IT'S DONE!!! 🥳 My new Phantom tailsuit is complete and on its way to the UK!
Just completely in awe of what @ajmachete (IG) and his Denver Bespoke @vigilantelabs (IG) team have created for me! AHHHH!!!!! 🤩😳🤩🥰🤩
This suit is inspired by 90s era Phantom suits on Broadway. All the fabrics were sourced to provide the best possible match to the authentic stage fabrics. Anyone who has researched for the Phantom's suit knows the iconic patterned silk is prohibitively expensive and impossible to obtain. Finding a fabric that gives the same effect is incredibly difficult, but I think we found a great substitute! In fact, stumbling onto this fabric was the entire inspiration for this commission in the first place.
I contacted AJ earlier this year about constructing a new suit for my Phantom of the Opera cosplay. Immediately, I knew I made an excellent choice. He and his team made the whole process smooth. They are top professionals in their craft, and it is evident in this exquisite result. If you need any bespoke tailoring done for your cosplay, or if you have an idea for a cool everyday garment, please give AJ and his team a look!
Thank you AJ for this amazing piece of art! 🥰
I cannot wait to receive the suit and don the mask for the first time in nearly three years. I am so excited for the upcoming conventions, photoshoots, and shenanigans with the @the_phananigans (IG) in/around London! ❤️🇬🇧
I also hope to use this new version of the cosplay to highlight some of our outstanding artists in the Phantom community. Standby for future collaborations. 😎
This article has a good range of topics from making use of quilts to replicating a vintage collar to fitting and embellishments. The cover story by Judith Neukam on quilted jackets ponders re-using a vintage quilt as well as collaging with new fabric scraps. Related to this accidentally is the article by Lindsay Ostlie who offers a zero-waste blouse which you see here in brown with cut-on dolman sleeves and the fabric selvedges used as trim along the buttoned opening. Now, if all the dressmakers could get together with the quiltmakers, I think we could put to good use all those fabric scraps from more conventionally cut garments.
Anna Mazur explains how to create a flower motif using self-fabric petals with sealant applied around the edges and paillettes, crystals and beads. You see here the pale green blouse that results. You can well imagine different designs to develop using this technique from the quieter self-trim like this to more dramatic contrasting colors.
Kenneth King analyzes the circa 1940 dress in black, white and red on the back cover with an unusual collar created with a center ring through which the two scarf collar edges loop to button down high up on the bodice. He explains how it can be done and his version is quieter than the playful version on the back cover with two-tone covered buttons in order to avoid what he calls a “costumey” look. If on the other hand you are interesting in theater costuming, you will enjoy the articles on Bernadette Banner who recreates period clothing from the late 19th and early 20th Century and on Arnold S. Levine, author and millinery, who does Broadway and carnival millinery work of all kinds and who shares some of his favorite supplies.
There are also more technical articles on ways to make knit pants, on fitting garments through the shoulders, bust and torso, plus reviews of new patterns and fashion trends for fall.
Threads is my favorite airplane reading as you can enjoy the pictures when your brain is tired or dig into the details of a new technique and learn how to do it.
You can find it at your favorite bookstore, fabric store, or online here: https://www.threadsmagazine.com/
Spider-Man friend (@spidey-sense-projections) and I got to see Hadestown today!
I had the realization during the show that in Hadestown, Hermès (the god of thieves known for speed) wears all silver. And I know it’s not an intentional nod to quicksilver but it makes me so happy
Cosplayers and Broadway fans of tumblr, I am in dire need of help. I am on the search for Johnny’s Raiders of the Lost Ark t-shirt as worn in American Idiot on Broadway. I’ve tried everything on the internet that I could to try and find it. Would anyone have any suggestions where else to look? It is a gift for a friend!
The 2023 American Girl Doll of the Year is Kavi Sharma, a South Asian American theatre kid who loves Wicked SO SHE HAS A REPLICA ELPHABA COSTUME. I am absolutely ecstatic that kids get this.
edit: SHE ALSO HAS A GLINDA COSTUME
SHE ALSO HAS THIS!! BECAUSE SHE PERFORMS A TRADITIONAL DANCE ROUTINE WITH HER FRIENDS AT SCHOOL AND SHE LOVES BOLLYWOOD
I could talk for days about the costuming in the show, and I probably will. One of the small details I’d like to point out is Persephone’s hair. It’s easy to point and talk about her change from vibrant greens to dressing like she is headed for a funeral but I think her hair speaks volumes (ha)
Up top Persephone let’s herself loose. She’s dancing and moving- hell! She floats from person to person absolutely buzzing with excitement as everyone in the bar is so alive - literally! She’s loose and very telling with her body language. Her hair is down and wild as she is. She has a nice bit of flowers braided in too.
Down below she’s stiff. It’s like her clothes confine her just as much as the town and hades himself does. She still moves and has expression but she’ll toss her wrist instead of something full body. She gestures , she stands and she walks instead of floating. Here her hair is put into a snood, her hair is caged. All that wild energy is subdued, even the little flowers on it are black and dead (likely as apart of the snood and not real flowers but the point stands).
I just— this show has so much loving detail put into it down to the floors and the smallest fiber oh costumes and I’m so in love.