Costume design at Luton Carnival
Carnival cotumes are one of the main parts of the Carnival tradition and garments are designed and materials are sourced a year in advance. Colin Spalding at Rampage Mas is one of the main costume designers and craftsman.
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He has been in the business for over 20 years and is well known for his techniques in costume building. Colin also spends much of his time conducting workshops in costume design for all ages ensuring his skills and knowledge get passed on.
During the last few years Colin has worked in partnership with the well known Trinidadian mas man Steven Derek where they have combined an award winning formula of large lightweight costumes, without the use of wheels. |
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We met with Colin and the UK Centre for Carnival Arts and found out more about the process of costume design. Colin says ‘Rampage likes to have the biggest most colourful costumes, they are very energetic and they like to portray a real style of Caribbean Carnival with lots of dancing and interacting with the crowd.’
Colin also explains the design and production of garments take a full year, he says ‘already as a designer I am thinking about what I am doing next year, its in my mind at the moment because what we are doing now is automatic. So between now and August I will be playing with colours, concepts and themes.’ To listen to the full interview with Colin click here |
