Sultan’s Turban Was A Test Of Ingenuity

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30406, 3 April 1964, Page 2

Sultan’s Turban Was A Test Of Ingenuity

Making an eastern sultan’s turban is not the kind of millinery problem one would expect to find in Christchurch: but it arose for Mrs J. de Thier, the costume designer of the forthcoming Children’s Theatre production of a tale from the Arabian Nights, and it took five yards of butter muslin, some wire, foam rubber, Christmas decorations and the shiny blue wrapper of a cake of toilet soap to solve this problem.

The ornate finished headgear is a tribute to ingenuity and imagination; and it is only one example of this among the 45 costumes being prepared for the 35 actors in the play, which begins a oneweek season on May 16. The beads and trimmings from several Charleston-era frocks, which had been given to the theatre, have been put to unrecognisable use: some adorn the waistline of an antique gold harem skirt (formerly an underslip) set off by vivid green bands of Christmas Scotch tape. Old buttons, pumpkin seeds, acorns, and chestnuts glam-

orised with ' paint and gilt, and more Christmas tree decorations, have made eyecatching “jewellery.” Oldfashioned Indian table mats have become a rich-looking headpiece for one of the merchants in the story. A collection of shoes, with pointed toes curled suitably upward, is being made with the assistance of two small cramps and some gold paint. “Begged and Borrowed”

Set in Alexandria, and moving to Algiers, the tale of Abousir (the barber) and Aboukir (the dyer) revolves round Aboukir’s bringing of many colours to a people who before had had no other shades but blue and white. Mrs de Thier estimates that some 350 yards of material will be used in the production, both in costumes and in the scenes in market places and dyer’s yard, where bolts of coloured cloth are on view. “We begged and borrowed material; and what we still needed, we bought,” she said.

A team of seven women who regularly help the theatre are making the costumes, from coloured sketches done by Mrs de Thier. Help Needed “But what we do need is a woman capable of doing plain sewing, and who could also help us backstage. If we could find someone who could help with costumes and dressing, from 6 o’clock until 8 each evening the play is on,

it would be wonderful,” she said.

Though she has done a great deal of work on costumes for various theatricals, Mrs de Thier feels she has found her niche with Children’s Theatre costuming. “It’s the love of myi life; the children are so appreciative, too,” she said. Mrs de Thier has been engaged on this work for the last 10 years. Costumes for productions, especially for children, required “just that extra little dash of character,” she said. Though they remained authentic to their period, the outfits needed to be dramatised —“slightly exaggerated” —to appeal to ■ children, and to enable them easily to recognise the various characters.