Bruce's Tutu or the Costume Page

One of the biggest number of requests we've had is for us to bring back the old Costume page. I suspect that many who ask never saw it... and just how rather 'odd' it was! Well we would very much like a burgeoning Costume section but to get things going here is the original page but re-laid out and with some links added down at the bottom. Hope you like it, and that it will grow over time.

Well it's not Bruce's tutu, but rather a tutu I own. I bought it at an auction run by the Friends of Birmingham Royal Ballet in July 1996. The tutu belonged to Miyako Yoshida. It's from the BRB production of Swan Lake (produced by Peter Wright and Galina Samsova in 1981) and designed by Philip Prowse. It's one of the two Courtesans dresses (identical in all respects except this one has green panels and the other black). The Courtesans dance with Benno and Siegfried in the first act. The pictures here don't really do the dress full justice. I hope to take some better photographs at some time, but I doubt that they will ever capture the deep greens, gold and black of which it is composed. Or indeed all the detail. I bought it because; (i) its a beautiful thing to look at, (ii) having seen so many tutus on stage I was interested in how they 'worked' - the engineer in me! The engineering is truly impressive, the dress being awash with seams, panels, borders and net all put together with obvious skill. I can't imagine any normal dress maker having much of a clue as to how to build such a dress. This is how tutus are stored and how I first saw it; not the most promising of starts! Well here it is in all its glory.. In general there is not so much on the web about costume. Part of the New York City Ballet site however is devoted to dress - The Costume Shop - and there are some great pictures of costumes by Barbara Karinska - George Balanchines's costumier. I liked them so much I ordered the book; I'll let you know how good it is when it arrives. There is a page with some links on at www.costumes.org and I have to mention the Gaynor Minden Pointe Shoes site - kind of costume and if you haven't been, do! But courtesy of Betsy Blackmore-Lee we had a piece in our June 98 Magazine; Some thoughts from a Wardrobe Supervisor We hope to see this section expand as time goes on; if anybody has information or details on any aspect of ballet costume we'd been keen to hear from you. And also don't forget our page of Dance Wear Links. We've made it easy to add your own links as well.

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