Costumes of The Stolen
From a sunlit room in her family home in the Christchurch suburb of Mt Pleasant, Tina HutchisonThomas put the finishing touches on a lavish coat for a Les Miserables stage show, soon to tour the country.
‘‘I’ve always loved costume,’’ she said.
‘‘I started out at 19 as a wardrobe mistress for Southern Ballet, so I’ve lived and breathed it for at least 20 years.’’
Surrounded by reels of coloured thread and mannequins, the costume designer discussed one of her biggest projects to date, a local film called The Stolen, which had its New Zealand premiere in Sumner’s Hollywood Cinema yesterday. The film had its world premiere at London’s Covent Garden in early November and would be available to Kiwi audiences from tomorrow
On a tight budget, HutchisonThomas said she took on the role of designer, cutter, stitcher and supervisor of the film’s costume department.
‘‘It was stressful and hard work, but I would absolutely do it again in a heartbeat.’’
The Stolen is a female-led Christchurch film with an injection of Hollywood talent. Written and produced by Christchurch-born Emily Corcoran, it stars acclaimed actors Alice Eve, Jack Davenport and Graham McTavish.
Viewers may recognise Eve from the Star Trek films, Davenport from Pirates of the Caribbean, and McTavish from The Hobbit. It also stars iconic Kiwi actor Richard O’Brien and singer Stan Walker.
Set in 1860s New Zealand, the Western film follows Charlotte (Alice Eve) on a journey to find her kidnapped son. Hutchison-Thomas designed and created costumes for the film’s 30 lead roles, as well as hundreds of extras, with a team of 12 assistants.
‘‘It was very difficult to find a lot of the stuff we needed, and you couldn’t just pop down to the 1860s shop at the mall when you needed something urgently.’’
Lead character Charlotte was the typical ‘‘English rose’’, Hutchison-Thomas said, ‘‘so she starts off very pale and light in colour’’.
‘‘As her story progresses, her colours start to change a little bit, her clothes sort of harden up a little and look a bit more masculine as she moved through the film.’’
Charlotte remained in silks and natural fabrics ‘‘so it looked realistic’’, Hutchison-Thomas said. A tailor-friend from the Sydney Theatre Company joined her for three months for the men’s suiting in the film.
She was currently working on costumes for the New Zealand Musical Theatre Consortium’s rendition of Les Miserables, touring the country in 2018.
"It was very difficult to find a lot of the stuff we needed, and you couldn't just pop down to the 1860s shop at the mall when you needed something urgently."
Tina Hutchison-Thomas