OISTAT

Scenography Commission

 

COSTUME WORKING GROUP

 

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Costume Design Working Group

Meeting in Davao, Phillipines

November 2001

Laura Crow reported on the very successful meeting of the Costume Design Working Group in Davao City on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines. Hosted by Rolando de Leon, there was a shared meeting with the South East Asian Weavers Association, The Fashion Designers Guild of Davao and OISTATs Costume Working Group. After the welcome speeches, the South East Asian representatives talked about the Filipino Weaving Industry and The Indonesian Batik Industry. Both have concerns of how to keep the hands on nature of the work and become industrialized enough to stay competitive. They talked about the fibers of the Philippines that are very special, such as ABACA, PINA and the new Filipino Silk Industry. There were many weavers from all over the more than 7000 islands showing examples of their work.
Later the delegates were each paired up with a student or young designer for a design Charette. Each team had a pile of local fibers and fabrics to work with, a mannequin, a sewing machine and a stitcher. Each had approximately three hours to complete a three dimensional design. The fabric was flying as all worked at a fast pace to complete the task. The costumes varied from very elaborate to very simple.


The evening of the first day was a fashion show at the casino introducing the fashions of Alphonso (Boy) Guin'on, the leader of the fashion of Mindanao and internationally shown in Paris, Milan and New York. His work embraced the local textiles and many of the traditional ethnic forms of the Philippines. The pieces were heavy with hand beading and embroidery. This is a speciality of the Philippines and each work was exquisite.

On the second day, The President of OISTAT, Maija Pekkanen, spoke of her use of textiles in the theatre and how she takes weaving techniques into a new realm of theatrical exaggeration. She had many slides to illustrate her beautiful work and an excellent sense of style and scale.

(Click for more of Maija Pekkanen's work)

Scenography Exhibition, Metropolita Museum of Manila

Included are other sights from the Conference

Photograph documentation by Jerome Maeckelbergh BASST, Oistat Centre-Belgium

(Check here for pictures from the exhibit)

Ivette Navarro, USA, was called away suddenly, so Laura Crow showed examples of her work on weaving with metallic wire. There were examples to share and the work is really quite soft and pliable as well as looking very magical.

(Click for more of Ivette Navarro's work)

In the afternoon there was a trip to Paradise Island and the beach and then home to rest before the fashion show. The fashion show was a wonderful end to this two day meeting. The professional models made all of the creations look spectacular. The sewing fairies had come in during the night to sew up the pinned together designs so that they could be worn the next evening.

(Click for more from the fashion show)

A second fashion show by the Fashion Designers Guild of Davao followed the OISTAT work.

It all ended with drinks and congratulations for a very successful meeting. Special thanks to Rolando De Leon for his tireless work and generosity.

(Click for more from the fashion show)

Simona Rybakova of the Czech Republic's work with found objects

Kazue Hatano, Japan, spoke about the hand painted Kimonos of Japan and about some of the more contemporary designs that are used in the theatre today. She had several stunning examples with her.


Simona Rybakova, Czech Republic, spoke about her theatrical design using found objects or recycled objects to create very imaginative period costumes.