costume design by
auguste greiciute edinburgh college of art 2016
the mythological verse tale “cranberry� (lt. bruknele) by martynas vainilaitis is a unique piece of lithuanian children literature. the author has spent eight years of thorough studies of folklore, lithuanian language specialists’ scientific works, and scandinavian mythology, writing this lengthy and incredibly appealing piece that unveils a complex theme of love and fidelity. i grew up with this story and these characters, and now i invite you to take a look at the designs that i have created for them.
synopsis design concept research :
6 7
fashion & sustainability costumes & sustainability art & fashion
design development :
silhouette development mood board & colour balance sketches
illustrations & textile samples:
character line-up organic fabric samples cranberry dzingulis witch piesta + great monas zydrune + sarange varange paralius & the devils red rooster + dundulis menuo, pietukas & forest spirits
finished costumes of cranberry and dzingulis
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CRANBERRY -- CONTENTS
5
dzingulis, the king of dwarves, falls in love with a beautiful cranberry and when he kisses it, it turns into a girl. however, she only agrees to marry him if he proves his love by bringing her a magic ring. dzingulis immediatelly travels to witch piesta who kindly creates zerunas - a magic ring with a drop of life. the ring brings youth and happiness to those who wear it, and although it cannot be stolen by force, it can be lured out. on the way back to his love dzingulis encounters zydrune and paralius with his devils who try to lure the ring out of his hands. He tries his best to keep the ring safe, while cranberry and his grandfather - the great monas organise his rescue with a help of pietukas (the southern wind), menuo (the moon) and an army of forest spirits.
6 SYNOPSIS -- CRANBERRY
cranberry is full of mythological creatures, folk tale motifs and symbols that all link into a story that can be adapted into a performance directed at both - the children and the adult audiences. therefore, i have decided to adapt the story to a rock opera moving away from the lithuanian folk outfits, but yet staying close to the nature by introducing sustainbility into the costumes. the project was strongly influenced by various methodologies used for sustainable fashion, as i was trying to adapt it to the needs of the stage costumes. inspired by the artists like olaf hajek and b.d. graft, i aimed to create vivid and colourful characters with contransting, heavier and darker details.
CRANBERRY -- DESIGN CONCEPT 7
the average amount of fabric that is wasted when the clothing is cut is about 15%. the estimated amount produced globally in the apparel industry in 2015: 400 billion square meters. 15% of 400 billion is 60 billion square meters. information from: zero waste fashion (2015) holly mquillan & timo rissanen
knowing that in this project i will have to cut and make the costumes myself, i have decided to use the zero waste cutting technique. this means that the costumes are designed to produce little or no fabric waste when cut. there are many various ways to do that, however, inspired by designer yoshiki hishinuma, i have decided to use simple geometric shapes like squares and triagles to form the silhouettes of the costumes.
8 RESEARCH - FASHION SUSTAINABILITY -- CRANBERRY
as i am making only two costumes from the project and they will probably not be re-used, i have decided to make them biodegradable and recyclable. therefore, the main part of the costumes is designed to be made from 100% organic fairtrade cotton. As it was also dyed using nature friendly dyes, it makes the fabric biodegradable. as the non toxic dyes can only create not particularly bright colours, i have also introduced polyester into my designs. i have decided to use only second hand 100% polyester and to bring it back to life by printing and laser cutting it. to make it easy to separate the two materials in order to make them recycle friendly, i have worked out various ways of connecting them.
CRANBERRY -- RESEARCH - FASHION SUSTAINABILITY 9
10 RESEARCH - COSTUMES & SUSTAINABILITY -- CRANBERRY
as costumes have a very different life from the clothing we wear, there are different aspects that have to be considered to make them sustainable. when introducing sustainability into my designs, i mainly focused on reducing the amount of laundry needed, on making the costumes modular and recycle friendly.
to achieve that i have looked for three simple ways to connect fabrics: - to take apart for recycling - to take away fragile parts if laundry is needed - to exchange parts of the costumes between the characters and to have some costumes transform from one character to another.
CRANBERRY -- RESEARCH - COSTUMES & SUSTAINABILITY 11
12 RESEARCH - FASHION & ART -- CRANBERRY
inspired by the works of olaf hajek and b.d. graft, i have been looking into fashion designers that bravely play with colours and textures, creating looks that look surprising and playful. i was particularly inspired by rei kawakubo, vera wang, yoshiki hishinuma, and gucci.
