apolifka
Well-Known Member
Ever since I heard Skinny Puppy I've been enamored by their visual and theatrical side. As time went on I lost interest in most of their music, preferring the driving industrial of Ministry and My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult over Puppy's ambient, dark sound but I still wanted to make this costume one day. Well, that one day has come. The opportunity has arisen for me to create this as a soft sculpture for my college Sculpture I class.
The first step, as always, is to do lots of research. Luckily the original creator of the costume documented and has made public much of her drawings and WIP. These images have been amazingly helpful.
To make the mockup process easier I drafted a body block of my torso to fit the garment to. This mockup was then refined and I used the created pattern to cut the base vest from a white denim/ twill. The original mockup is shown below on my duct tape dummy, which was made for this project as well.
Onto the mockup I transferred the markings and measurements from my sketches to make sure I could proportionally fit all of the webbing onto the vest. After some re-arranging and head scratching I was able to work out an arrangement that fit.
The webbing is all trimmed and created by hand from a vintage 1969 firehose made from linen. The original artist noted this as the material used in the original costume. As the hose is cut it loses its integrity as a fabric swatch so each edge had to be zig-zag stitched as to keep the webbing together.
The webbing was then mocked up, assembled, and stitched to specifications and then stitched to the vest.
Here's the vest as it stands now, much progress has been made but there is still a ways to go. I plan to do the back as well as the headpiece for sure. The pants I may attempt if I have the drive and the time, but little references of them exist to draw from. Stay tuned!
Regards,
Austin
The first step, as always, is to do lots of research. Luckily the original creator of the costume documented and has made public much of her drawings and WIP. These images have been amazingly helpful.
To make the mockup process easier I drafted a body block of my torso to fit the garment to. This mockup was then refined and I used the created pattern to cut the base vest from a white denim/ twill. The original mockup is shown below on my duct tape dummy, which was made for this project as well.
Onto the mockup I transferred the markings and measurements from my sketches to make sure I could proportionally fit all of the webbing onto the vest. After some re-arranging and head scratching I was able to work out an arrangement that fit.
The webbing is all trimmed and created by hand from a vintage 1969 firehose made from linen. The original artist noted this as the material used in the original costume. As the hose is cut it loses its integrity as a fabric swatch so each edge had to be zig-zag stitched as to keep the webbing together.
The webbing was then mocked up, assembled, and stitched to specifications and then stitched to the vest.
Here's the vest as it stands now, much progress has been made but there is still a ways to go. I plan to do the back as well as the headpiece for sure. The pants I may attempt if I have the drive and the time, but little references of them exist to draw from. Stay tuned!
Regards,
Austin
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