Taunted by the Jesters of the murky London Dungeons and Imprisoned by the Torturers and Executioners of the great Warwick Castle. Siam Costumes live to tell the tale
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| The Mystical Sorcerer |
For the past month Siam Costumes have been held captive by the goblins, witches, Sorcerers and The Evil Babylon Emperor of The Universal Studios in Singapore. Siam Costumes were handed the task to manufacturer around 30 costumes for many of the characters of the very popular Halloween event Halloween Horror Nights 3.
The Halloween Horror Nights is a very anticipated event, So the pressure was on for everyone involved including the special effect team, Actors, Designers, Make up, supervisors and even ourselves. So when we found out that so far it has been a success and judging by the reactions of the audience it has once again improved than the previous year, The staff at Siam Costumes were very pleased.
With Halloween just around the corner Universal studios wasnt the only attraction park we worked with this month. With Jesters for both London Dungeons and Warwick castle
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| London Dungeons |
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| Warwick Castle |
As you can see both Jesters are very different in there designs, colours and fabric choice but both serve there purpose.
Among the other characters we made for Warwick Castle were the executioner and Torturer, which i mentioned in a previous blog when i was shopping for the leather suede, so as promised here is the finished garment.
So all in all it has once again been a very busy month for Siam Costumes, and it was both interesting and challenging with every costume completely different than the last. It was a pleasure to be able to work with Universal Studios, London Dungeons and Warwick castle once again and we look forward to next year. Have a Haunted Horror of a Halloween Until next time.
If you were to have a look at Siam Costumes Resume you would notice films and stage work pops up more than often as well as Corporate companies, however these last two months Siam Costumes have been taking on the world of Attraction Parks. Feel free to have a peek behind the closed curtains as we take you behind the scenes.
The Universal Studios in Sentosa is one of the biggest Attractions in Singapore and Siam Costumes were more than Happy to make the costumes for the Hollywood Dreams Parade Here is a sneak peek into what happened before the Parade.
First of all we are sent the costume breakdown with the design for each. Here is an example of one of the characters costume we were asked to make.
As for the Hollywood Parade there were 18 Characters and each of them were very different in both design and fabric choice. So It was almost certain we wouldn't have all the appropriate fabrics in stock therefore a shop around Bangkok Markets was needed but also a trip to Hong Kong.
After a full long day of walking through the markets with rolls and rolls of fabric in the scorching heat, Our arms were aching and our feet began to blister so what a relief it was when we purchased the final fabric. Fabric, check now time to jump into a taxi to the airport, board the plane and then its back to Thailand.
Finally when all the fabric is bought, Siam's Little helpers get too work. First of all as you can see in the image, Arif one of our pattern cutters begins to make the patterns and will then cut out the fabric.
Once that stage is complete, Arif will then head down to the ground workshop where all the magic happens and hand over the fabric to our tailors in this case being Poom. Poom will put his hands to the test as he sews the appropriate pieces of the garment together.
Once Poom has completed his part then its on to the finalisation of the garment where our finishers come into play, they will then add the finishing touches such as buttons, stiches and the most vital part of there job they must check every inch of the garment to make sure that it is to highest standard before we send it off to our client. Once everyones happy with the costume we send it off and as we wait for there hopefully delighted response, its onto the next garment.
The Universal Studios seem more than pleased especially the head costume designer Sydney so its a job well done for the Siam Costume team and to top it off we get to read an article on the new look for the Hollywood Dreams parade and our costumes seem to be the centre of attention and an overall great review: "the new costumes give the parade a new look that is more vibrant and engaging"(http://dejiki.com/2013/09/hollywood-dreams-parade-a-new-look/)
With everyone pleased with the end result including ourselves, We are even more delighted to be given the task to take on Universal Studios next project which is the notorious Halloween Horror Nights. Which we will be reporting every step of the way alongside the Vampires, Witches and Ghosts. Until next time
When we get an order at times we find we don't hold the fabric in stock which means we simply run through our suppliers catalogues and if we still cant find then we must venture into the chaotic markets or back alley shops to find the right fabric. Today our goal was to find some distressed leather suede for the medieval executioner and torturer characters.
From the outside the shops look small and dark with not much really going on inside and if it wasn't for the employees sat outside unwinding the leather chords you would walk right pass it with out a second glance.
The first thing you notice is the smell of the
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| Leather any one? |
Leather, the second thing is how much leather there actually is. As you can see this only the ground floor out of three floors and the only space that is untouched is a small walkway in between the giant mountains of leather so you can navigate yourself around the stock. As per usual like most leather shops in thailand they are Chinese owned in this case was an old Chinese lady sat behind her desk tucking into her minced pork with green beans and chilli with a herbal tea to compliment the taste. She didn't take notice of me but to be fair they never really do.
As you can see, its not exactly an organised stock and somewhere in those piles of leather is the green and brown suede we need.
After about an hour in of ravaging through the hills, I realised a lot of the leather that was tied together weren't the same colour which meant I had dig deeper so I did.
And an hour and a half into the search and negotiating with the Captain, The distressed Suede was located and saved.
Now the real work begins as I hand over the fabric to one of our pattern Cutters who will now kickstart the making of the garment.
Last week we were joined by Michael sloan one of americas most renowned pattern cutters/fitters, having worked on films such as The curious case of Benjamin Button, Alice in wonderland and Lincoln. He has worked alongside some of Hollywoods finest costume designers from Joanna Johnston too Colleen Atwood, as well as years working at La Opera and what a pleasure it is to welcome him.
I suppose an Introduction to ourselves would be an appropriate way to start of our blog. Siam Costumes has been around for over 30 years now, the owner of the company is an Englishmen called Darryl Kent-Morris, he always had a passion for clothes i can imagine when he was living in London during the peak of the punk age whilst he was customising his shirts and jeans he never imagined he would end up manufacturing costumes for Hollywood films.
Siam Costumes is based in the heart of south-east asia that being Thailand, Its here where Darryl truly fell in love with Asia: the culture, the people, the food, the heat and the endless amount of opportunities and whether he knew it or not Thailand would one day become his home and workplace.
Thailand is renowned for its authentic fabrics from its notorious Silk to its finest pure cotton and if you still cant find what your looking for then its just over a two hour flight to China.
So its now wonder why
Siam costumes have an endless amount of fabric in stock sourced from all around the world and not too mention the thousands of haberdasheries.
At first Designers and Companies were weary about trusting Siam Costumes as it was a new company that just started and was located on the other side of the world. As time passed and Siam Costumes worked they're way from the bottom, the work began to gain some well deserved attention and it took Darryl around ten years to become a reliable trusted company that could handle the large productions on a tight time scale and at the highest quality for the entertainment industry.
Having worked on Hollywood blockbusters such as Oliver stones Alexander, Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds and Peter Jackson's The Hobbit trilogy as well as Andrew Llyods webber hit musical Love never dies and Ben Hurs world tour. Now with one of the most versatile resumes within the industry Siam Costumes look forward to progressing even more within the next few years.
