Details from Six Costumer Gabriella Slade's Instagram Takeover

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April 2, 2020
Six Costume designer Gabriella Slade has taken over the @SixtheMusical Instagram for the day! I’m taking notes on everything she’s saying and throwing out a couple questions myself.

  • How she got involved in the production: About two years ago, Lucy Moss and Toby Marlow asked her to come in and do the costumes.

  • Tudor elements confirmed in the costumes: split pane sleeves, doublet references, corsetry, square necklines, a four part skirt, lots of latticework in the lacing.

  • Inspirations: For inspirations, she looked to Tudor portraits, paintings, and architecture. She also looked at modern fashion designers like Alexander McQueen.

  • Costume Making Process: The costumes take a few weeks to make. They do at least three fittings per costume and sometimes more, as the costumes are very complicated. The costumes are VERY heavy. The wardrobe supervisors for each show handle any alterations and mending. The most commonly needed fix is stud related, as they apparently fall off VERY often, even with the BEST glue in the world.

  • The queen’s costume that takes the longest to make: Catherine of Aragon’s! Most complicated costume in the show.

  • The queen’s costume that was the hardest for her to design: Jane Seymour costume was the hardest for her to design, as that character has a very different vibe from the rest of the queens. She said she needed a different visual language.

  • She’s not allowed to have favorite alternate costumes, however, she really enjoyed making the most recent pink costume currently worn by Zara in the WE production. There aren’t any purple costumes because it’s the brand color for six.

  • The boots are designed by Slade and are made by Laduca Shoes, specialists in dancewear.

  • Broadway Costume Changes: additional stud work, more latticework, just to enhance the initial designs from a few years.

  • Whenever a new cast comes in, she goes to see the show, so she’s seen it “loads of times.” Old costumes of cast members that have left the show are kept by the production and looked after on an archive rail.

  • Favorite detail about each costume: The many tudor and historical details in the costumes is so very important, even in contemporary fabrics.

  • She LOVES it when people cosplay the costumes. Whenever people do really brilliant ones that look like actual stage costumes, her team shares pictures of them all around. She also really loves the fan art of the costumes she sees online.

Suggestions for cosplays:

  • The costumes are super heavy so Slade suggests that cosplayers use “big chunky zips” on their creations.

  • Parr’s top has a zipper and a hook and eye closure.

  • Howard’s zip is on the center of the back of the bodice - the new broadway skirt has a side front opening instead of a center back one, as that helps the longevity of the skirt.

Miscellaneous:

  • Advice for students going into doing textiles for GCSE - need to keep up on new techniques and terminology.

  • Slade drinks tea all the time and she is a HUGE herbal tea fan.