Personal designs and construction of the personifications of the Earth, the moon and the sun.
The Sun, inspired by the Xhosa peoples.
Suede, gold foil, cotton, satin, beads, body paint.
Unfortunately, all of my process photos were lost for my Moon, Sun and Mother Nature project due to a computer crash. These are some behind-the-scenes photos from the photoshoot, where I will still explain my process of making this costume with the captions.
I bought all materials used for this costume.
The Sun, inspired by the Xhosa peoples.
Suede, gold foil, cotton, satin, beads, body paint.
Unfortunately, all of my process photos were lost for my Moon, Sun and Mother Nature project due to a computer crash. These are some behind-the-scenes photos from the photoshoot, where I will still explain my process of making this costume with the captions.
I bought all materials used for this costume.
Final design for Sun character
Original design for Sun character.
Reference photo and inspiration for Sun's costume. The fabric tied across the shoulder was a look that I was going for and gave a sense of regality.
Reference photo and inspiration for Sun's costume. The facial paint designs were an inspiration and helped me understand the culture's uses of dots and lines.
Reference photo and inspiration for Sun's costume. The beads on the men's necks and arms further supported my ideas of dressing Sun with something beaded. The skirted pants also gave me further insight onto how much fabric I should be using for his pants or skirt.
Reference photo and inspiration for Sun's costume. The fabric draped across the shoulder was continuing to stick to the design and this image helped me finally confirm that I should add beads or jewelry to the outfit to emphasize the kingship of the Sun.
Reference photo and inspiration for Sun's costume. This man's cloak made me consider how much of Sun's chest should be showing.
Reference photo and inspiration for Sun's costume. I was debating equipping Sun with a weapon or a prop for the photoshoot or final design, but this image helped me realize that what the outfit needed was a pattered type of fabric paired with a solid colour fabric.
Reference photo and inspiration for Sun's costume.
1. For the Sun's design, I was certain that I was going to use a lot of gold. From a fabric store I bought a suede and metallic vinyl designed fabric for the draped shoulder piece. When making the shoulder piece, I wanted it to have sections as if it was a ray of light. Cutting wide rectangular strips, I layered the strips along their edges and sewed down in straight lines. I finished the raw edges with a blanket stitch.
2. To hold the shoulder drape in place on my model, I put two straps across the waist of the drape, connecting the right and left sides, and one strap from the longest corner to the right hip of the drape, stretching diagonally across the back of my model. Next to create the pants, I found an African styled patterned tablecloth at a charity shop and sewed the pants for the costume. With a large sheet of gold foil I was able to buy, created the wide waistband by gluing binding to the raw edges of the foil and connected elastic between them to wrap around my model's waist.
