From Page to Stage: The Servants

This week we return to the high fashion world of The Fruits of Enlightenment with the Servants. These were an interesting group to develop the look for as they existed in the high fashion world of the rich but do not hold the affluence that the others who exist in this world hold. They needed to be a uniform group to highlight them as the staff in the house but I wanted the uniform to still be sleek and fit in with the rest of the house and its occupants. From discussions with director, James Robert Carson, we even mused that the Mistress herself had had a hand in the design of the uniforms to ensure that the Servants fit in with the perfection of her house.

I started the research process by looking at a standard modern butler’s outfit to get a general idea of what staff in a modern house would generally be expected to wear in the normal world. This was a combination looking at images from the official Butler School and looking at staff at Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street, however all of these outfits seems to be too grounded in the real world and did not quite assimilate into the high fashion world that would be around them. This moved my research elsewhere.

I began looking into a more design focused staff look with The Hunger Games. I researched the looks of the Avox, the staff whose tongues are removed and forced to serve the competitors in the games each year in the Capitol. They perfectly exemplified a more conservative and practical look that still maintained the high fashion elements of the Capitol but distinguished them as staff rather than just part of the extravagance. On top of this research I looked to the catwalks of John Galliano, Issey Miyake and Delpozo particularly at their structured outfits that gave visually interesting sharp edges and striking shapes within their designs.

A final big influence in the development of the design was a uniform design for the SLS Hotel in Los Angeles which gave a range of potential uniform designs for their staff in the hotel that all worked nicely together but had their own individual elements that made them unique from one another. I also liked the clean cut look of the black and white within these outfits.

After this heavy research phase I had further discussions with the director and set designer, Melissa Lim to ensure that the costumes worked alongside the set. The initial set designs were extremely elaborate and lavish with a general gold and blue theme which lead to a discussion about the potential for the servants’ costumes to matched and also be gold and blue. As the set developed into a more minimalistic and stark white design, it no longer made sense to maintain the blue and gold in the servants’ costumes and instead move to a sleeker black and gold design which was maintained into the final designs where I tried to combine the high fashion with modern butler and staff looks to develop a male outfit (worn by Grigory – Sam Rees and Semyon – Ruth Phillips) that consisted of a white shirt, gold tie, black trousers and a black waistcoat with a gold trim and a female outfit (worn by Sarah Carton – Tanya and Hollie Reed – Doorkeeper) that was a black maid’s dress with gold trim and black court shoes.

After these basic outfits were designed I moved the more specific outfits of head of household staff Fyodor played by Isabelle Kabban and the Cook played by Molly McKernan. We wanted to distinguish Fyodor as different from the rest of the staff as their character was in charge of the rest of the staff. We did this by developing the character into a more gender fluid role. Isabelle portrayed the character in a more masculine way but we introduced feminine elements into the look to distinguish them as different. The director also liked the comedy in the idea that The Mistress requested that the head of her household staff be gender fluid thinking of it as “fashionable” without thinking of the insensitivity of such an idea.

So, to develop this look we looked at legendary corset maker Mr. Pearl, famed for his eighteen inch waist developed through constantly wearing waist-training corsets, only removing them for bathing. He was often seen wearing his corsets over a shirt and trousers, blending the lines between feminine and masculine appearance. Using Mr. Pearl as inspiration this was how I developed the look for Fyodor, giving them the white shirt, gold tie and black trousers from the male outfit but a tight-fitting black corset over the top. Finally, I developed the look of the Cook. This was probably a more simple development process as the classic chef coat, once put in black and given gold trim, already looked fashionable with its asymmetrical jacket.

Once these designs were finalised it moved into the making and sourcing process. I ordered basic black maid/nurse dresses from a work uniform site as well as basic black waistcoats from Amazon. I also ordered a simple black chef jacket from another work uniform site. I then found the perfect light gold ties online as well and then found a fabric that matched in a fabric shop in Norwich ready to add the trim to the outfits. I did fittings with the girls to shorten their dresses to make them more fashionable and then, along with some other members of the costume team, added the gold trim carefully along the edges of the dresses, waistcoats and chef jacket. I had some spare fabric left over as well to make two extra gold ties ready for the stage hands to wear so that their blended in with the rest of the staff when they had to move set in the background of scenes. On top of this, I was able to find the perfect black corset in the Maddermarket Theatre costume store for Fyodor.

After making the initial base costume for the chef I discussed the character further with actress, Molly, who was talking about how her approach to the character was going to be erratic and nervous so we talked about backcombing her hair dramatically, a la Helena Bonham Carter, and covering her outfit in flour as if she is always creating a mess in the kitchen. It was great to be able to develop the costume alongside Molly’s development process of her character and I think adding some mess and messy hair to her costume it really brought through her constantly on-edge character.

One of the struggles I did face during the making and development process of the outfits was with Semyon. Semyon had been cast as Ruth Phillips, a wonderful actress but with a very feminine body and face. It was important that Semyon had to look decidedly male as he is the love interest of Tanya (Sarah Carton) and the director wanted to maintain the genders of these characters. After a number of discussions and attempts at different techniques we were able to acquire a special binding sports bra, that bound Ruth’s chest to make her body look more male and with the added straight waistcoat over the top, along with Ruth's physicality, I think we successfully gave Semyon a more male look. On top of this, make-up designer, Angie Peña-Arenas, contoured Ruth’s face to give a suggestion of a more masculine jawline and cheekbones.

With Angie Peña-Arenas, I developed individual make-up looks for each of the servants to distinguish them. To develop these looks we turned to the fashion world, the drag scene, geishas among other influences. I’ve put a collection of the photos of the make-up looks with their influences next to each one. They range from Tanya’s look inspired by drag queen, Alaska Thunderf***, Grigory’s look inspired by geishas and the Cook’s look inspired by Tim Burton’s Queen of Hearts, make-up design by Paul Gooch.

I was so happy with how the Servants’ worked with the rest of the costumes and how they worked with one another. It was challenging to develop the look but I think the results paid off and it all came together and I was ecstatic with the outcome onstage.