Gormenghast

Costumes designed for the gothic novel "Gormenghast" by Mervyn Peake. Inspiration was taken directly from the vividly written story, which is concerned with ideas of tradition, death, life-cycles, nature and love.

The heavy charm-jewellery was used to symbolise the weight of tradition and ceremony which is placed upon the royal family within Gormenghast castle: trinkets and jewels which, like the rituals they are forced to perform, represent long-forgotten ideas.

The use of bird skulls and stopped clocks within the costumes further emphasise the concepts of stagnant time and the reverence for death, which appear so frequently within the story.