Costumes: Beauty and the Beast
Mrs. Potts and Chip
So, you’re probably a little nervous about doing Beauty and the Beast. Partly because of the costumes I’m betting.
It can seem like a huge undertaking; I’m not saying it isn’t.
Here’s what you do:
Be really nice to the best costume designers you know. Well, that really goes without saying. Really. In any situation. For any production. I had a few this time and they were amazing.
Decide if you want it to look like the Disney version. If you’re doing the musical, that is the version you’ll be doing. But it doesn’t necessarily have to look like it.
See what you have. There are a lot of townspeople in the ensemble.
For the larger roles, take them one at a time:
Belle: Do you want the blue pinafore and the yellow ball gown? If you have a decent budget, go for it. You can also opt for a light blue dress with a white color (ever heard of Disney Bounding? That’s a great place to start if you’re on a budget). You can go for any Goodwill ballgown too. It’s really up to you.
The Beast: Oh, that hair and makeup! What will we do? I bought a big curly wig, and then I found a great leather mask that just went over his eyes so I could see his expressions. It was easy for him to take off when he turned into the prince! His costumes resembled what the beast was wearing in the animated film, but we also took some liberties.
Mrs. Potts: This is where one of my incredible seamstress costume designers came in. I told her what I wanted (I wanted a teapot…) and said, go for it. It was more than I could ever have hoped for as you can see by the photos.
Chip: Everything that is not clothing on her body is cardboard. I had two amazing parents who were excited to try to make several pieces (Cogsworth, Chip, the Wardrobe)
Lumiere: We had a gold jacket, gold leggings and shirt in our costume closet (we don’t know why…the one that is linked is very similar to the ones we had). A glitter gold top hat with a battery operated candle on top and upside down planter looking things painted gold with candles on her hands! Ingenious costume designers!
Cogsworth: A cardboard body in the shape of a mantle clock, black slacks, a puffy sleeved shirt and a circle that framed her face out of cardboard. Then, we used makeup to put the clock face on.
Utensils: Their base costume was leotards, unitards, slacks, shirts, all in black. Then, the amazing cardboard parents made headdress forks, spoons, knives, spatulas, etc.
I could not have been happier with the beautiful costumes that were constructed by my talented and innovative costume team!
Belle and Maurice
Belle and the Beast
