Notting Hill Carnival is my absolute favourite weekend of the year and dreaming of it's arrival coming closer is the only thing that gets me thru the Winter months. 2014 marks the 50th anniversary of the festivities and luckily I got to work on in it via the Red Bull Music Academy Soundsystem. Alongside Lakwena, we collaborated on the identity for the artwork of the party which ran across the posters ahead of the celebration to the awnings which decorated under the Westway on the day. Lakwena designed the graphics for the pattern with reference to my masks, and I then in turn referenced her shapes to integrate into the costumes for the dancers. The whole thing combined in full scale murals which Lakwena patiently painted by hand, including the press board backdrop for backstage. Photos of all of this will follow in a 2nd post, but here is a sneak peak of the preparations that took place in making of the costumes............. including threading my own beaded fringing because I couldn't find one I liked. Every detail was made in-house from bending wire frames to dying fabric and feathers to sewing bespoke measurement teeny tiny thongs from scratch. I wish I could just glue-gun some rhinestones to a headband and be done with it, but unfortunately I always seem to end up with the most time-consuming laborious process to realise the most cosmic spectrum that I can concoct.
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