The Union's Costume Designer :P

here’s a master post for all my posts on ‘The Union’ process.

- About Me

- About the project

- Background research

- Character Boards + Style Inspirations

I really wanted to execute at least one outfit so I sourced for some fabrics to recreate the Director’s final outfit. I chose this one as it was one of my favourites in the collection that I had designed. I found all the fabrics from a store at Arab Street that sold a bunch of different satins and chiffons. I bought a canary yellow fabric, a burgundy chiffon and purple chiffon.

Here are some process photos of how I draped the toile of the costume. I made use of zero-waste draping techniques that I learnt from my course.

I did the same for the chiffon and I was able to create the effect that I wanted. I was very happy with how the toile turned out and hope that I can use this as  a base for the actual costume and when it is time for production.

This project is a proposal that I am doing to present to the director of the film. I will be researching and designing costumes for the film.

The film is about a student union that turns out to be cult. Our main protagonist, Nora, gets roped into the madness and through that meets an unusual healer. This film has inspirations from 70s cult horror films with a Malaysian influence. I was very drawn to the premise of this short film as I am very interested in 70s hippie fashion and those really graphic horror films from the 70s.

I wanted the members of the union to have a similar color palette to the Director, to show their loyalty and lack of individuality. They wear warm pastels like oranges and yellows with brown. I wanted to keep with using rope to imitate colonialist uniforms but using shibari techniques to create a dog harness for them to show how they are being strung around.

For Nat & Sam, I wanted to add personality to these characters by taking in some of the hobbies that the actors playing them had. For the actress of Sam, she mentioned she liked crystals and very hippy aesthetics and I decided to go around that for her costume design.

For Nat, they too also enjoyed the hippy aesthetic and horses so I got her to wear horseback riding shoes. I wanted their colors to match. The total complementary colors are a bit of a stand-out when compared to the other union members which shows that they don’t completely fit in.

I based a lot of Matthew’s costume design on colonial wear. He wears an oversized blazer with yellow rope to imitate colonial uniforms. Reds and yellows show his seniority and his perceived power of the union.

I wanted the counselor to look very out of place. Still in the theme of everyone else but he is the first hint of something not being what it seems. I wanted to use really bright primary colors on him to make him look plastic.

I wanted the Director to look inviting and prophet like so their color palette is a lot of warm tones, of yellows, orange and browns. They wear flowy and slightly heavy fabrics with a relaxed and androgynous silhouette. Their first outfit is very “just got off work” with the leather blazer hung on one shoulder.

I wanted to keep the Director barefoot to show their ‘openness’. First and second outfit are the same just minus the blazer and the batik fabric is tied over the blouse.

For the wedding outfit, I wanted to keep the base yellow, but contrast with purple chiffons to look more regal. The batik fabric is now only in the hair.

I gave Nora the colors pink and purple with a pop of bright red and yellow in her later outfits. Her first is very disorganised and a mismatch of identity. She is mainly dressed in knits and light fabrics to show her innocence.

For her second outfit, I decided to clash a bright batik skirt with a knitted long sleeve top. I wanted to show that her need to fit in and still wanting to show herself. I wanted to pin the skirt shorter to allude to the trendier silhouette.

Her last outfit is her wedding outfit. She keeps the kebaya top from her first outfit but that is the only semblance of herself she has. We threw out the lighter colors and opted for bright reds, yellows and purples which symbolises royalty. However the harness shows that she has just been ‘captured’ by the union.

I pictured Nora as the stereotypical damsel in most of the horror 70s films. She starts off as a very innocent and confused character. Her sense of self being scattered, however her motivation and weakness of wanting to be accepted is strong. Main Character inspo: Carrie from “Carrie (1976)”. 

Her love interest and ‘saviour’: The Director. Me and the writer of the film had a very strong vision on what we wanted them to look like which heavily influenced the direction of how the whole costuming was to look like. Opposite from Nora, they are cool and charismatic. Main character inspo: Buffalo Bill from “Silence of the Lambs (1991)”.

I wanted the Counsellor to be the first indication of something being off with the situation. He is a very animated character and we took inspiration from those counsellors that like to refer to them as ‘Life Coaches’, super goofy and you question if they are even qualified for their job. Main character inspo: Austin Powers from “Austin Power Trilogy (1997-2002)”.

For the Union Members, I wanted them to look super preppy and trendy with that time period. Super uniform with the color palette and silhouette but still individual in their patterns. Main Character Inspo: Manson Girls

Matthew, the Union Leader, was tyrannical, and used his seniority as leverage to abuse the newer members. He reminded me of evil army generals or those power hungry right-hands that would over-take their leader in heartbeat. Main character inspo: Z-Man from “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970)”.

I took inspiration from groupies for the type of style Nat & Sam have. They are like the mean girls that like to kiss-ass to get their way. I wanted to give them a look of wanting hard to fit in even if only they have is the money to look like they fit in. Main character inspo: Sapphire and Penny Lane from “Almost Famous (2000)”

The color palette of the whole movie is very bright and colorful and I wanted to keep that going in the costumes of the characters and decided to go with a rainbow, technicolor palette,

and for the silhouettes and character styling, I took inspo from the films, “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls” and “Holy Mountain”.

The main inspiration for the film was Malaysian Mythology and the aesthetic is modelled after 70s cult/horror films and I wanted to mix these 2 inspirations and make it feel very local. Our take on the 70s horror/cult films.

Hi! I’m Jo! I’m currently an Apparel Design and Merchandising student at Temasek Polytechnic and I specialise in Fashion Design. 

I am currently working on a project outside of school-- a short film called “The Union” for one of my modules called Guided Learning. Guided Learning is a self-directed learning module that is offered by the school where we can choose/initiate a project of our choosing and we do it to fulfill grade requirements.

A short introduction of the film project, I was put in charge of coordinating and designing costumes for the film. I will be showing my research and design process throughout the film’s making. Anything under the film will be tagged “theunion” :D