How A Costume Can Tell A Narrative As A Standalone Garment

^{Paris Burrows modelling “How a Costume can tell a narrative” – Maverick Durkin 2023. Photo taken by Maverick Durkin.}

For my major research project in my final year of NIDA I wanted to focus on the representation of story through costume and practice-based research on thermoplastics to create a stained glass effect corset. I am drawn too specialty costumes and alternate fabrications and wanted to explore new techniques.  

I chose to focus my project on the representation of women in fairy tales, in particular Snow White or Beautiful Girl stories and was amazed to discover the many variations of the fairytale that occur worldwide. All these versions tell of the evils of vanity that seems even more relevant today with social media and plastic surgeries. 

By utilising stained glasses ability to tell a story, I was able to portray scenes from the many versions of the fairytale in the corset, focusing on their commonalities and the relationship between women in the stories. In connecting the corset with the rest of the costume I took inspiration from Gothic architecture, the structures that allowed large expanses of stained glass. 

In researching the project I came to realize how these shared stories reveal how much we have common. However, my project coincided with the backlash against Rachel Zegler portraying Snow White in the upcoming Disney film, and in light of the many versions of the story world wide this backlash was purely racist and made me realise how how divided we are by our prejudices

Materials: PET-G, Acrylic Paint, Apoxie Clay, Satin, Fibreglass, Velvet, Beaded Lace.

^{Paris Burrows modelling “How a Costume can tell a narrative” – Maverick Durkin 2023. Photo taken by Maverick Durkin.}

^{Paris Burrows modelling “How a Costume can tell a narrative” – Maverick Durkin 2023. Photo taken by Maverick Durkin.}

^{Paris Burrows modelling “How a Costume can tell a narrative” – Maverick Durkin 2023. Photo taken by Maverick Durkin.}

^{Paris Burrows modelling “How a Costume can tell a narrative” – Maverick Durkin 2023. Photo taken by Maverick Durkin.}

^{Paris Burrows modelling “How a Costume can tell a narrative” – Maverick Durkin 2023. Photo taken by Maverick Durkin.}

^{Paris Burrows modelling “How a Costume can tell a narrative” – Maverick Durkin 2023. Photo taken by Maverick Durkin.}

^{Concept sketch of Major Research Project by Maverick Durkin.}