Malotke Sews

For my 100th blog post I wanted to just share some pictures from the past few years that are just fun snap shots of my life as a costume designer: Senior year of college, showcasing my senior collection featuring millinery and a whole lot of black/white/red patterns. My first paid show as Costume Designer: A Christmas Carol . For the ghost of Christmas past I used my corsetry skills to make a lovely white bodice with gold detailing. I also got to make her skirt light up! What a great experience. Working on A Servant of Two Masters. Collecting set colors so I could go fabric shopping. My sketching skills are always a work in progress. I love diving into historical research and so I usually work with a lot of mood boards and notes to get my thoughts across. One of my favorite progress pictures from working on Farinelli & the King . I made a lot of costume pieces for that show and loved working a variety of textiles and colors into the show. One of my f...

Board in the lobby during "Farinelli & the King" showcasing some of my mood boards. My online portfolio on Wix has had some updates! I've added some images from "Farinelli & the King" and a new page to showcase my mood boards and sketches. Check it out here: Malotke Designs

I've added a new page to the blog! It's titled " What They're Saying About Me " and will include pieces from reviews the shows I've worked on that mentions costumes. Here are the  Farinelli and the King   Reviews: " Brian Hagy richly lights the sumptuous costumes by Brianna Malotke and well-crafted scenic details of Yvonne Tessman." -  Jeffrey Eric Jenkins " Finally, the costume design was remarkable. Intricate and beautiful pieces adorned the cast, and, more than performances, pulled me into the era. I must pay my respects to the detailed research and work that was put into gathering such wonderful pieces." -  Jarrod Finn " There is a large and capable supporting cast - all beautifully costumed by Brianna Rose Malotke." -  C-U at The Show Facebook Post Here is a  link  to the MP3 of WEFT's local radio show " C-U At The Show " and their discussion with the director and some of the cast. They discus...

I pleated the fabric and then laid it on the mannequin to see if I was getting the right overall look. After checking how the pleats looked I went ahead and pleated two sets of the gold fabric that fold over themselves giving me a total of 4 rows. I thought an easy way of handling the pleated fabric would be in it had a muslin backing along the top. I then made a neckband and a small section of muslin to attach to the neckband. I thought the muslin backing would help make the gold pop. I then sewed the layers of pleated gold fabric to the section of muslin. After I made the fur layers of pleated gold I decided the neckband looked a little dull. I then added the gold fabric but horizontally to the neckband. Lastly I added snaps to the back for closures. After sewing 4 layers of the gold I thought it needed a little more to it but I waited to see how it looked with the entire outfit on the actor. Once I tried it on the actor I trimmed the bottom row and then added ...

Here are almost all of the wigs used in the show. I have used wigs in a few of my shows so I'm not a total novice, but it was slightly overwhelming to do so many wigs for "Farinelli & the King." In total I had to find, purchase, and style 10 wigs. Some actors had to wear more than 1 for the show as they were playing different characters or older/younger versions of their character.  While it was a lot of unexpected work, I did enjoy working with the wigs. A lot of them just needed to have their curls fixed and re-pinned. I did however need to powder a couple to decrease the shine from the synthetic look. I wish I had taken a wig class or something while in college, it's been a lot of fun learning process, but it'd be nice to have some solid guidance.

For the King's look on stage when he gets dressed to go off to war I needed to make a sash that would be perfectly regal. His look consists of the vibrant blue jacket, a blue sash with floral details, a silver metal breast plate, and this golden sash that ties around his waist over the armor. (Plus the rest of his outfit) Armed with the waist measurements (plus the breast plate armor) I made a long rectangle for the part that ties around the King's waist. I then made a separate wider rectangle to drape and make the bow like part of the sash that gets shown off to the audience. I pinned it in place and hand stitched it. Once finished I added a silver branch broach to where the bow part attaches to the waist.

For the Queen in "Farinelli & the King," I knew I wanted to make her glamorous despite the settings she's in during the show. She goes from the palace in Madrid to an Opera house in London, back to Madrid to then live in a forest, to loosing her husband and being in mourning. I had initially wanted 5 costumes but due to timing and limitations of costume changes, I had 3 and then a long black velvet cloak for her scene in London. This post is about her very glamorous all black ensemble for when she's in mourning. Puffy sleeved, black satin 80s prom dress ready to travel to the mid 18th century! Here's the back of the 80s dress after removing a very large flower and bow. To make this dress work as the main piece I decided I needed to eliminate some of the pouf in the sleeves. I took the sleeves in about 2 inches. To go with the solid black dress I decided to drape a skirt that the actress could tie around her waist. I used pleats, sewed a black sat...

First I turned the jacket inside out and then placed it on my mannequin. Then I chose the fabrics based on what I thought would look good on stage and not just up close. For the front panels I selected a darker blue brocade. I pinned it in place so that I did not have t sew through the jacket but could stick to sewing the lining to the seam allowances and the already lined and interfaced front pieces. After deciding on the font panels I decided on this rich blue velvet for a wow factor. In the show the jacket gets used a prop a few times and gets taken off by the King and placed on another character's shoulders, and then later it gets carried on stage and put on the King as he gets dressed. So I wanted to make sure that anytime you could maybe catch a glimpse of the inside of the jacket that there was going to be something wonderful to look at and that's why I chose the bold blue velvet. All in all it took a couple of hours to do the draping, cutting, pinning, and hand ...

