Secrets in Costumes

 

When I started the design process for The Secret Garden, I read the book while keeping in mind the overall vision of the musical. Gothic, dark and cold atmospheres while still capturing a warm tenderness that the story and message holds. When life dies, it allows new life to grow, and that sometimes the key to get through the door, is the strength that is given from experiencing loss.

That being said, and me being me, I’ve hidden little details throughout the costumes that only me and the team know, now I give these secrets to you.

 

• The lace on Colin’s oversized robe is the same as the lace on Archibald’s jacket, proving that the robe was handed down from Archibald to his son.

 

• All of the male “Dreamers” in the show have cravat pendants that help showcase their characters more, an example of this is Albert’s pendant having crystal rose on it as an obvious call to his wife, Rose.  

 

• Lily has a smaller key to the garden around her neck during most of the show in the flashbacks and when she’s guiding Mary. This doubles as a metaphor for her being the key that the Craven family have been missing for 10 years.

 

• Colin and Archibald are dressed in clothes that date back to the 1890s rather than when the show takes place in 1910, visualizing the idea that time has stopped for the Craven family since Lily passed away and that Archibald is a man lost in time, refusing to let go.

 

• Martha’s use and love of purple doesn’t just prove to be a reason why Mary is dressed in all purple in act I, but is symbolic of the colorful, bubbly nature of the character in an otherwise gloomy mansion. It’s also a call to Martha’s motherly attributes as that’s my own mother’s favorite color.

 

• Mary’s dress that’s worn in act II wasn’t picked and altered simply because it looked nice, but that it showed her new rise in class as time progressed and that Lily starts to effect her life more than she may even realize considering the white lace, powder pink and greens that are referencing the new life that’s growing in the garden both from the plants and the young girl that’s taking care of them. A big thank you to the talented Azharia Pratt, my assistant costume designer for helping make Mary’s dresses come to life.

 

 

• A very large theme in this show is motherhood whether they are past figures or present ones, their influence on Mary in this show is evident in the music and story if you look for it. This was important for me to visualize in the costumes that Mary wears as well, from white gloves that Lily wears, to the purple that Martha wears and lastly, the lace that Rose wears. Their influence and guidance in Mary’s life (whether past or present) is the reason she is where she is at the end of the show.

 

Thank you for allowing me to be on this journey of helping make The Secret Garden come to life. It was a passion project to say the least and now it gets to come to life for you, the audience.