Cinderella - Pantomime

Play Writer: Guy Unsworth


This project won me the costume Playhouse Prize 2023
In the first term of my final year at university I selected the pantomime brief for my industry project. We were given the script Cinderella by Guy Unsworth.
I had the first half of the term to create 10 designs. I chose to make my designs a mix of stereotypical bright and whacky pantomime with a loose silhouette of the 1800’s. My character concepts were ‘Stereotypes of Modern Britain’; class divisions, diverse backgrounds, diverse sexualities, ect…

The second half of term was spent on the construction one of the 10 costumes I designed. I chose to create Buttons as he was a fun, vibrant and creative character. Everything was self drafted and made to measure a specific performer.
While searching for my inspired fabric choices, I noteiced the print/patterns on the available materials were too small for a theatre production. Therefore the shirt and trouser fabric is all hand printed using Lino prints which I created myself (understandably this may be an unrealistic process in industry as it’s extremely time consuming for one costume).
All of the button fastenings are decorative, backed with poppers for ease of quick changes.
The shoes were bought and altered by me, with Elasticated shoe laces, buckram and paint. This is because the coat of clown style boots was way too far out of my budget and clown shoe covers didn’t give the look I was aiming for.
All but one of the welt pockets (with flaps) are decorative and the one real pocket was used for the placement of a chocolate bar prop which I also made. This chocolate bar prop was made from plastazote, buttons, tinfoil, polly pocket and acrylic paint.