Margaret costuming, part III

Here is Ben as King Lewis of France and Emma as his lovely sister Lady Bona. These costumes are simple but incredibly effective. I knew that if the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester ended up in blue, which they did, I wanted the French nobility to wear green. That meant that we put Emma in this very pretty forest green stretch velour gown with elegant criss-crossing straps across the back. She looked very beautiful in it. So we found a green dress shirt at the Garment District for Ben, plus a tie of similar color to give him an edgy monochrome look. I liked the idea of a dress vest to suggest formality and power, but I had a hard time finding one I could use until Simon Cramer kindly lent us his. It came out quite sharp, and I appreciated how distinctive they looked from everyone else.

Here is Barbara Rugg as Lady Gray, the woman Edward of York takes as his wife and queen. To contrast with his black uniform I thought her queenly garb would work well if white. That gave me the idea to dress Barbara, who is a petite girl and the only person in the cast close to my size, in my lovely cream halter Cordelia gown. The gold brocade pattern shimmer quite beautifully under the lights, and I am pleased to see the dress get worn by someone, even if not by me. She holds her baby with Edward, who I insisted be wrapped in white, both for the rose of the Yorks, and to work with this beautiful gown.

Here is Julian Seltzer as King Henry VI. Originally I wanted him in a brown vest and brown slacks; he is a mild, slightly awkward, unkingly personality who I wanted to look a bit frumpy. I couldn't find anything in brown-- and apparently nobody wears vests of any kind anymore --but it turned out to be for the best. Julian came with me to the thrift store to help me find this rather nice but still somewhat unassuming gray pinstripe suit. Julian picked out this tie himself, with added the right touch of Lancaster red without being too sharp. I was incredibly pleased by how the gray looked besides the darker and richer colors around him, maintaining the effect I wanted while still being visually distinctive.

This is Abby Clarke as the witch. I wish I could take credit for her interesting costume, but all I was responsible for was the billowy black dress underneath. Abby herself brought the black cloak, while the orange cape draped over it was Charlotte's idea. It formed a large orange swath over the black and those two orange runners down each shoulder. I love the effect, giving her the typically witchy blackness while adding visual interest with the orange. Also, her orange is the only example of the color in the play, giving her a unique and slightly incongrous touch to suggest the force of chaos and doom that she is.

And that concludes the major costumes I designed! Not bad, huh? I might actually be pleased with this if I'd had a full amount of time to work on this. Came out not half bad after all.