FASHION TELLS STORIES: LCF COSTUME AND PERFORMANCE

By London College of Fashion

London College of Fashion, UAL, has a number of courses relating to performance: from BA (Hons) 3D Effects for Performance and Fashion, BA (Hons) Costume for Performance, BA (Hons) Hair, Make-up and Prosthetics for Performance, to MA Costume Design for Performance. Students go on to work on film sets, in theatre, and in entertainment companies such as Merlin Studios. We even have alumni creating characters for Star Wars.Here you can see a selection of the weird and wonderful, as well as the costumes in action at the shows held annually at Sadler's Wells, London.

MA17 Costume Design for Performance Show at Sadlers Wells, December 2016 - the team did a 'mannequin challenge' (2016) by LCFLondon College of Fashion

MA17 Costume Design for Performance Show at Sadlers Wells, December 2016 MA17 Costume Design for Performance Show at Sadlers Wells, December 2016London College of Fashion

MA17 MA Costume Design for Performance, behind the scenes at the show, Sadler's Wells, December 2016

Photography by Emmi Hyyppa

MA17 Costume Design for Performance Show at Sadlers Wells, December 2016 MA17 Costume Design for Performance Show at Sadlers Wells, December 2016 by Veronica Toppino, Photography by Emmi HyyppaLondon College of Fashion

MA17 Costume Design for Performance Show at Sadlers Wells, December 2016 MA17 Costume Design for Performance Show at Sadlers Wells, December 2016 by Su-Yu Chen, Photography by Emmi HyyppaLondon College of Fashion

MA17 Costume Design for Performance Show at Sadlers Wells, December 2016 MA17 Costume Design for Performance Show at Sadlers Wells, December 2016 by Photography by Emmi HyyppaLondon College of Fashion

MA17 Costume Design for Performance Show at Sadlers Wells, December 2016 MA17 Costume Design for Performance Show at Sadlers Wells, December 2016 by Xiaolin Jiao, Photography by Emmi HyyppaLondon College of Fashion

Dream by Xiaolin Jiao

MA17 Costume Design for Performance Show at Sadlers Wells, December 2016 MA17 Costume Design for Performance Show at Sadlers Wells, December 2016 by Li Xiong, Photography by Emmi HyyppaLondon College of Fashion

A Fisherman’s Tale by Maya Gewily

MA17 Costume Design for Performance Show at Sadlers Wells, December 2016 MA17 Costume Design for Performance Show at Sadlers Wells, December 2016 by Sara Rodridges, Photography by Emmi HyyppaLondon College of Fashion

Knife and Bucket Stories by Sara Rodrigues

One, No One and One Hundred Thousand by Veronica Toppino

The Little Mermaid by Li Xiong

MA17 Costume Design for Performance Show at Sadlers Wells, December 2016 MA17 Costume Design for Performance Show at Sadlers Wells, December 2016 by Chiara Vicini, Photography by Emmi HyyppaLondon College of Fashion

Weaving Your own Skin by Chiara Vicini

Chiara Vicini, MA Costume Design for Performance
"I chose LCF because… it has the best courses for costume making. It allows students to explore both theatre and film, and most importantly it gives us the possibility to experiment and learn new techniques."

Read more on LCF News

MA17 Costume Design for Performance Show at Sadlers Wells, December 2016 MA17 Costume Design for Performance Show at Sadlers Wells, December 2016 by Yi Zhang, Photography by Emmi HyyppaLondon College of Fashion

Lasso of Truth by Corinne Brothers

No Exit – Hell is Other People by Yi Zhang

Sy-Yu Chen, MA Costume Design for Performance
"This year has been really important for me, I feel like I am much braver than I was in the past. What I enjoy the most in the course is finding my own creative path and walking it without doubt. Being able to learn, to design and to work without restrictions gave me a lot of freedom and helped me gain a lot of confidence."

Read more on LCF News

The Eagle has Two Heads by Sy-Yu Chen

MA17 Costume Design for Performance Show at Sadlers Wells, December 2016 MA17 Costume Design for Performance Show at Sadlers Wells, December 2016 by Crystal Baker-Manning, Photography by Emmi HyyppaLondon College of Fashion

Crystal Baker-Manning, MA Costume Design for Performance
"I chose MA Costume Design for Performance because I wanted a postgraduate course that applied costume within various performative mediums, and the resources available at LCF, as well as the tutors and technicians had an incredible reputation. I wanted to study the best course in Costume Design!"

