Mermaid Corsair
I have been working and making costumes for Renaissance Faire attendees for year. It’s one of the really fun and creative things that I get to do. It creates such a mood.
A few years ago, I was asked to create a pink pirate for one of the more recognizable Rennies I know. Something with a pink as the highlight color and something to contrast it with.
After our initial conversation, I came up with some reference images that struck me.
I started sketching ideas. I sketched about 15 different concepts for our next video consultation. Below is the initial sketch of the final concept and the final sketch that was presented and approved.
And then, I started dyeing fabric. You can see how the powders looked during the dyeing stages. And then the final pieces below, including the fabric board I created for this design.
Now that the concept and the fabrics have been approved. We started creating the moch-ups. Basically, I am making the entire outfit to verify style, fit, placement, and basically that the design works.
Once this step was complete…it was time to start on the final pieces. We began with the corset…our favorite part.
The corset is always the anchor pieces for us. Its what everything else is based around. And sets the tone for the ENTIRE outfit.
So we had so much fun adding the details to this piece. I got to play with epoxy and gold flakes. Creating seahorses and sand dollars. Then laid the netting over the entire corset. And added all the created epoxy pieces and beading to the corset to create this feeling of treasure and sea shells. This brought so much joy in the creation and layering.
Once the corset was complete, we created pantaloons, a double layer high-low skirt, and the pirate coat. Adding brass buttons, more of the epoxy pieces and netting to the coat and the skirts. All these ocean pieces being caught in the nets on the pink and blue oceans.
A few images from the final fitting.
The joy of making full costumes like this in all its intricacies isn’t something that I’m good at explaining. But these pieces, how they work together and the fact that its so joyful a piece to see is one of my favorite costumes ever created.
Pictures are credited to David Tijok. (If I have that incorrect, please let me know and I will make sure the credit gets changed…as everyone deserves credit for their work).