BA (Hons) Costume for Performance
I am an enthusiastic and hard-working individual who enjoys every aspect of the design process. My foundation course in theatre design at Wimbledon College of Art has provided me with a basis for integrating costume design with set design and art direction. Carefully considered research underpins my design process, as does a genuine interest in building narrative through costume. My inquisitive nature allows thoughtful experimentation to feed back into my understanding of character and script. I have worked as a costume designer for short films and music videos and additionally as a costume trainee, standby, assistant and maker on a range of theatre, dance, opera and film productions. I have a professional attitude and enjoy working collaboratively. For the final year of my degree I devised the narrative for a collaboration with film maker Emma Nichols, using oral histories, personal artifacts and site specific research to build a story around childhood through the 1950s and 1960s. Looking closely at the way that children interpret personal space through imagination, I designed costume and set to represent a dreamlike state corresponding to childhood play. As a short film, 'The House' will explore a nostalgic attachment to childhood spaces and objects, focusing on a ghostly child who inhabits the house she grew up in. I art directed and project managed the film, also working collaboratively with choreographer Jayne Lawrence to devise the movement of the piece. Technical skills include historical and contemporary pattern cutting, tailoring, corsetry and frames, millinery, fabric manipulation and decoration. Press: http://fussedmag.com/03-2012/blogs/ones-to-watch-sophie-o-neill.html