CRANBERRY -- RESEARCH - ART & FASHION 13
the design development in this project was strongly influenced by my aim to embed sustainability into the core of the costume design. i aimed to work on all of the areas of design development at once and as equally as possible to consider one aspect of design in the background of another, and to make all of the pieces fully grounded.
14 DESIGN DEVELOPMENT -- CRANBERRY
this chapter is a quick insight into all of the development areas that i went through. the areas are illustrated with examples taken from various characters development.
- silhouette development - mood board & colour balance - combining silhouettes and colours with the individual characters
CRANBERRY -- DESIGN DEVELOPMENT 15
to design zero waste costumes i first tried to work out the possible silhouettes that i could get using the simplest geometric figures. inspired by yoshiki hishinuma’s designs, i mainly used fabric triangles - starting from draping large shapes and then cutting them into smaller pieces. although at the beginning i worked without the characters in mind, after assigning different silhouettes for the characters i came back to the mini mannequin and checked whether the silhuettes could really be cut without producing any waste.
16 DEVELOPMENT - SILHOUETTES -- CRANBERRY
CRANBERRY -- DEVELOPMENT - SILHOUETTES 17
this is the initial mood board for the costume design of ‘cranberry’ rock opera. having the main images collaged on one page and pinned on the wall in front of my desk helped me to stay on track and remember which natural phenomenons, artists, fashion designs, historical fashion pieces and people inspired me in the beginning of the project.
18 DEVELOPMENT - MOOD BOARD -- CRANBERRY
CRANBERRY -- DEVELOPMENT - COLOUR BALANCE 19
when i read a script that i am planning to work on, each of the character starts hanging in my head like a cloud of various random thoughts and visual images. therefore, when i start designing i like to draw a quick sketch portrait of each character, write down what i personally think about their role and collage images that i think represent the them. while working on the costumes that transform characters (like witch piesta and the great monas under), i liked having them on the same spread similarities and differences that i could stress in
20 DEVELOPMENT - SKETCHES -- CRANBERRY
for multiple in the image to see their the costume.
After developing the silhouettes on a half scale mannequin, I tried combining them and the colours with the characters.
I would start with very quick sketches and then move on to working on the colours and the details, constantly coming back to the half scale mannequin to check if the designs would still be possible to cut without generating any waste.
CRANBERRY -- DEVELOPMENT - SKETCHES 21
22 FINAL ILLUSTRATIONS - CHARACTER LINE-UP -- CRANBERRY
CRANBERRY -- FINAL ILLUSTRATIONS 23
although a ‘newborn’ to this world, cranberry is a strong character. she is the one who takes measures to organise dzingulis rescue from paralius. at the end of the opera, forest spirits embellish cranberry’s costume on stage by attaching additional panels to her top using straps.
26 FINAL ILLUSTRATIONS - CRABNERRY -- CRANBERRY
CRANBERRY -- FINAL ILLUSTRATIONS: CRANBERRY 27
canvas (teal) cotton crossweave (ruby red) canvas (charcoal)
hooks and eyes
laser cut and printed polyester cotton crossweave (ruby red)
nylon thread connection polyester chiffon
front
28 FINAL ILLUSTRATIONS - CRABNERRY -- CRANBERRY
back
dzingulis is the protagonist of the story. he is the king of dwarves who falls in love with cranberry and goes on an adventure to get her the perfect magic ring. although a little easily distracted, he has a kind heart and strong morals that help him keep the magic ring zerunas in his hands.
30 FINAL ILLUSTRATIONS - DZINGULIS -- CRANBERRY
CRANBERRY -- FINAL ILLUSTRATIONS - DZINGULIS 31
nylon thread connection canvas (teal) shoulder panel: laser cut and layered polyester
canvas (charcoal) laser cut and printed panel
khadi (gunmetal)
front 32 FINAL ILLUSTRATIONS - DZINGULIS -- CRANBERRY
back
with some small backstage alterations this costume holds two characters in it. we meet witch piesta at the beginning of the opera when she creates zerunas for dzingulis. the great monas, the ruler of the forest and dzingulis’ grandfather, shows up later when he helps cranberry to rescue dzingulis from paralius.
