• costumes,  official piper ewan

    I WANT TO STOP WANTING part one

    photo of tracy broyles and meshi chavez in COCOON BIRD by jon springer in the spring of 2007 i met with tracy broyles of theory1:dance to discuss the possibility of costumes for her production of COCOON BIRD. she arrived with a couple of pages torn from a magazine, a bag full of paper leaves with little phrases written on them, and a list of words. we used this as the basis of the costumes for this performance. and this spring i have the privelege to work with tracy and meshi again in their upcoming performance of I WANT TO STOP WANTING that will be held at disjecta in portland at…

  • costumes,  official piper ewan

    flying iron

    earlier this fall, i received a request to make a costume for a performance my friend lisa degrace was working on. i met lisa while making the costumes from last year’s production of cocoon bird. she told me it would involve a giant skirt to be fitted over a metal frame. sounded intriguing. we met up a few days later to talk about it in person. the performance involved her crawling into and buckling herself into this skirt that she was to be trapped in until she had to fall out and get back in. she had been looking into ordering a 30′ parachute to be somehow fitted to this…

  • costumes,  official piper ewan,  Uncategorized

    black swan act II

    he last two days have been spent coating a cheap tank top in “feathers” made out of tulle, organza with sparkly bits, and silk scraps. deconstructionist fashion at its best. triangle scraps of fabric with their ends free make the body of the swan, with the rest sewn down for texture. tomorrow we fit on the body. i can just have my client put it on, and i will pin and tuck until it is the shape we want. then we will decide what to add to the crinoline. we decided that the swan would be sleeping. regular couture conventions are thrown out the window with costumes. costumes are a…

  • costumes,  official piper ewan

    black swan

    every now and again i will take on a crazy custom project that is so whacky, i just can’t turn it down. this month it is a version of the swan dress bjork wore to the oscars that the whole world had to make fun of, but in black. it is for a client of mine to wear to an oscar theme party. at my suggestion, she brought me a fluffy crinoline (one of those big square dance skirts), a top to deconstruct and cover with fancy bits, and a selection of tulle, netting and sparklies. true to form, i spent the last few days thinking about how to make…