Quick Change COstumes
Quick change dresses, apparently, are a protected magicians secret, which isn’t great for people doing theater research.
I tired looking up how magicians sew their dresses, but no magicians seems to have made a show&tell video.
In Cinderella, she magically changes from a torn-rag dress, into a ball gown.
I’ve watched all the videos I can find on it, and the gown looks to be held up in a big roll around the hips. And the top bodice has tear-away seams, and is attached to the waist. So when the bodice is torn off the body, it remains dangling from the waistband, and the rolled up skirt opens to cover everything on the first skirt. The actress twirls to force the skirt to open. The magic is in the waist band.
Another way of doing it:
Tear away style. which is less desirable because someone has to be there on stage to yank it off the actor and collect it.
Having the dress be removed to reveal the next costume is done by constructing a costume with tear-away seams and having the top layer literally ripped off.
Elsa did this in Let It Go. She walked right out of her coronation outfit, to reveal her ice dress.
The trick is usually done with magnets, or something similar, which will release without too much trouble. velcro or snaps. Ect.
I previously figured that I’d have to buy little watch-battery sized magnets and sew them into a ribbon casing, and sew that into my seams to make the tear-away. But as it turns out, they already sell a type of magnet button encased in thin plastic that’s ready to be sewn down (apparently they use it for wallet closures, and phone case wallets).
I tired looking up how magicians sew their dresses, but no magicians seems to have made a show&tell video.
In Cinderella, she magically changes from a torn-rag dress, into a ball gown.
I’ve watched all the videos I can find on it, and the gown looks to be held up in a big roll around the hips. And the top bodice has tear-away seams, and is attached to the waist. So when the bodice is torn off the body, it remains dangling from the waistband, and the rolled up skirt opens to cover everything on the first skirt. The actress twirls to force the skirt to open. The magic is in the waist band.
Another way of doing it:
Tear away style. which is less desirable because someone has to be there on stage to yank it off the actor and collect it.
Having the dress be removed to reveal the next costume is done by constructing a costume with tear-away seams and having the top layer literally ripped off.
Elsa did this in Let It Go. She walked right out of her coronation outfit, to reveal her ice dress.
The trick is usually done with magnets, or something similar, which will release without too much trouble. velcro or snaps. Ect.
I previously figured that I’d have to buy little watch-battery sized magnets and sew them into a ribbon casing, and sew that into my seams to make the tear-away. But as it turns out, they already sell a type of magnet button encased in thin plastic that’s ready to be sewn down (apparently they use it for wallet closures, and phone case wallets).
In Cinderella,
The top layer is the pretty silver/white princess fabric. Something bouncy that won’t wrinkle very much, yet thin enough to be held up inside a hip roll. The dress can be store bought, but it should be Full enough to unroll easily.
The bodice would tear-off , via snaps or magnetic buttons, and would dangle from the waistband, in between the layers of the skirts. and then the actress could change out of it, and into a similar dress for the next scene. I made 3 dresses like this for the show Cinderella.
Cinderella has a regular villager dress, aswell as an identical village dress that's rigged to tear off and reveal a white dress. And in Act, she has a dress that gets torn to shreds, and her underwear set is rigged to tear off into a gold dress. Fairy Godmother also has a dress that goes from villager to formal wear.
See the Theatre Blog for more pictures of those particular costumes.
In A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. An actor changes costumes in 25 seconds and returns to stage. The actor and wardrobe crew has a choreographed system for dressing. But mostly, its accomplished by sewing the whole outfit into 1 piece, and putting a zipper down the back. The shirts, jackets, and ties or any garment accessories are all sewn together. Someone unzips and pulls it off, someone else holds up the next outfit, and the actor steps into it, zips on, and done.
The top layer is the pretty silver/white princess fabric. Something bouncy that won’t wrinkle very much, yet thin enough to be held up inside a hip roll. The dress can be store bought, but it should be Full enough to unroll easily.
The bodice would tear-off , via snaps or magnetic buttons, and would dangle from the waistband, in between the layers of the skirts. and then the actress could change out of it, and into a similar dress for the next scene. I made 3 dresses like this for the show Cinderella.
Cinderella has a regular villager dress, aswell as an identical village dress that's rigged to tear off and reveal a white dress. And in Act, she has a dress that gets torn to shreds, and her underwear set is rigged to tear off into a gold dress. Fairy Godmother also has a dress that goes from villager to formal wear.
See the Theatre Blog for more pictures of those particular costumes.
In A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. An actor changes costumes in 25 seconds and returns to stage. The actor and wardrobe crew has a choreographed system for dressing. But mostly, its accomplished by sewing the whole outfit into 1 piece, and putting a zipper down the back. The shirts, jackets, and ties or any garment accessories are all sewn together. Someone unzips and pulls it off, someone else holds up the next outfit, and the actor steps into it, zips on, and done.