Here are a few photos from Wednesday's Dress Rehearsal!  Opening night was yesterday, Thursday, October 3rd, 2019. Photo credit: Jesse Folks The King (L) in his night clothes, the Queen (C), and La Cuadra (R). I made alterations to the King's nightshirt to make it smaller as well as adding lace to the collar. I then added some large gold buttons to the robe. For the Queen I pulled her petticoat, skirt, bodice with over skirt, wig, and jewelry. For La Cuadra I pulled his ensemble and made a matching gold and lace jabot and coat cuffs. For the Queen (L) I took a very sad dress with holes and rips and gave it some love. I patterned and made new sleeves, redid the waistline and hem, and then added green trim around the neckline. I also made the pleated over skirt for her ensemble out of old curtains. It has hooks and eyes for the front closure. For Farinelli (R) I pulled his ensemble with a general color scheme of green, cream, peach, and soft gold in mind for the t...

Made a waistband and marked the center back & where the snap closures would be on the front. Next I took the fabric for the skirt and started to pin pleats, switching directions at the center back. After pinning the pleats I sewed the front panels and then sewed across the pleating so that when I attached the waistband the pleats would already be put together. Once the pleats were sewn I then pinned the skirt to the waistband. Because of the thickness of the fabric and the overlapping of layers I needed to hand sew the skirt to the waistband. In the picture above I still need to sew on snaps for the closure in the front and finish the hem. I will probably also sew the waistband and skirt again, it's very heavy and I just don't want anything to happen accidentally since the Queen is very active in the show.

So in typical Brianna fashion I decided to do my own thing with making the sleeves for the Queen's Forest Dress. Using the measurements I drew out a sleeve on cream fabric. I wanted to keep them simple and bend slightly a the elbow - which is how I got this shape. I made it a little bit bigger at the top to do gathering stitches and a little bit wider at the bottom than needed to account for the lace ruffles I would add (which will take up room on the inside of the sleeve where the Queen's arm is). First I cut out the two sleeves from the curtain fabric. Then I ran two sets of gathering stitches across the top. Next I sewed green silk to the hem of the sleeve (the green matches the King's vest back & facings). After this was done I cut out the lace and sewed them in pleats along the hemline. Last step was sewing the sleeve's seam together. The sleeves are not sewn into the armhole in this picture, they are simply pinned to the mannequin to see how they ...

Some inspiration and a progress picture. As soon as I read the script I knew exactly what I wanted the King & Queen to wear in their scenes when they "live in a forest." I knew I was going to make the Queen's dress and some part of the King's ensemble to match. After some sketching and decision making, I decided the Queen would be in a more simple dress with elbow length sleeves and the King would be in tan breeches, a white long sleeve shirt with ruffles, and a long vest that matches the Queen's dress. And the whole time I was designing their looks I knew exactly what fabric I wanted to use and it was already a part of my fabric stash. Here is a little backstory on the fabric I chose: when my parents moved into their house their dining room had this wonderful floral wallpaper and curtains to match! Well my parents hated it and were going to redo the entire room. I asked for the curtains because I just adored the pattern on the fabric. I didn't have...

Here are a couple of my sketches I have done for Farinelli & the King . While they're not in color, I am pretty proud of them. I have definitely come a long way in my sketching abilities compared to my Freshman year of college where I still needed to trace fashion figures.  In my mind the two most different characters in the show are Farinelli and La Cuadra. Farinelli is light and thoughtful while La Cuadra is cold and stern. When I think Farinelli I think silks, pastels, and soft floral patterns. As for La Cuadra I imagine deep rich reds mixed with a lot of gold trim, large ruffles and shine added to any surface (rings, buckles, buttons, etc.). Anyways, I am very happy with my sketches and between those, my notes, and inspiration pages/ mood boards, I was able to create some lovely costumes. Apologies for the softness of the sketches.

Here are some of my mood boards I created for the show! For inspiration I looked at the inside of palaces, artwork done during the time periods, as well as lots of research through my books for clothing silhouettes and textiles used. General mood board for the production. Inspiration for the King.

Due to the costume stock from the places I've pulled pieces for the show, I will be making 3 men's vests. I'm pretty excited to make costume pieces for the show. For my show I didn't make items but did alterations and little tweaks. So after establishing the style of the vests I dug through my fabric stash to find the different colors and patterns I would want for the different vests. For my first vest I chose a black with white thin stripes for the front panels, a grey for the back, a different grey for the lining, and then a solid black for the facings.  Inside look at the vest. Snapshot of the vest. Ready for a fitting! Different angle of the vest. I decided to stop at this point and do a fitting so I could then make any alterations necessary. After the fitting I will need to finish the armholes, add buttonholes and buttons, and finish the hem.

At the theater, ready to take measurements! Diving into research for clothing in the 18th century has been a blast! First off I have always loved the Baroque time period with the elaborate dresses and hairstyles. The French court had a strong influence on the fashion of the period and the styles were made to make the wealth differences between nobility and lower classes very obvious. For Farinelli & the King , the show is mainly set in the early 18th century with the ending set in 1757. With this time change there wasn't such a huge difference in men's fashions, but women's fashions were noticeably different, especially with panniers getting wider. The show opens Thursday, October 3rd! I'll be posting more progress pieces as well as mood boards and sketches. I'm very thrilled to be able to have made a decent amount of costume pieces for this show.

I am currently working as Costume Designer for Station Theatre's production of "Farinelli & The King." It's set in the early 18th century and based on real historical figures. I am totally in love with clothing from this time period and have been excited to do this show.  There are 6 men and 1 woman, with two of the guys playing multiple characters. There are also a handful of extra people on stage that don't have speaking roles, as well as a pianist, that will need to be in costume. So far I've had fittings with the main actors and am waiting on the non speaking roles to be cast so then I can do measurements and costumes. Because of my love of this era and the lack of rentals available, I will be making several historical garments for this show. I am breaking out my fabric stash though to help with my budget, and to be able to donate the completed pieces to a theater than has adequate storage capabilities. Station Theatre doesn't have  a set ar...