Course Description: A Second Stage project proposed by Loyola University Chicago's alumni, Emily Muirhead, with the intent to reshape the program's Design III course into a specialized period clothing design course. The one semester class revolved around one production as a focal point in which students would each be led through the process of simulating a costume design presentation to a directing team. The intended product of the class was to be a collection of research, renderings, and a 3D component to be presented at the end of the semester.

Production:  Love's Labour's Lost by William Shakespeare

Practices: Measuring | Patterning | Hand Sewing | Period Practices | Form Padding | Tailoring

Style/Era: ~1851

Design Approach: My focus on this project was to create a design based around Victorian England around 1851, specifically during the time of The Great Exhibition. My reasoning for this decision was that during this time there was this world fair, The Great Exhibition, that presented the wonders of technology in the Victorian Era. My goal was to draw a line between this exhibition and the thematic elements of learned intelligence vs. natural wit in Love's Labour's Lost.

The course tasked us to create a 3D component of our research and renderings which could be represented as a fabric sample, portion of a garment, or mockup piece. I took this opportunity to challenge myself in garment construction by creating three complete, functional garment pieces of my Berowne design consisting of: A morning coat, trousers, and a dress shirt. To best simulate the atmosphere of designing for a show I took a peer's measurements, Loyola University Chicago alumni: Jake Hafertepe, to create pieces that were set to fit this particular 'actor.' 

On The Process: My design process began with researching three aspects of the Elizabethan era: court life, domestic life, and architecture. The goal of these points of research was to gain an understanding of Elizabethan life for noble folk and the lower class, pertaining to the time period in which Love's Labour's Lost was written. The addition of architecture was of out of personal pursuit to attempt to establish the former with regards to the kinds of spaces these bodies would exist within, to potentially inform the design. Then, I took this research approach and applied a parallel direction to the Victorian era, centering as close to 1851 as I could discern. 

For my renderings, I began with taking research on Victorian layers and garment pieces into an applied sketch depicting the steps to get into a full look for the prototype of the character Rosaline. Afterwards, I took my discoveries into sketching out and watercolor rendering designs for six selects characters from Love's Labour's Lost: The Princess, Costard, Berowne, Rosaline, Jaquenetta, and Don Adriano de Armado.

To conclude the project, I took to find patterns for the three articles of Victorian clothing: a morning coat, trousers, and dress shirt. The tasks were to make a fully lined coat, button-able trousers, and stud-able dress shirt with a detachable collar and cuffs. The overall garment construction portion of the process took a little over a month to complete. For the end of the semester presentation, I had my measured peer, Jake Hafertepe, don the constructed pieces with supporting pieces from the costume storage to complete the appearance of the design rendering for Berowne.