Year: 2021

Valentine

The Valentine costume was created as an offshoot of the color scheme from the Cupcake (#20/20) look. Using pinks, whites, and creams as the color palette, this costume is designed as a burlesque ensemble including bloomers, a corset, halter top, cuffs, and robe. The look features graduated layers of flounces at the elbows, sheer fabrics, and an abundance of lace and bows.

The Valentine Mask

Following the aesthetics of the Valentine costume, this Plague Doctor styled mask consists of a metallic pink spandex overlaid with cream-colored lace with clear sequins on top. The mask base is neoprene. Layers of ruffles, lace, and pom pom line the edges and eyeholes of the mask.

This project is funded in part by the Cornell Council for the Arts.  

Alice in Spamaland

In June 2008 I organized my first independent costume photo shoot, inspired by the characters of Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass. I had been working as a wardrobe attendant and technician for the Monty Python musical Spamalot, and was just starting to launch my career as a freelance costume designer.  I recruited cast and crew members from the show as my models, and spent months sewing costumes. See a partial group image below.

Mask Inspiration: Plague Doctor Queen of Hearts

The inspiration for the Plague Doctor styled Queen of Hearts and the complementing daily wear Hearts Court noble mask are directly inspired by and use fabrics from original looks in the photoshoot. The Queen of Hearts costume centered on a red corset embellished with a burgundy-red ombre application of buttons. This corset was later deconstructed, then finally cut apart and embellished with leftover buttons for this present mask design.

The Queen of Hearts mask features styling to include hearts in the overall design, from some of the buttons to the eye hole shape to the “Sweetheart” top edge.

Mask Inspiration: Daily Wear Hearts Court noble mask

The Daily Wear mask is designed to reflect a costume from a member of the Hearts Court, featuring diagonal stripes in silver and black metallic spandex. A burgundy metallic spandex heart is appliqued to the left cheek. The spandex layer is reinforced with a fusible interfacing, and the lining layer is a black cotton twill. The edges are bound in burgundy metallic spandex.

This project is funded in part by the Cornell Council for the Arts.  

Rave Kandi

Brightly colored plastic pony beads are used in the creation of “Kandi“, bracelets made and given to others in the rave community. These bracelets are traded as gifts at the discretion of the maker, and usually have a handshake involved symbols of the PLUR ethos underpinning the rave community: Peace, Love, Unity, and Respect. My first elaborate piece of kandi gifted to me was at my first rave, and I recall being stunned as I had only a single strand to trade, and it felt flimsy and unequal at best. I protested, thinking my trade wasn’t “worth” the same, to which the person responded “It’s ok! I love all kandi!” She then proceeded to tell me about attending her first rave and being gifted a more elaborate kandi cuff (similar to my trade with her) and that it meant so much to her to be given such a piece that she continued the practice herself. I was so touched by her gift and the story that I made my own more elaborate cuffs (see below, right image) to trade with others. At my last event, I was delighted to find myself in the position of gifting a piece to a person at her first rave, hearing echoes of my own exchange. Whether simple or elaborate, kandi is usually made of plastic, brightly colored beads on stretch cording. Some are embellished with perler bead decorations, toys, flowers, and more.

Kandi was the influence for a costume made for a friend attending a music festival a few years ago, comprised of an embellished bra, skirt, shorts, and embellished epaulets. The technique used on the epaulets was reprised in the look of the Candy mask, trimmed with 4-strand round braid cording made from spandex fabric, strips cut from tee shirts, and cotton lacing.

Mask Composition

The mask was built on plastic canvas in neon green, hot pink, and turquoise. The embellishment of the canvas is a multi-stage process: buttons were attached first, followed by neon animal beads. These items are the largest in size, and were laid first to gauge the rest of the materials. Negative space was filled in with neon plastic pony beads, the same type used in making kandi bracelets. The final addition was neon yellow eyelash yarn stitched in between all of the beads. The texture of the eyelash yarn fills in the spaces between the beads, but must be treated after application. To do so, the yarn is stitched through the plastic canvas, which traps the eyelash yarn fibers that must then be picked free. This creates a fluffy texture that is trimmed down. After these steps, 4-strand round braids were used to finish the edges of the mask and the eye openings. An interesting byproduct of stitching on the beads and eyelash yarn is that it adds stability and body to the mask structure, boosting rigidity and making the mask more sturdy.

