Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Fly Girl Tops

Last year I was asked by costume designer Jessica Pabst to create what she kept referring to as "fly girl tops" for a musical at Second Stage called Nobody Loves You. For those of you who may not get the reference, fly girls were the backup dancers on the variety show In Living Colored that aired back in the 90's.

Pictures of the process...

This is the rough sketch Jessica drew (on a post-it note!) to convey how she wanted the tops to look.

This is a front view photo of the top I took to show Jessica my progress while I was making them. In the final look, the trim connected all the way around to make a continuous line rather than being tucked into the neckline of the shirt as seen in this photo. 

Back view progress photo. You can see it needs some pressing at the top. 



Production photos of my top being worn on stage. I made four tops altogether, including one for an understudy. It was really exciting seeing something I made being worn on the stage of a professional Off-Broadway theater, especially since I was given comp tickets and got to take my good friend Emma. The last time I had seen something I made onstage was back in college, so this was definitely way more exciting.