Amy Ballew

     The designer, Abbie Hagen, rendered five looks for Elizabeth and our initial designer/draper conversation led to two primary challenges to solve. The first challenge was that this character rarely leaves the stage and when they do, it is very brief. So, every change Elizabeth needed to have would be a quick change. The second challenge came from the volume of the sleeve puffs and the fit of the spencer jacket. There was no way for the puff volume to fit under the spencer which dictated a need for the sleeves to be removeable. Ultimately, we created six looks in total by using several interchangeable parts.

     To create all of these looks I decided to build a base look that all the main parts could attach to. The designer renderings had the puff portion of the sleeve dropped down from the shoulder point which gave me the idea to make the puffs removable at that point with a basic short sleeve underneath. This basic short sleeve gave a base for the interchangeable sleeves to connect to and should a quick change go awry then Elizabeth could go onstage without the puffs and not look as if something was missing (which happened on opening night). We created two sets of puff sleeves, one that matched the short sleeves and one that matched the long sleeves in the renderings. Both attach to the sleeve with snaps. With the puff portion of the sleeves being removable that allowed the fitted sleeve of the spencer to sit nicely over the arm. Another quick change challenge was the muddy skirt look which was solved by building a second identical skirt that attaches to a hidden band of Velcro under the velvet waist trim. The final quick change challenge was the Netherfield Ball look and this was achieved with a sheer overlay constructed in the same style as the main dress. Going into and out of the Netherfield Ball looks is the fastest quick change in the show, clocking in at less than thirty seconds.