For Project four we were tasked with designing and building a hat based upon a cubist painting of our choice. For my inspiration I began with Frida Kahlo's The Broken Column and then found my way to Marcel Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase 2.
My initial design, which began with Kahlo's piece, was a very structured piece with many different pieces shooting between separate bars. This design was eventually changed by the removal of the two center bars as it obstructed the view of the crown of the hat.
We began with an extremely oversized hat which we tool apart in order to have both a smaller hat and material to make our designs out of.
Originally my hat had the same color crown and under brim, both of which were attached by machine. I eventually changed the crown to a green, synthetic material instead of the beige natural material.
I covered my wings in fabric and attached them to the brim of the hat, also hand sewing on the two bands to the very top and bottom of the wings. Before I could attach the "staircases" I had to attach my flowers to the brim.
With the flowers attached I was finally able to attach the last pieces of black to my hat. My cat personally loved it!
In order to check all of the boxes, I included two arched wings, fabric covering the underside of the brim of the hat as well as the crown, fabric flowers that act as the band of the hat, and pleated fabric for the covering of the crown.
In this project, my timing schedule was all over the place. The original plan was to complete this project within the 3 week period that was allotted, but this plan was knocked off the tracks by the production of CHICAGO and the due date changed by a week. I would love to say that I had a time plan that worked for this, but due to my hectic schedule I really worked on this whenever I could find the time, usually late at night after dinner and occasionally rehearsal. I am personally most happy with how the crown and band turned out!
