Beth is a very self-assured character, she is good at her job but she knows it. She works extremely hard to gain sales and eventually it all pays off when she wins the promotion for the role at head office.

We decided that Beth’s delusion needed to show how she sees herself. We initially had the idea of having Beth’s delusion showing her as the president of the United States. We wanted to get her high self-confidence across to the audience and also her big ambitions.

We really struggled to imagine how we could make the president delusion visually interesting for the audience, so we started again. We knew we wanted the delusion to show Beth achieving greatness, so we started looking up powerful women throughout history and it was decided…

Queen Elizabeth I was our lady.

We watched a Youtube clip of Cate Blanchett as Queen Elizabeth I on horseback. We were inspired to use a Queen Elizabeth I speech as Beth’s words of acceptance and delusion after winning the promotion.

I began thinking about the costume for Beth’s delusion. I was inspired by images of Queen Elizabeth I and decided that a cape with some form of Elizabethan ruff would be suitable and easy to put on in front of the audience. It was this specific picture of Elizabeth which inspired me to begin designing the cape.

I loved the height of the cape behind Elizabeth I’s head and stated thinking about how I could design something similar.

After finding a long satin skirt which had already been used as a cape, I was able to think about how I would apply a high lace collar to the material. I looked at Pinterest for inspiration, it helped me think about the design of the lace collar and how I would get it to stand up by itself.

Pencil to paper…

I drew out how I wanted the cape to look and though about how I was going to get each element of the cape to work on the stage. I wanted it to be possible for the cape to be put on in front of the audience, so I took into account that Emily would have to wear her office costume underneath. My design ended up looking like this:

With the beginnings of the cape already donated from a local theatre’s costume store, I was able to start creating the lace collar.

I began with two wire coat hangers, an old lace curtain and a few broken pieces of jewellery.

From here, I shaped the wire into the shape I wanted and then stitched the wire onto the cape.

After a lot of sewing, the cape was beginning to take shape. (With a little help from my feline friends)

I sewed on individual pieces of jewellery and reinforced the lace collar to ensure that the cape would stay in place during the speech.

I’m very pleased with how the cape turned out, it was very simple and quick to put on. I’m pleased the design worked and resembled Queen Elizabeth I’s fashion.

Kowkshsee (2011) Queen Elizabeth I (Cate Blanchett), Tilbury Speech [online video] Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3Bq1h728X0 [Accessed 6 May 2017].

Howard Rees-Jones, G. (2017) Kalopsia. Lincoln: George Howard Rees-Jones Media.