GREENS

Your mother always said that your greens were good for you!

Well... they certainly are for Robin's costume... when done properly.

I was absolutlely determined that ALL the green portions of Robin’s costume would match each other EXACTLY… no matter what. One of the things I never liked about Burt Ward’s (otherwise excellent) suit was the mis-matched greens (Re; gloves much darker than T-Shirt and shorts. Pixie shoes in a slightly different shade than everything else.)

I was fortunate enough to locate three fabric textures that matched color shades perfectly, and then fashioned all green garments with the three them. I began with a Hanes Kelly Green boy’s cotton T-shirt, and I matched it PERFECTLY with some Kelly Green lycra spandex and some Kelly green calf skin leather that I purchased from a supplier.



I went to LeCrasia Gloves here in NYC and brought them a full pattern I had created for Robin’s little gauntlets (based off of a ladies evening glove with an extended gauntlet cuff sleeve). I supplied the Kelly green leather, and three days later I picked up a stunningly beautiful pair of custom-made green leather gauntlets!




The Kelly green Lycra Spandex I found was intended for fashioning Robin’s green shorts. And even though they matched the cotton green t-shirt and leather gloves perfectly, they also had that excessive “Halloween costume” shine that I really did not care for. Under certain lighting conditions, the shorts actually appeared brighter than the cotton T-shirt and finished leather gloves.



The truth is, I expected that situation, but I did not care. I intended to alter the shorts in a way that few Robin costumers have done in the past: I planned to add the “scaley” chain-mail pattern to the surface of the shorts (as seen in the comics) using hundreds of ¾ inch circles die-cut from the Kelly Green leather I bought and glued directly to the spandex.






The job took about 5 days, but when I was finished, the shorts had a richness of detail that was incredible!! And of course, they perfectly matched the previously-made gloves!



The original plan was to make the little pixie shoes out of the same Kelly green leather as the gloves using a professional boot-maker here in New York City. However, I discovered to my dismay that custom-made shoes were well beyond my budget for this project!


I got creative and looked for a way to fashion the booties myself quickly, and inexpensively. I managed this by purchasing 3 pairs of basic black canvas kung-fu slippers for $7 each. I then used some extra green T-shirts that I purchased as raw fabric to laminate the kung-fu slippers and make them into flared pixie shoes.

UTILITY BELT

This was one area where I was grateful for the design simplicity of the comic book belt.  Burt Ward’s 1966 TV show belt featured six brass tube vials that were not a part of the comic book belt design, and that, frankly, I found unnecessary.

The comic book belt was basically a clean leather band with a round golden brass buckle.  Two small vertical rods flanked  the round buckle on the left and right sides.

Using “found” items… a combination of flat and rounded plastic ring discs, and a large half-moon button…  I assembled together a beautiful buckle design that employed artistic license and still stayed true to the final belt as seen in the comics. The assembled buckle was sanded, primered and painted with 8 coats of bright gold enamel and 2 coats of gloss clear.  

As the Catwoman costume was being developed for this play, we had one of the performing arts students model the finished uniform for a test-fitting.  

The role is still in auditions to be cast.

We selected the Jim Balent design of the late 1980's early 1990's for Catwoman's costume.

Edited by darklord1967 - 4/20/13 at 5:16pm

 

Edited by darklord1967 - 4/20/13 at 5:20pm