Hunchback of Notre Dame

The biggest challenge with Esmeralda’s main look was washability. The macrame fringe selected by the designer provided detailed texture and movement; however, all the garments at Tuacahn must be washable, as it is an outdoor theater and the performances run for months. To preserve the flow of the burnout velvet overskirt, I created an underskirt with a zipper so they could easily remove the macrame fringe before washing. 

For the festival dance look, we had a few technical challenges. First, the long purple macrame fringe the designer wanted was not commercially available, so we had to make it from scratch. I researched macrame techniques and carefully tied the long purple fringe into the desired pattern. The next challenge was the hem of the red and orange chiffon. In order to emphasize movement and flow, we did not want a long seam allowance weighing down the bottom, so we hemmed the poly chiffon with a lighter and then put the hem allowance into the waist, gathering the extra fullness to fit the waistband.