Caitlin Hutton

Over the Garden Wall / Frenchman's Creek

Performance Costume - BA (Hons)

School of Design

caitlinmhutton@gmail.com

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Costume for 'Beatrice' from Over The Garden Wall. A girl wears a bluebird puppet hat, a blue coat with large winged sleeves, an orange striped skirt and a brown gingham blouse.

Costume for 'Beatrice', Over the Garden Wall. Photography by Mihaela Bodlovic.

Over the Garden Wall

My first project re-imagines the beloved Cartoon Network animated series 'Over the Garden Wall', created by Patrick McHale, as an adaptation for stage. The story follows two young boys trying to return home through a mysterious forest landscape, referred to as 'the unknown'. My designs combine early 1900s fashion with 1970s fashion, to convey the unconventional environment to audiences through live theatre.

My costume created for 'Beatrice', a girl cursed to be a bluebird, utilises puppetry and millinery techniques alongside screenprinting, machine knitting, and visible mending to create Beatrice's bluebird form and her regular attire underneath.

Set of seven costume designs for 'Over The Garden Wall'.

Final design line-up for 'Over the Garden Wall'

Costume for Beatrice - zoomed in detail shot of the white yarn embellishment on the brown lapel of the coat. Also visible are the orange bows in the braids of the models hair.

Costume for 'Beatrice' - a girl wears a bluebird puppet hat made of straw and linen, a large blue coat with brown lapels, a brown gingham shirt and striped orange skirt.

Costume for Beatrice - close up detail shot of the back view of the costume, showing one half of the wing of the bluebird puppet hat and the back of the blue linen coat.

Frenchman's Creek

My second project is a screen adaptation of the 1941 novel 'Frenchman's Creek' by Daphne Du Maurier. Set in 1680, charming pirate Jean-Benoit Aubery begins an affair with the noble Lady Dona St. Columb. My approach to this project reconceptualizes Jean-Benoit Aubery as a woman, and is visually inspired by floral vanitas of the 17th century - still life paintings intended to convey a message of 'memento mori' to viewers.

Each character's costume features a floral print inspired by these paintings. My costume created for Jean-Benoit Aubery merges elements of period menswear with womenswear to highlight her rejection of social norms, and the allure that she offers to Lady Dona through this.