Costuming 2: Duke Frederick

I used Al Capone as my model for Duke Frederick. However, the actor playing this character, rather than being a large man was a beautiful high school girl. She was also playing the Duke Senior, so I had to develop two costumes that looked different enough, but also made her look somewhat manly.

For the Duke Frederick costume, I borrowed my dad's beautiful grey pin-striped wool suit. It fit the girl in the shoulders arms and length, but had enough room around the midsection for me to build a little bit of paunch.

I got from the thrift store a short sleeved shirt (I didn't want her to be too warm as she was always changing costumes and wearing multiple layers,) and a tie. My original plan was to stitch the shirt into the suit using large hand stitching and stuff between the layers. However, I couldn't get the jacket to lay smoothly on the shirt. So I made a black vest and stitched that to the shirt. I then stuffed the front and sides. Under the jacket, it looked like she was wearing a three piece suit, and was slightly portly. Not much, but just enough to fill in her feminine curves.

The most exciting thing to me was that when she put it on, she began to move differently and was able to complete the look by not moving like a girl. In fact, my favorite scene was of her threatening Oliver. So subtle, so classy, so menacing!

I wasn't thrilled with the way the hair worked, but sometimes it worked better than others. Trying to get long hair tucked into a hat without looking like lots of hair is tucked into the hat is very trying. But she was such a good sport about it. I didn't make anything for Duke Senior, just insisted that she wore a huge baggy sweater that was similar to a farmer picture I found (but didn't save and now can't find it again).

The final thing about this costume that took a lot of time was replacing all the buttons with velcro so she could change faster. Then I had to sew the buttons on top, so it didn't look like she was missing buttons. After all the time I spent on it, I hope this shirt comes in handy for future plays too.