Costumes

Felicia, Bernadette and Mitzi (Australian cast)

Winning an Academy Award, among other accolades, for their work on the film might have been reason enough for Tim Chappel and Lizzy Gardiner, but the perfectionist in them responded to the invitation to revisit their famously outlandish designs. “It was a fantastic opportunity to explore our own sanity,” joke the pair, “and to fully realise things that we hadn’t been able to before. With the additional money to do it.”

With a brief to stay true to the spirit of the film, yet expand their vision, they went from a AUD$15,000 budget on the film to AUD$1.5 million for the stage show. Their work on the musical has won them yet another award - this time a 2007 Helpmann for Best Costume Design.

Along with that came a realisation that designing costumes for a stage show is very different to feature films. “You can get away with absolute murder on a film,” says Gardiner - ‘fix it in post’ or ‘shoot around it’. But on stage it’s got to be perfect.”

Chappel and Gardiner tapped into the explosive creativity of the drag community in Sydney when they worked on the film over ten years ago. They both acknowledge that the film success took drag into the mainstream but that also the art form has continued to reinvent itself. “The Sydney scene is still more interesting than anywhere we’ve ever seen. Except for New York,” says Chappel and Gardiner.

The design duo both point to their ‘westie’/country background as the base for many of their ideas: “We grew up with Gloria Gaynor and our mothers dancing to Shirley Bassey. A lot of our stuff is really inspired by our childhood and the music, and our mothers.” Les Girls: Easily the most expensive costumes in the show because bird flu had made the price of feathers skyrocket. Although it is so traditional it was very difficult to get right.

Initially the cast were unhappy because they thought the costumes were too dangerous – too heavy, too many feathers, bird flu, wind resistance. If they moved too quickly, they’d snap their necks…

Thong Dress: When we came up with the idea originally for the film, thongs (that’s flip-flops to you Brits) were the lowest rung of the fashion ladder. You wouldn’t be caught dead in them. Same with Ugg boots. So that dress evolved from bad taste and we traded on the cultural cringe value. Now thongs are groovy. If we had to make them today what would be the most tasteless thing de jour we could use? Fake breasts? Designer imposter fragrances?

Cockatoos (Australian cast)

Funeral: This was based on Fellini, particularly La Dolce Vita. We wanted to have all the religions represented.

Go West: the brief was for ‘silver cowboys’ but these represent a moment where the costume makers just went off! They took our drawings and decided to have fun and get out all their frustrations at being pulled back all the time. No one did cull them back. We can’t thank them enough.

Gumbys: They were fun. In the film there were three gumbys, each seven feet high; for the stage show there are 14, each 11 feet high. We had lots of tacky stuff brought in which the costume makers couldn’t wait to get their hands on to create the most bizarre flower arrangements possible.

Cupcakes: They are so obvious because of the song MacArthur Park, but it’s good to have these oooh, aaah scenes that an audience completely gets.

Paintbrushes: They are a cross between Hawaii-ana and Marie Antoinette. Borne out of turmoil but worked out well and had great movement.

Finale/Australiana: This is a surreal, silly and twisted version of Australian flora and fauna.

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