SLUMBERLAND (2022)

A young girl discovers a secret map to the dreamworld of Slumberland, and with the help of an eccentric outlaw, she traverses dreams and flees nightmares, with the hope that she will be able to see her late father again. The film is inspired by the Winsor McCay comic strip "Little Nemo in Slumberland," which ran from 1905 to 1927.

DIRECTOR  |  Francis Lawrence
PRODUCERS  |  Ray Angelic, David Guion, Michael Handelman, Francis Lawrence
COSTUME DESIGN | Trish Summerville
CAST  |  Jason Momoa, Marlow Barkley, Chris O'Dowd, Kyle Chandler, Weruche Opia
DISTRIBUTOR  | Netflix
PRODUCTION COMPANY  | Chernin Entertainment

The photos above show the ombre-dyed frock coats for Jason Momoa’s character “Flip”. Key Textile Artist Silvana Sacco and I had to create ten matching coats, the designer (Trish Summerville) wanted the character’s coat to have a seamless flowing colour transition… meaning we had to dye each coat by hand and very carefully. This was a epic dye job and it took about 50 separate dips in the dye bath to achieve the gentle graduation on each piece.

Disney’s Togo (2019)

Togo tells the true-life adventure tale about an sled dog musher and his lead dog’s death-defying trek to deliver serum after a diphtheria outbreak. Director Ericson Core was aiming for ultimate authenticity.

This period piece was shot shot mostly in Kananaskis, Alberta. Disney has a strict policy that no animal products were to be used in costumes. Which was a huge challenge because the characters were set in the 1920’s and had to be covered head to toe in fur. It was a monumental undertaking for the Costume Deparpment. There were roughly 300 garments required, an assortment of parkas and mukluks for the crowds of extras to wear along the snowy streets of Nome, Alaska, which had been recreated at the C.L. Ranch west of Calgary. The film’s hero Leonhard Seppala, played by Willem Dafoe, required four separate parkas alone, which would eventually be made of faux moosehide, faux beaver, faux seal and faux squirrel. Julianne Nicholson, who plays Seppala’s wife Constance, was outfitted in faux Arctic rabbit. Christopher Heyerdahl, who plays Nome mayor George Maynard, wore faux buffalo. Miraculously, all of it was made with polyester. Through some extensive experimentation, what Costume Designer Wendy Partridge ended up doing was developing a system where she would cut the faux fur up into pelt-size pieces, the way a coat would be made with real fur. Then putting it all back together but adding different kinds of fur to create some highs and lows. After the coats were sewn together it was the breakdown team’s job to manipulate the coats and make them more realistic. Through layers of dyeing and airbrushing different shades of colours were applied to the costume to create different spots, spines and colour variations throughout the furs.

DIRECTOR  |  Ericson Core
PRODUCERS  |  David S. Grant, Douglas Jones, Louie Provost, Jessica Virtue, Kim Zubick
COSTUME DESIGN | Wendy Partridge
CAST  |  Willem Dafoe, Julianne Nicholson, Christopher Heyerdahl, Richard Dormer
DISTRIBUTOR  | Disney+
PRODUCTION COMPANY  | Walt Disney Pictures

The photos above show the process for creating a faux fur buffalo coat for the character “George Maynard” played by Christopher Heyerdahl. The original textile was completely white, straight haired and soft. The following photos show other process shots of how each parka was individually sprayed and painted to create custom marks that imitated natural spines and spots found on arctic seals.

Tales From the loop (2020)

Tales from the Loop is an American science fiction drama web television series based on the art book of the same name by Swedish artist Simon Stålenhag.  The townspeople who live above "The Loop," a machine built to unlock and explore the mysteries of the universe, experience things previously consigned to the realm of science fiction. The story takes place in the 50s and 80s, the colour pallets of the show were made from vintage inspirations. Winnipeg, MB was the backdrop for this show, I was lucky enough to live in this beautiful city and work with a fantastic crew during the summer of 2019.

DIRECTOR  |  Jodie Foster, So Yong Kim, Charlie McDowell
PRODUCERS  |  David S. Grant, Douglas Jones, Louie Provost, Jessica Virtue, Kim Zubick
COSTUME DESIGN | Joseph La Corte, Catherine George
CAST  | Daniel Zolghadri, Paul Schneider, Rebecca Hall, Robert Nahum Allen
DISTRIBUTOR  | Amazon Prime Video
PRODUCTION COMPANY  | 6th & Idaho Productions, Amazon Studios