I want to do this project because I think love is always the most important theme in the area of theatre. There are lots of famous story talking about love especially tragic love such as red rose and white rose. It is a story about tow women and a man Zhenbao. I want to recreate this story because I this story happened in the most open period in China. At that time western culture were introduced to China and become popular. By exploring this story I can learn the combination of eastern and west. It is interested to see how cultural hybridisation and love expressed through the costume and performance. I very like this kind of story because these stories introduce me the first impression of the love between the man and women. And also the process of how happy love turn into tragic . I want to reinterpret this tragic love into modern story by considering the tragic love happened nowadays and the similarity between the historic and contemporary and focusing on show the changing process of love.I want to explore the tragic love story, because story has characters. Costume design is to design the costume to help the actors to show their performance and give audience the impression and understand different characters.Last project ( co create) I and partner are doing divorcing rings, so I started to research the tragic love story. I found that most of them are sad but romantic, that is the reason I want to do this theme. I also went to the globe theatre to watch a plays. It was sad that I can hardly understand the English, so the only I focus on is the acting and costume. They are the key factor of bring audience into the story. We feel like part of the story and acting, actor can interact with us and they also walk though the audience to the stage instead of behind the stage. The costume help people to imaging the setting and the background. Using sewing machine, pattern cutting, embroidery, illustration, Make up skills.

How do you fell about the starting?

I feel the starting is very very hard. Because  I have several things that I want to work with, but I can nor do that all.  So I have to decide my focus point and keep going. 

How are you beginning to develop your idea?

I am thinking about recreate the old story at the beginning. As I research lots of movie about tragic love. I think I have more understanding of how different tragic story happen. they  just like our normal life common and unquiet , they give people the huge impression and even teach us lesson.  I think my story can be simple but more focus on the emotion of the characters and how they changes. That the main things I want to present by my work.

How has writing your own brief affected how you feel about this project?

I feel like that I am more clear what to do this week and future. 

 Today, I went to the fabric shop in soho. I found that the fabric in the soho is very very expensive. It made me decide to buy the fabric online. I brought a plastic fabric which is very very similar to the silk.

And for the colour 

From the book, The red rose wearing a green long dressing gown, so the most simple connection between lover is the similar colour (green ) . So that the reason I decide to use green as the main colour.

Today, I am thinking about the collar of Zhenbao. I started to look at different type of collar.  I found a collar called tuxedo collar. I have seen it in the movie Wilde 1997. It has beautiful sense, costume and actors. Their collar gave me deep impression. Because they are not usual in nowadays , they are high and not been folded. They make men look like a poet or a gentlemen which is the effect I want to achieve . That what I want Zhenbao to show to other that he is educated and a good gentlemen. So I decide to have this collar in the shirt.

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This is the experiment of the collar, i measure the neck length of my model and I start to make a collar sample. 

I use the calico and plastic card board to make this collar, so this experience is very rough. I am happy with the shape, it is similar as my imagination, stand, straight, and high. But when I try on the mode( real model), it is not very suitable for his nature.  So I think I should make it shorter or fold it.

Today, I start to make pattern cutting for the shirt. I measure the body size of my model which help me to decide the length of the shirt something like that. The problem is that i want to have pleats or some winkle in the shirt, should I do it fist or after cutting the pattern.  I also decide to design the final out come of the red rose,  I want to make a dressing gown for the red rose. It seen restricted me when I design the costume, because I think I can only do the gown.

Today, I finished some pleats in the fabric and I had tutorial with tutor. I have lots of problem with the sketch book, ( to much research pictures, less annotation, rough sketch). She also think the red rose has less develop. So maybe I should start looking other feather of her. ( social beauty, appealing)  Those online celebrities can help me understand how the girl like to show and wear in their life. I found the different and also the connection between now and old times. Less fabric (maybe), more simple type. But they are all like to showing their beautiful body shape such as their waist, shoulder. So I can follow this to develop further.

Today, I had a tutorial about critical practice. I have lots of things need to be explain and write more details. 

Because of the time and ability, I have to choose  a female character between red roses and white roses. Eventually, I choose the red rose , because she is the most important women in Zhenbao's life and the Story has more description about her than white rose.  

I stated to sew the shirt pattern together. because I make winkle and smoking first in the fabrics and them cut the shape of the shirt pattern, it was very hard to make the pattern regular and cleaning which can cause trouble when sewing them together. The solution of this is to make a rough sew by hand and them sew by the machine. 

Today,  I am making the shirt and I also began making the dressing gown pattern. i decide to design while making , because making can create new idea and new consideration for the design.  The design of the red roses is based on the story, and inspired by the seductive creature ( lamia, Lilith ,medusa). I want the costume has long bottom and the shape or colour of the snake. Also, from the book,  she is wearing a green dressing gown.  So that the reason I choose the green as my main colour. It is the most clear way to show the relationship. 

This week, I also spending time to making dressing gown. The process of designing dressing gown is hard for me. Because I choose the senses where the book already describe very detail about the shape and the colour. So I feel restrict because I can only focus one one shape and green colour. So it was less develop for me.

The research I done for the red rose is The snake monster in the western myth. They are appealing men, seductive and dangerous. My model gave me this inspiration to research this kind of figure, because she is those women who are powerful and beautiful and not restarted by a good girl's rule ( for me ). So she mede me decide to research lamia, medusa these kind of women figure. It is kind of related to the feminism  to make a positive and strong personality girl. 

The problem I have during making was that the fabric I brought is not real silk but a fabric that similar to the silk. So it would not reach the effect that I expected to because it is too thick and hard comparing with silk.

The reason I choose silk because the silk is tie-in with velvet and prefect for dress.

