A Follower Of Behind The Wall Fashion

As a costume designer and maker of wearable art based in Lancaster, one of Katie Duxbury’s regular haunts is the Standfast & Barracks factory shop.
So she was like a kid in a sweet shop when she was allowed the run of the place to choose the fabrics she wanted to use for the costume she’s creating for Behind The Wall.
“I regularly visit the shop because you can get fabrics there that you can’t find anywhere else and I like working with thick fabrics in bold colours and prints which are produced in the factory,” Katie said.
Katie’s idea is to produce a multi-layered costume where the fabric and print of each garment reflects each industrial process at the Caton Road site.
“When I first went around the factory, it was really interesting and surprising how many different pieces of machinery are used from the beginning to the end of the fabric printing process,” said Katie.
Suitably inspired by her visit, Katie’s work on the dress – made in the style of 1865 when the Standfast & Barracks building first opened – is now well underway.
After researching fashion from the era, Katie has created a unique design based on her own choices which is different from her usual work in theatres such as The Dukes where she creates costumes based on someone else’s designs.
The next challenge was to make a crinoline, another first for Katie, but an essential piece of the costume as it helps to create the distinctive shape and is the structure on which the other layers will be placed.
Stage two is the underskirt to help smooth the silhouette, give weight and fullness to the costume.
Over the next few weeks, Katie will go on to make three more skirts, some drawers, a chemise , a corset and a cape.
The finished dress will be modelled by Lancaster actress Christine Bissell on a rather unusual catwalk.
“I came up with the idea of the actress putting on the different layers of the costume as she walks through the factory and making a film of it,” Katie explained.
Locally-based filmmaker, Jon Randall will do the filming and the end result will be shown at the Behind The Wall exhibition next spring at the City Museum where the costume will also be displayed.
If you’d like to be kept up-to-date with Katie’s costume as it develops, read her blog at http://behindthewallcostume.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/introduction.html
We’ll also be monitoring Katie’s progress on our website so keep watching this space!