Level 5 BA (Hons) Textiles & Surface Design and BA (Hons) Costume Interpretation with Design students have had the opportunity to work on a live brief with cabaret act Parade of Horribles which is in residency at local theatre The Arc.

The students have been working on costumes for the shows performances at The Arc Theatre and Stockton High Street this week, textiles have been contributing words and visuals to garments whilst Costume student have been working on making ruffs.

Speaking of the project, school creative technician Jo Stenberg said “We also had a chance to talk to some of the performers who were taking part which was a really useful insight into how the costumes would be used. The themes of the performance were quite dark and we spent some time exploring peoples phobias for the ‘Fear Coat’, a few of our own fears are stitched into that costume. The students set up documents for digital printing onto fabrics to create text for the ‘waiting suit’ We wanted that to feel quite dark too so opted for a tea stained look to the text to age it and make it look somewhat shabby. A useful experience overall for developing designing and making skills and working to a specific brief.”

The garments  were used in the acts  theatre performance which was held art Art on 29th March 2022 and in their street performance act this week.

When speaking to the production about their collaboration with our student they said that “We are so appreciative of the work the students and staff did for our costume. Parade of Horribles is about finding ways of starting difficult conversations, all of the artistic elements in the project are an attempt to change the way we start these conversations. We wanted the costumes to be a record of people’s words to us that we’ve collected throughout the project so far. The work that the students and staff put in is so delicate and beautiful, completely accomplishing what we were looking for. The find detail of the words invites the audience to come closer to the performers to read, and therefore spark more conversations, making the costume an integral part of our project.”

The show is “an alternative evening of circus and physical performance in the form of a relaxed cabaret…Parade seeks to start conversations between strangers about the things that we find difficult to talk about, what are people feeling about the world and the future? How might we better understand how others behave? Without judgement and without prejudice, Parade will raise questions, while attempting to entertain, make you laugh, inspire you with some beautiful movement and knock your socks off with the ridiculous tasks we set ourselves in the name of circus.”

Created by Mish Weaver & company Parade of Horribles, is an ambitious performance project that plans to tour UK high streets and town centres. You can find out more about them on their website: paradeofhorribles.co.uk or find out more on their instagram.

If you are interested in studying costume design or textiles & surface design at degree level our established courses offer fantastic opportunities to work on live projects, collaborate with other creatives and learn professional creative skills. Find out more here.