Hello friends, I’d like to tell you about a brilliant opportunity coming up this Monday afternoon (4 March 2019). If we go back a step, every now and then I recieve a press release of things happening around the area. A few days ago I received one about Sovereign Hill in Ballarat, which had me (literally) bouncing with excitement.
Sovereign Hill in Ballarat is opening up their costume department as part of the Virgin Australia Fashion Arts Program. Their costume manager, Erin Santamaria, and the team will be sharing a variety of costumes and costume works in progress, and talking about their research methods, business model, their workshop and finding short run manufacturers that can create their costumes using the traditional techniques that meet the quality required. Served up with champagne and hors d’oeuvres.
I’ve visited Sovereign Hill a few times over the years, but haven’t give much thought to what goes in to creating the costumes that support it.
I had a fascinating chat with Erin earlier this week and there were some things that really intrigued me. The sheer number of people that they’re putting in costumes, they have over 500 staff and volunteers that need costumes–some have multiple costumes. They’re costuming a full town, so the costumes need to be varied and cover the breadth of the social classes–from the wealthy who were very fashion conscious–to the goldfields digger who lived in a tent.
Sovereign Hill covers the ten year period of the 1850s with fashions changing through the decade. Researching the periods fashions and techniques plays a large part of creating an accurate historical portrayal of the period, and recreating the traditional techniques used through out the period, most of which are no longer popular today.
I could have chatted with Erin for far longer than I did, finding out all the intricate little details that go in to researching and creating the costumes and running the business of the costume department, all the while supporting the historical accuracy of Sovereign Hill.
I found Erin passionate and engaging talking about the role of costuming and the business side of running the costume department at Sovereign Hill.
If you’ve got an interest in fashion or history, its going to be a fascinating event, not to be missed.
Event details
When: Monday 4th March from 5.30pm – 7pm
Where: Sovereign Hill Ballarat
Tickets: Available here
PS. If you make it to the event, drop me a line and tell me all about it!