MANIFEST 2008

'Wire and Ice' dresses with screen tutus and headdress

The theme of this year's Manifest Spectacle was dreams. This gave us a lot of room to design some really creative costumes! Our line up included three 5 foot diameter floating jelly fish, over-sized animals being lead on a leash by children, businessmen with tentacles for feet and hands, and many others.

'Trashabethans' in the parade line up

Within the theme of dreams we wanted to use reusable materials. We used trash bags as the fabric of our Trashabethan costumes. We created our trash bag fabric by adhering trash bags to a muslin backing. The hoop skirts, bustles, panniers, and women's headdresses have a chicken wire and bamboo understructure and are tagged with strips of trash bag. Despite the wire and wood understructure, these costumes are very light and manageable. The men's epaulettes are made in a similar style. The ruffs were made with old Manifest fliers from years past.

The Trashabethan men wore chicken wire and mache deer head mounted on bicycle helmets.

My design sketch of the 'Trashabethan Deer Head Men'

View the Manifest 2008 video!