Josie Gudgeon

My project is centred around Disney’s well-known fairy-tale Beauty and the Beast which comes from the fantasy novel by the French author Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve, However, for my first adaptation of this novel I chose to give my performance an adult based audience taking inspiration from a second novel of ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ to look at how the key themes correlated into modern society. When making the Beasts costume, I was really drawn to the idea of using waste hair as it is consider disgusting and not attractive to look at, so using a material on his costume that people already find disgusting will enhance this overall aesthetic. In Contrast I wanted to make my second adaption both theatre and child based, a Pan-African approach gave me wide range of bright bold textile patterns which was ideal to prompt this notion of a child-based audience. When choosing the African influence for each character I ensured that my research reflected each person’s characteristics and role within the story. My University experience has allowed me to develop my skills as a designer allowing me to effectively create characters that fit the brief both digitally and by hand. Along with this I have gained the technical ability to develop my designs into final garments which are both innovative and fit for purpose.