My name is Alison Naylor, I have been working as a professional Costume Maker for the last 19 years
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Had a lovely weekend. Firstly attended the Freeform Weaving course demonstrated by the lovely Miriam Ward (thediscreetunicorn) at Black Sheep Wools, Culcheth and then visited the amazing Mackinnon & Saunders animation exhibition at the Waterside Arts Centre in Sale. (Thank you Gwynneth) for the heads up on this one). Well worth a visit if you can get there before the 11th.
For my birthday I went to visit the Annie Montgomerie - Hand Me Downs exhibition at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. I have been looking forward to this for a while. So glad I got to see these up close in person. If you get the chance, go see it. It is on until the 26th February 2023, it’s well worth the trip.
Autumn has truly arrived, the leaves are dropping from the trees and my fingerless gloves are out keeping my hands warm whilst I work. Feeling all autumnal I thought I’d share photos of my toadstool pin cushion. 🍄 My partner sculpted me the base and mounted it onto a wooden plinth as a Christmas pressie and I made the dome from some vintage curtain material we found at a second hand shop. Able to make more if anyone is interested in purchasing? All I need now is a large mug of hot chocolate.
Happy Autumn!🍄
Attended the Costume Symposium at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School last weekend. Had a fabulous weekend, talks from industry guest speakers and a two day embroidery course with the fantastic Michele Carragher. If you ever get the chance to attend this event in the future I can highly recommend it.
Here is my latest Lockdown project. Designed and constructed for Jason Kingsley OBE of Modern History TV YouTube channel. This tunic is to be used for his fantastic informative videos on the medieval world, check them out at https://www.youtube.com/c/ModernHistoryTV/featured
The tunic is made from a chestnut coloured soft clothing leather, it is lined with a hard wearing cotton drill. The back of the tunic laces through aged brass eyelets with a chestnut coloured leather cord, finished with aged brass aiglets. This lacing can be relaxed when on horseback to allow ease of movement. The front fastens with aged brass buckles and leather strapping. The whole tunic has then been weathered.
The leather and fasteners were all purchased from https://www.identityleathercraft.com
For more information on custom orders please email me at [email protected]
Last year I was approached by Jason Kingsley from Rebellion and Modern History to produce a stunning Fantasy Ranger costume that he had had drawn up by his concept artists at Rebellion and Jason also asked me to produce a costume for his re-enactment horse Warlord. I set to work sampling. My educational background specialising in textiles and embroidery was put to very good use. This is my favourite part of the whole process of constructing a new costume, trialing materials, developing textures and experimenting with new techniques. I put three concept ideas forward, three different construction techniques and three price brackets. Jason chose to opt for concept two which was machine made construction, durable and comfortable with beautiful intricate decoration. The costume was to consist of a gambeson, surcoat, cloak, gloves and gaiters. Being a master of all things historical Jason opted to use his own bridal equipment and armoury. Jason’s costume is made from hand dyed linens, cottons, wools, leathers and suedes and is heavily weathered. The fabrics are embellished with braids, leather thonging, leather toggles and mass amount of intricate hand decoration. Warlord’s costume comprises of a travelling blanket, bedroll and chaffron. This costume was an absolute joy to make, I thoroughly enjoyed every part and was very sad to see it leave the workshop.
For information on this or other costumes that you can have custom made contact me at [email protected] or message me here on Facebook.
For the top section of photographs the costume has been kindly modelled by Richard McEvoy-Crompton
Star Wars, The Force Awakens, Resistance Pilot costume
When I first saw Star Wars ‘The Force Awakens’ the resistance pilots costumes really stood out for me, if there was one costume from this film that I had to replicate, this was it. It’s took quite a while to get to this complete but I had to make sure I did this costume justice and made it as accurate as I possibly could. More and more images are still being released and in the sequel films there are some slight alterations to the costume. Made from a 1000 denier Cordura, this introduced me to a fabric I had worked little with before, it is an extremely heavy fabric to work with and the patterning and construction is some of the most complex work I have attempted but I love the effect the fabric has. The styling and fabrics of this costume are so right for a fighter pilot and fit perfectly into the ‘used’ Star Wars universe. The techniques used on this costume include quilting, appliqué, piping, stencilling and weathering. I currently have this costume on display at home and I am working on a suit for my partner and myself to costume in at charity events.
For information on this or other costumes that you can have custom made contact me at [email protected] or message me here on Facebook.
Boushh costume
This costume was one of the first replica costumes from a film that I made. It has been a passion of mine for a long time and I have made several versions of it over the years, constantly upgrading its accuracy as more and more original photos of the original Carrie Fisher costume emerge from the archives. It is a full ensemble from helmet to boot covers and made mostly from soft suedes and leather it is a stunning costume. The costume consist of helmet with lighting system, helmet liner, cowl, gloves, under tunic, tunic, armour and tanks, bandoleer, cloak, cummerbund, belt, trousers, and boot covers. I have replicated every detail making this the most screen accurate costume out there. Techniques used to construct this costume include pleating, piping, quilting, moulding, casting, masking, airbrushing and weathering to name a few. Being made mostly from leather the costume is expensive to replicate but truly worth every penny. This costume stands in my personal collection at home alongside the version of the costume that I made for “Paul”, the Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Seth Rogen film 2011. The costume was worn by Kristen Wiig.
For information on this or other costumes that you can have custom made contact me at [email protected] or message me on Facebook.
My replication of the Bane vest (as worn by Tom Hardy) in Batman, The Dark Knight Rises. Constructing the vest was a mammoth job but a truly enjoyable one. After a lot of research I constructed the base vest from a waffle cotton fabric and metallic leather Nappa. The upper vest is made from heavy canvas and a rig of webbings, eyelets, poppers, buckles and rivets. All this armoury came at a price, with most of it being military spec which I had to hunt around military suppliers to find. Techniques used to make this vest included dying cloth, leather work (both by machine and hand), binding, eyeleting, paint detailing and weathering. This is a seriously impressive vest.
For information on this or other costumes that you may like to have custom made contact me at [email protected] or message me on Facebook.
Reynardine Costume - Dark Fables
British Independent film maker Richard McEvoy-Crompton contacted me to commission a couple of costumes for a pilot episode of a supernatural, action adventure, based on the folk law, myths and legends of Britain. Rick asked if I could design and make two coats, the first coat being for the lead character Addison and the second coat for Reynardine. Addison’s coat needed to be loosely aristocratic, loosely ecclesiastical and move well on camera. As a demon hunter he has to be able to move freely during brawl scenes, chasing scenes and the coat has to allow him to do this. The coat was made from a medium weight pinstripe wool, fully lined with an velvet collar. I pleated, vented and placed a strap adjustment on the back of the coat. The coat could either be worn open or fully fastened using the double breasted buttons and collar strapping.
The Reynardine coat had to symbolise a fox that the character is based around. Made from a flecked wool, the face of the character is framed in fake fur, all of which is heavily distressed. Inside the coat are buttons which have foxes moulded onto them to help enforce the character the actress is portraying.
Some of the attached photographs were taken on set. I fully enjoyed getting to see my costumes on the actors and see how they worked with the performance.
More images of the Reynardine coat can be seen at my website www.alisonnaylor.co.uk
For information on this or other costumes that you can have custom made, message me through Facebook or email me at [email protected].
To see more about Dark Fables visit Facebook.com/DarkFables or www.darkfables.co.uk
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