This project is funded in part by the Cornell Council for the Arts.  

What is Dazzle Camouflage?

The bold black and white stripes of the Dazzle/Razzle masks are inspired by dazzle camouflage, a surface treatment used on battleships in World War I. The technique “dazzles” the eye, confusing the direction of travel due to the jarring stripes and shapes used in the painting (Kiger, 2019).

Design Inspiration

The Dazzle/Razzle masks are designed to complement a costume created in 2019 for attendance to the Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) in Las Vegas. The look of the costume was aesthetically influenced by the striking contrast striping of dazzle camouflage and the silhouette of a Victorian-era corset held in the Cornell Fashion + Textile Collection, made in 1876. The silhouette of the corset used in the EDC look was exaggerated to dramatically expand the hips, accommodating for a removable ruffle skirt to be added to the inside of the corset. The black and white striping of the classic dazzle camouflage look was offset by the addition of fluorescent yellow contrast fabric, adding an interesting juxtaposition of visual aesthetics meant to simultaneously camouflage and call attention.

The Masks

Simple in design, these masks are intended to highlight the striking aesthetics of the dazzle camouflage look with minimal additional embellishment. The Plague Doctor styled mask is made of a neoprene base with an overlayer of printed stretch nylon fused to white canvas. The eye holes are bound in upcycled neon yellow high-vis safety tee shirt, and the bias binding around the face is high-vis safety fabric. The complementing daily wear face mask is created with a lining and binding of upcycled neon yellow high-vis safety tee shirt fabric, topped with a layer of printed nylon fused to black cotton twill. The modular fastenings of the mask are stretch cords of the same printed nylon and hot pink spandex for aesthetic effect. The mask can be tied behind the head and neck, or configured (as pictured) with stretch ear loops that can either be tied in place or fastened behind the neck. Finally, further inspired by the concept of visual camouflage, the plastic pony beads on the ends of the mask ties contain a secret: while the black and yellow beads are merely decorative, the white beads on the pink cording spell out the artist’s initials of J and L in morse code.

References:

Kiger, P. J. (2019, March 14). The WWI ‘dazzle’ camouflage strategy was so ridiculous it was genius. History.com. https://www.history.com/news/dazzle-camouflage-world-war-1

This project is funded in part by the Cornell Council for the Arts.  

Inspiration

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, little was known about face mask needs for the general public outside of general recommendations for wear. Disposable ‘surgical’ masks became scarce due to the need to prioritize supplies for healthcare workers, and people with sewing abilities were enlisted in the thousands to volunteer to make cloth face masks for family, friends, and strangers. Early guidelines recommended woven cotton to be used, and patterns could be found online and in resources like the New York Times, which featured detailed instructions to create pleated face masks.

Like many others with the necessary sewing skills, I created masks for family members and friends, and donated hundreds of cloth N95 mask covers to healthcare facilities in Las Vegas and Houston. These masks resulted in loads of scraps – in an effort towards sustainability the scraps were saved for a future project, which became part of the BeMask’d wearable art mask series.

The Flamingo

The Flamingo mask was created as a tribute to the volunteer stitchers who donated their time and materials to sew masks for other people in a critical time. The design follows the Plague Doctor silhouette, and is comprised of a stretch denim layer made from upcycled jean pants scraps, an outer layer of patchworked woven cotton scraps seamed together, and an inner layer of cotton quilt batting. The layers are hand stitched together with white basting stitches. The eye openings are a pink and white cotton gingham bias tape left over from homemade mask straps.

The patchworked fabrics were assembled as yardage, then cut to different mask pattern sizes. Remaining scraps were then seamed together to create new yardage, with each successive mask’s patchwork featuring smaller and smaller scraps until they were finished. There were enough scraps to create 3 additional face masks in a shaped style that is contoured to the face. These masks similarly are comprised of a stretch denim base with cotton quilt batting and patchworked scraps as the outermost layer.

This project is funded in part by the Cornell Council for the Arts.