34 FINAL ILLUSTRATIONS - WITCH PIESTA & THE GREAT MONAS -- CRANBERRY
CRANBERRY -- FINAL ILLUSTRATIONS - WITCH PIESTA & THE GREAT MONAS 35
front
back
heavy weight cotton denim twill canvas (charcoal)
hooks and eyes
laser cut and bemised panel
canvas (teal)
printed power mesh
canvas (teal)
laser cut and bemised panel
front
36 FINAL ILLUSTRATIONS - WITCH PIESTA & THE GREAT MONAS -- CRANBERRY
back
when enchantress zydrune learns about dzingulis’ ring, she tries to persuade him to marry her instead of a peasant such as cranberry. however, as he stays with cranberry, zydrune gets insulted and furious, and with two quick moves (pulling her collar up and letting the skirt out) turns herself into sarange varange - a magic snake that attacks dzingulis.
38 FINAL ILLUSTRATIONS: ENCHANTRESS ZYDRUNE & SARANGE VARANGE -- CRANBERRY
CRANBERRY -- FINAL ILLUSTRATIONS - ENCHANTRESS ZYDRUNE & SARANGE VARANGE 39
front
skirt attached with a snap fastener
printed polyester laser cut and layered polyester khadi (gunmetal) canvas (soft carolina)
40 FINAL ILLUSTRATIONS: ENCHANTRESS ZYDRUNE & SARANGE VARANGE -- CRANBERRY
back
paralius - the ruler of the devils in the forest has always had an eye on enchantress zydrune. therefore, when the devils bring him dzingulis and a letter saying that if he will lure the ring out of his hands zydrune will marry him, he gladly takes dzingulis as his prisoner and organises a card game of fool in order to win the ring.
42 FINAL ILLUSTRATIONS: PARALIUS & HIS DEVILS -- CRANBERRY
CRANBERRY -- FINAL ILLUSTRATIONS: PARALIUS & HIS DEVILS 43
printed, laser cut nylon thread and layered polyester connection canvas cotton (charcoal) crossweave (ruby red)
front
khadi (soft carolina) printed power mesh
canvas (gunmetal) khadi (lion)
back front
44 FINAL ILLUSTRATIONS: PARALIUS & HIS DEVILS -- CRANBERRY
back
front
back
dzingulis discovers the red rooster in his cell at paralius’ castle, and he helps him by distracting the devils during the card game. after the battle, when dzingulis is carrying the devils to dundulis, an old nemesis of paralius, by folding his sleeves down and putting the extra panel on his head, the rooster little by little turns himself into dundulis - the god of thunder.
46 FINAL ILLUSTRATIONS - RED ROOSTER & DUNDULIS -- CRANBERRY
CRANBERRY -- FINAL ILLUSTRATIONS - RED ROOSTER & DUNDULIS 47
khadi (gunmetal)
nylon thread connection
printed, laser cut and layered polyester
canvas (teal)
brushed back twill
front
48 FINAL ILLUSTRATIONS - RED ROOSTER & DUNDULIS -- CRANBERRY
back
menuo (the guardian of the night), pietukas (the southern wind) and forest spirits form the great monas’ army as he goes to rescue dzingulis. in addition to helping in the rescue, pietukas and menuo also have the information where dzingulis is as they have kept his company in his journey until they were chased away by zydrune and paralius. they are all also carrying the additional panels tied to their tops, which they use to embellish cranberry for her and dzingulis’ wedding at the end of the opera.
50 FINAL ILLUSTRATIONS - MENUO, FOREST SPIRIT & PIETUKAS -- CRANBERRY
CRANBERRY -- FINAL ILLUSTRATIONS - MENUO, FOREST SPIRIT & PIETUKAS 51
front
back
front
front
back
back
printed, laser cut and layered polyester
khadi (lion) brushed back twill
canvas (teal) khadi (gunmetal)
52 FINAL ILLUSTRATIONS - MENUO, FOREST SPIRIT & PIETUKAS -- CRANBERRY
nylon thread connection
cotton crossweave (ruby red)
additional panels attached to cranberry during her wedding scene
54 FINALISED COSTUMES: CRANBERRY AND DZINGULIS -- CRANBERRY
finalised costumes
cranberry and dzingulis in addition to the eca performance costume show, the costumes were also a part of the sustain.ed festival sustainable fashion show at the city art centre, edinburgh. photography by:
cinnamon sky photography models and performers:
cranberry - bejal desai dzingulis - marius urbonas
CRANBERRY -- FINALISED COSTUMES: CRANBERRY AND DZINGULIS 55
60 FINALISED COSTUMES: CRANBERRY AND DZINGULIS -- CRANBERRY
CRANBERRY -- FINALISED COSTUMES: CRANBERRY AND DZINGULIS 61