Read more on LCF News

MA17 Costume Design for Performance Show at Sadlers Wells, December 2016 (2016) by LCFLondon College of Fashion

Meet MA Costume course leader Agnes Treplin (2012) by LCFLondon College of Fashion

Untitled' by Ester Mangas Fernandez, MA16 Costume (2016)London College of Fashion

Ester Mangas, MA Costume Design for Performance, 2016
What are you producing for the MA Costume show?
"I am producing a costume which undergoes a metamorphosis through each performance. The costume starts as a white skirt, a blank slate in which depending on the performer’s movement, the splatter pattern of blue paint is different. An individual and unrepeatable garment is produced after every performance due to factors like chance, unpredictability and improvisation, all part of live performance. I have also worked with water and dissolvable fabrics as a comment on the ephemerality and “liveness“ of performance itself."

Read more on LCF News

Untitled' by Ester Mangas Fernandez performed at the MarKings Festival (2016) by Ester MangasLondon College of Fashion

Daphne Karstens's 'Ping' was based on Samuel Beckett. Performed by Lorraine Smith, MA15 (2014)London College of Fashion

MA15

MA15 Costume Design for Performance took place at Sadler's Wells in December 2014

MA15 Costume Performance at Sadler's WellsLondon College of Fashion

Daphne Karstens's 'Ping' was based on Samuel Beckett. Performed by Lorraine Smith, MA15 (2014)London College of Fashion

Daphne Karstens's 'Ping' was based on Samuel Beckett. Performed by Lorraine Smith, MA15 (2014) by Daphne KarstensLondon College of Fashion

Ballet Russes Design PerspectivesLondon College of Fashion

BA (Hons) 3D Effects for Performance and Fashion (2016) by LCFLondon College of Fashion

A Day in the Life

The costume and performance courses at London College of Fashion include BA (Hons) Costume for Performance, MA Costume Design for Performance, BA (Hons) Hair and Make-up for Fashion, BA (Hons) Hair, Make-up and Prosthetics for Performance and 3D Effects for Performance and Fashion. From drawing outfits to making giant insects, the end result is very exciting.

BA (Hons) 3D Effects for Performance and Fashion (2016) by LCFLondon College of Fashion

Behind the scenes...of the makeup and 3D effects courses (2015)London College of Fashion

Georgia Evans, BA (Hons) Hair, Makeup and Prosthetics for Performance
"I made a foam latex prosthetic to look like mould and different fungi which was to lay over my models head and around her ear. In the story her skin is described as being translucent so I wanted some of the mould and fungi to sit under the skin and some to be creeping out of it. We had to choose an era to focus on for our research so I looked at the 1800’s and that’s where the design for my wig comes from. I wanted to keep to the description in the story and make the vampire’s hair long and straight, but I added in the rolls and the height for a twist from the 1800s."

Read more on LCF News

Work by Charlotte Bull by Charlotte BullLondon College of Fashion

Behind the scenes...of the makeup and 3D effects courses (2015)London College of Fashion

BA (Hons) 3D Effects for Performance and FashionLondon College of Fashion

Costume by Begum Berdan at the BA15 exhibition (2015) by Begum BerdanLondon College of Fashion

Wigs by Beth Harris at the BA15 exhibition (2015) by Beth HarrisLondon College of Fashion

The man who mistook his wife for a hat' by Aurora Beadle (2015) by Aurora BeadleLondon College of Fashion

Animal Farm Napoleon' by Aurora Beadle (2015) by Aurora BeadleLondon College of Fashion

Making 'The Company of Wolves' by Hannah Spring (2015) by Hannah SpringLondon College of Fashion

Acting 'The Company of Wolves' by Hannah Spring (2015) by Hannah SpringLondon College of Fashion

The Company of Wolves' by Hannah Spring, at the BA15 exhibition (2015) by Hannah SpringLondon College of Fashion

Puma, The Triptych of Dr Moreau' by Suzi Battersby (2013) by Suzi BattersbyLondon College of Fashion

Suzi Battersby, BA (Hons) Technical Effects Alumna
"“Working on Star Wars: Episode VII was an amazing experience. It was the first major feature film that I worked on and so I learnt a lot about the differences between that and a smaller scale film; the sheer scale was jaw-dropping. Not to mention the incredible talent of the people I was working with in the Creature Department. I was fortunate to work directly for a very highly respected creature fabricator, constructing three different alien creature suits as well as being part of the small team that created BB-8, the new droid! To know that I played a part in making a new iconic film character is still quite unbelievable to me.”

Read more on LCF News

Credits: Story

MA Costume Design for Performance Course Leader Agnes Treplin
Karl Rouse is Programme Director for Performance at London College of Fashion
BA (Hons) Costume for Performance Course Leader Claire Christie
BA (Hons) 3D Effects for Performance and Fashion Course Leader Caroline Gardener
BA (Hons) Hair, Makeup and Prosthetics for Performance Course Leader

With special thanks to Sadler's Wells

Credits: All media

The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.

London College of Fashion

London College of Fashion

Explore more

Related theme

We Wear Culture

The stories behind what we wear

View theme