Charly Riddett (She/Her)
FdA Costume for Theatre Film and TV
At BOVTS Charly has specialized in costume making, including some weird and wonderful fantasy styles. On placement Charly had the chance to advance her previously learnt stretch wear skills making quick change dresses for the Edinburgh Military Tattoo. She thrives on making quirky stretch wear and getting her head round complicated pattern pieces.
BOVTS credits:
Costume Supervisor Wilda and the Winter Whirlwinds (TIE School’s Tour); Stockholm (Wardrobe Theatre)
Costume Maker Loam (Bristol Old Vic); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Malcolm X Centre); As You Like It (Malcolm X Centre); Macbeth (Bristol Old Vic, Weston Studio)
Costume Standby Lost Horizons (Christchurch Studios)
Costume Assistant/Dresser Macbeth (Bristol Old Vic); Romeo & Juliet (Redgrave Theatre); Loam (Bristol Old Vic); Stockholm (Wardrobe Theatre)
Costume Maker 'Exhi'
Designed by Charly Riddett, this idea stemmed from Charly’s love of scifi films such as Dune, a lot of research into materials of stretch cotton/denim and how they react to bleach had to be done to gain the desired effect. The garment displays many techniques learnt over the time of the course such as knife pleats, piping, ribbing, zip insert, embroidery, pattern manipulation and breakdown techniques.
Photography credit: André Pattenden
Costume Maker ‘Cheshire Cat-suit’ Pattern Pieces
As part of the stretch wear unit, students had to design and make a garment using stretch fabric, this design features a spiral sleeve and leg which is quite a challenge, Charly chose to create a fantasy Cat like design as inspired by Tim Burton’s Cheshire Cat.
Photography credit: Pat O Matic
Costume Maker A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Malcolm X Centre) Detail of Puck Shoulder
For this production there were two Puck characters, so two similar costumes where made. This involved exploring lots of creative avenues such as hand felting, embroidery, wire work, breakdown, horn making and even painting plastic buttons to look like old wood.
Designed by Abigail Manard, directed by Paul Chesterton
Photography credit: Craig Fuller
