Bespoke Postiche

Sara T - 02/10/15

Things to consider when designing and making wigs and hair sculptures:

How is that made?

how is it attached to the head or body?

It’s massive…how have they managed to ‘cheat’ the weight? Think about health and safety (cats wig with crash helmet underneath.)

what’s it made of?

is that really hair?

Is there a lace edge- if so where is it?

Is there some sort of structure in it? Do you need structure or can you just manipulate the hair. If not how can you build a light structure.

Tonsure’s and moving hairlines.

How can you create these characters in a more advanced way.

Mix up techniques being used. Part wig, part punch and hand laying.

(Examples: Lord of the rings goblins and cat in that hat character)

Mix techniques so you can't see hair lines.

Need's to have a human resemblance so audience can relate to the character.

Research into the constructions and hats can be helpful and good things to consider.

Hair exploration..different ways to manipulate and work hair.

Above is an example of a wig where the base is made from all foundation netting. It is a two piece wig, that had been designed specifically for this character makeup which has a really unique hair line. Due to this characters hair line the seam for this wig is across the middle going from ear to ear, which meant the seam could be hidden behind the ear which is the most discrete place.

To the left is an example of an unfinished five piece wig. The cons of a five piece wig is that it is expensive and time consuming. The pros are that it will fit the actor/models head much better.

Examples of clever complex wig structures:

Zion Acie, 2015. Mike Myers plays The Cat [Video Online] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jkB2cPXC-g>

To the left is a video I found talking about the character design for the 2003 Cat in the Hat movie. During the video there is a short clip of them applying and styling the cat wig onto Mike Myers. It appears they applied the wig and then looked as if they layed white hair over the lace front styling it into the wig. Later on in the video Mike Myers mentions the cat ears are remote controll, they don't show how this wig was made to encorporate the electronical ears but made me question how they did it.. are the ears attached to the wig or has the wig been made to fit around the ears? If so which were applied first?!

Practicing:

My design

My partners design I had to create a wig base for. This design had no hair at the back of the head.

This shows me marking in a hair line and drawing over that with a new hair line for the wig. Due to the design having no hair at the back of the head it was obvious this wig would be applied ontop of a bald cap (assuming the model had hair). I then practiced with tut tut net to create the wig base looking at where I would apply the darts and have the seam.

Ruskai, M. and Lowery, A. (2013). Wig Making and Styling: A Complete Guide for Theatre & Film. United States: Focal Press.

I then researched further into materials used for the base of the wig and various techniques used when making it from scratch. It states the adavtages and dissadvantages of various foundation wig bases, showing the high importance of planning the wig base depending on the desired style of the final wig.

Lucie Minty

Specialist Practice

Bespoke Postiche