a theatrical perspective what elements were important and can be seen from the audience. It was also interesting to see that the fabrics used were not accurate to the time period, but more gave the idea of it, as they had to be more modern and therefore more durable and hard wearing to last for 8 shows a week, week after week.

N.B. There are no photographs on the blog as I was asked not to put them on the internet, but they will feature in my research file for assessment.