Lady Stardust Costume
Textiles Major Work
This costume has been inspired by the legendary rock star David Bowie and his flamboyant and androgynous
alter ego Ziggy Stardust. Bowie’s fashion as Ziggy Stardust portrayed a man star crossed between worlds and
sent down to earth in galactic and sci-fi fashions. Ziggy Stardust’s fashion story evoked me to recreate a
new Ziggy Stardust persona to fit into contemporary times, thus a Lady Stardust costume was born. The Lady
Stardust Costume is a dominating dress design with a radiating centre panel enclosed by two side panels and
joined by a circular upper bust band enhanced with free motioned embroidered planets, spaceships, guitars,
and lightning bolts, the common symbols associated with Bowie’s Stardust and new symbols created to
represent the new persona of Lady Stardust herself. The overall costume is supported by a back band which
connects both sides of the dresses side panels, the back band has been constructed using eight small strips
for extra support and strength. Below this band is a large cut out detail which transforms into a downward
scoop where a gathered holographic trail protrudes from in-between the back skirt and its lining. The dress
length stops just before 20cm from the knee although the holographic trail is floor length. An invisible
zipper is located within the back skirt. All the fabrics within this costume have been delicately chosen to
represent the earth as seen in the digitally printed flowers derived from nature, and the various subtle
glitters, shiny metallics and holographic coatings were chosen to represent the blissful colours seen in
space. The costume also features a galactic shooting star lining
Sci-fi movies and the fashion within them have had a massive impact on my inspirations and have kept my
imaginative mind running. Movies such as Blade Runner, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Gattaca, Back to the
future, and Bowie’s own The Labyrinth and The Man Who Fell To Earth have all influenced me in motion
pictures, more realistic and genuine then my imagination. A range of Galactic fashion was also seen from a
variety of designers as seen in Diesel Black Gold SS12, Hermes SS12, Givenchy SS12 and of course Alexander
McQueen’s current and past collections. The extraordinary event of Felix Baumgartner, a NASA astronaut who
free-falled from space to Earth in October 2012 not only broke an out of this world record, but opened my
mind to perceptions beyond outer space.