Today is the shooting day, I have two costumes. I have been consider the shooting when I am designing or imaging the scene. At the very beginning, I was planning to make three costume ( red rose, white rose, and Zhenbao) and a film, because the story is mainly create by this three people and it will be more completed to have three people stand in a one senses. The audience can more clear that this is not a happy love story but sadness.  My aim is to create green dressing drown for the red rose and a green shirt with different texture for Zhenbao, a traditional qipao ( wedding dress ).  The male character and roses seat on the sofa, while the withe rose stand behind them to hold a white wedding roses. Because of the time, I add the red rose elements into Zhenbao's costume to try to show the whole story.

Although I couldn't have time to finish three garments, I am happy with today shooting.

Poster text 

This project explored tragic love from a story called red roses (Zhang E 1946）, white roses by interpreting this Chinese old love story into contemporary London tragic love. It is also a combination of western and eastern culture. The story is about an ambition Chinese textile designer fall in love with his friends wife (red rose ),  but at the end he choose his career to marry another women (white rose).  Red roses is a seductive and outgoing women, while white rose is the opposite one. She is a little women, well-behaved, traditional and quiet. There are two characters in the poster, the red rose and Zhenbao ( male character), because there is real love between them. Zhenbao wearing a green shirt with pleats and with yarn which showing the relationship with the two roses in his life. The red rose wearing the green dressing gown as Zhenbao first noticed her in this look. They seating together to show audience a love with a wrong beginning and end.

Poster text 

Odile shi

Tragic love 

Costume design for theatre and screen 

This project explores and interprets a Chinese tragic love from a story called 'Red Rose, White Rose, (Zhang E 1946) into a contemporary London tragic love story. Red Rose, White Rose is a story about an ambitious Chinese textile designer who falls in love with his friend's wife, but in the end, choses to marry another woman to save his reputation.

Costumes were created for the two characters for a scene in a new film version of the story. The two characters investigated are the Red Rose and Zhenbao (male character), because there is love between them. Zhenbao wears a green shirt with pleats and yarn, which represents the relationship between two Roses in his life. The Red Rose wears the green dressing gown that she wore when Zhenbao first fell for her. The seated image explores the sadness of tragic love.

Today I learn making smoking from the YouTube. Because the Zhenbao love the wrinkle in his clothes. So I started  to research different types of pleats that can related to a textile designer. When I finished this sample, I was thinking about how can I use this into the costume to show his personal taste and professional.  I put it on the shoulder because the shoulder can reflected the power and ambition of a men and it means a lots for a men.  For example, there are lots of suit for men are extended their shoulder to make it higher, longer. When I see the smoking with the shirts I think it is very suitable and a little bit like the soldier.

Today, I am writing the poster text, evaluation and photoshop the photographs. At the beginning , I almost forget how to use the ps except opening the photos. So I ask teacher and classmate to teach me. For my pictures, I think it can be a poster already, but I want to make the background more green and blue which can more relate to the tragic theme. But when I finish the background I can't do another same background for another photo. So maybe, I should remember all the datas.

For the writing task, I have the experience of writing too much, so this time I will  control the number of the words more.I think the poster text and evaluation help me more understand our theme and our title, I am more clear when I am explaining it.

I have completed most of the aims in my proposal, I recreated the story into contemporary London, and I made romantic style costumes considering some Eastern culture for the characters. When I finished the design, there is something I did not achieve as I wanted to design a costume that combines two cultures, but I created more of a Western style costume, and the eastern elements are not as obvious. 

When I am designing a male character, ‘Chinese textile designer working in London’, I compare the western men’s costumes in the 40s and cloth; the similar thing is that suit is still accessible from 40s to now, but men nowadays have more choices. So these affect me to make the costume becoming complicated instead of simple, regular. I have a good ability to make clothes but making a suite was beyond my capabilities at this stage so I decided to design a shirt. The successful thing is that I developed my character by considering his personality and his relationship between two women, I research Chinese bamboo which is a symbol of an honourable man because of  Zhenbao’s career, I want to make some professional pleats and wrinkle, so I learn the smocking skill using in the costume. 

The most difficult things in this project are writing, sketching, and making. When writing, It is hard to describe, and sometimes I cannot show the exact meaning I want to present. For the sketching, it is easy to imagine a great picture in my mind while my sketch is totally different from it. The other thing is that the making ability; it is hard to make a pattern, and I will get some ideas about how it can work better in a different way during the making.

The best part of the project is the final outcome. I am happy with the outcome even they are not looking very contemporary, but they are similar to what I imagined, and the actors I chose are very suitable for the costume. It is essential to choose the actors or actress first because it helps me to make the most suitable clothes for them, and it is happy to make a story into real life.

My development is quite limited for the female characters ‘dressing gown’ because the book states she wears a dressing gown and I found this limiting. The material I chose is not real silk as silk was too expensive but the fabric is more hard and thick, so it causes the problem of not fitting the body shape and too thick to form a soft dress.

Because of the time management, I did not leave enough time to create the white rose. I design these costumes for a film, so if actors are wearing the costume to take poster for the film to show part of the story, it will be better to have all the essential characters that audience can have a clear understanding of how the story happened.

If I could do this project again, I will research more contemporary fashion and material to make more casual costume for this character. For the red rose character  I would design through her personality and interpret how she might appear today. This experience helped me to learn lots of essential skills such as critical thinking and how costume can help the audience to understand the story.

Today, I am planning to cover white yarn in this costume, because I want to use this white material to show the relationship between white roses. At first,  I want to  make three costume. This material was for white rose wearing the wedding, because of the time I cannot make a costume for her, so I decided to combined her element into Zhenbao's costume to show his life.

These are the experiment I try on the costume to make the best effect.