First off.... Apologies for the lack of post lately... but I've been doing allot of life admin, emailing, begging, networking - trying to get some experience under my belt. Nothing too blog worthy BUT with the new year comes new opportunities.
I am very fortunate to have some amazing friends with some amazing contacts! A good friend of mine works for the company that owns Madame Tussauds and very kindly put me in touch with their wardrobe department... sadly they didn't have any positions available but I was offered a chance to come in a shadow them for a week at the London Attraction to get some experience and insight of the world of costume and wardrobe.
Quickly... for those of you unfamilar with Madame Tussauds, it is a wax museum - and the original one at that. Filled with figurings of celebs, royals, presidents.. etc etc
Anyways... Currently being unemployed - It is the best time for me to take up work experience (which in turn should get me a job..) so I agreed to do a week with the company.
I started this past Monday - bright an early at 7:30am. And was introduced to the team. The department consist of the Wardrobe team who are responsible for the costumes, repairs, alterations etc. Colour Team: touch ups to the figures, repairs to the wax work, and the Hair team: ensuring all the figures are styled and clean.
The day starts with the team walking through the whole attraction, ensure all the figures are styled correctly, intact, clean, dusted etc. This takes about 2 hours as it often involves quick repairs (Sewing buttons, changing tights etc) and sometimes there are full costume changes for those who are looking less than fresh.
after this we brief for the day, find out who is working on what figures and then we start our prep for the next day. Repairing costumes, dry cleaning, steaming, washing, sewing... the works.
On Monday after our walk through I was given my first job, repairing shirley Bassey's dress. Shirly's dress is a floor length gown made completely of beads... and as up to 13,000 people go through the attraction on any given day - it gets allot of love... leading to it needing to be repaired a couple times a year.
So I began the task of sewing on more beads... and repairing weak fabric...
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| Shirley Bassey's Dress in the midst of repairs |
It took me a good two afternoons to make sure the dress was up to standard, but in the end it was looking fresh and full.
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| The dress complete... unfortunately Shirley's figure was still being touched up by the colour team so I couldn't get a shot of her in it. |
Right so my first task was complete... The rest of the week followed the same format. Each morning we would do a walk through for maintenance then followed by a brief of the day, a prep for tomorrow, and then any repairs that were necessary.
After Shirley was complete, I then moved onto repairing Christina Aguilera's dress. Whilst on a walk through we noticed a hole in the bust of her dress which needed to be fixed immediately. So after a quick change of costume.. I began my repairs on the dress.. This one was pretty much the same repairs/alterations I was doing on Shirley's costume, however allot less complex and allot lighter! I ended up only needing one afternoon to complete it.. and we had Christina back in her dress.
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| Repairing the bust of Christina Aguilera's dress |
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| Close up of the detail |
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| Christina Aguilera's Wax figure in the attraction after repairs |
The rest of the week I spent doing odd jobs, helping the wardrobe team anyway I could. Ironing shirts, changing costumes. A few minor repairs.. sewing a button on to King Henry's Jacket, stitching a hole in Liza Mineli's trousers... and replacing the elastic in David Beckham's shorts... ya know nothing out that normal ;)
I was very fortunate enough to be asked back for an additional week - in which I plan on doing in the future, as I have a few prior commitments for this week...... however there is a possibility I may go do a week's interning at the head studios' in Acton. This is where all the figures are made and styled from the begining. Interest stuff.
I had a wicked week in the department and it's a shame it's not a full time thing - however I am very grateful for the experience - I've learned allot more about caring for items of clothing and repairs... all which will help me get further I am sure.
I have a few more things lined up for this month... so definitely more updates on the way :)
