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Freya Meldrum 

BA [Hons] Costume Design

Freya is a Dublin based costume designer with a passion for creating visually rich costumes for theatre and film. Born and raised in Brussels, she’s always had an interest in how clothing can shape perspective and express character. She has just completed a BA Design for Stage and Screen: Costume Design at IADT. The course has taught her a lot about the many different elements necessary to the creation a successful project, and how to collaborate with others. She hopes to continue to explore the many exciting avenues of costume, from research, to design, to construction.

Major Project Final Costume: Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House. As heir to the Ninth House, and High Priestess of Drearburh, Harrowhark Nonagesimus cuts an imposing and threatening figure. She is always dressed in her robes and ceremonial skull face paint. To convey her status as a priestess I looked to the traditional clothing of nuns, and these heavily inspired the silhouette of the final costume.
Major Project - Back view of the final costume for Harrowhark Nonagesimus. The many textures used to bring this costume to life are evident in this image. The main body of the cloak and capelet are a wool crepe, with the hood lined in silk, and the net and lace panel hanging down the back. The stretch jersey used for the cowl on the bodice is also visible.
Major Project - Detail of the sleeves. The sleeves, made of wool crepe and lined in the same silk as the hood, have two deep inverted pleated sewn in place to give them the thick folds reminiscent of a nun's habit.
Major Project - Detail of the costume sans cloak. The human ribcage worn by Harrowhark was made first in a framework of metal wire, and then covered with air dough clay to create a bone-like texture. The bone shard earrings were also hand made from air dough. The knucklebone that compose the rosary were 3D printed, primed, painted, and assembled on a cord.
Major Project - Front view of the full costume. The costume is composed of 5 main elements: The cloak, the capelet (and hood), the bodice, the trousers, and the ribcage. The cloak is made up of approximately 6 meters of wool crepe and weighs around 8kg.
Major Project - Detail of the costume sans cloak. In order to maintain visual cohesion with all the blacks used in the costume, the bodice and trousers are made of opposing sides of the same fabric, a cotton backed silk. The bodice features a pointed hem in front and back, as well as bell sleeves gathered at the wrist, and a box pleat on the shoulder. The cowl neck, intended to simulate the visual effect of a nun's cowl, is set into a square neckline. The trousers have no visible waistband or hem, and feature an invisible zip.
Major Project - Detail of the knucklebone rosary. To form the rosary, 27 individual pieces were printed, modelled after deer knucklebones. They were then primed and painted. As the religion followed on Drearburh is not Christianity, the prayer sets follow the pattern of 9-9-9, to honour the Emperor Undying and the Ninefold Resurrection.
Major Project - All Characters designed for "Gideon the Ninth". Each House has a distinctive visual language thanks to their different social focus and colour palette.
Minor Project - "The Tempest" by William Shakespeare. Costume designed for Antonio, the Duke of Milan and usurper of his brother's throne. When designing this project I chose to set in on a space station, to retain the isolation of the original script's island but bring the story forward in time. The costume is reminiscent of the uniform jumpsuit standard on modern space stations, but with inspiration from the uniforms of the 1975 Soyuz-Apollo mission, and the clothing of 1600s Italy, when the original play was set.
Minor Project - "The Tempest" by William Shakespeare. Detail of sleeve and pin tucked hip panel for Antonio costume. As it was designed for theatre, the costume is in two pieces, and has a concealed zip to fasten the bodice.
Pushing Boundaries Project - Sculptural Forms On The Body. Taking inspiration from a sculpture by Richard Malone, this project explored the use of exaggerated forms to make the body itself into a sculpture.
Pushing Boundaries Project - Sculptural Forms On The Body. The garment is a pair of chaps, made in a patchwork of velvet and structured with steel boning.
Major Project: Gideon the Ninth

The text I chose for my major project is “Gideon the Ninth”, a science fiction fantasy novel by Tamsyn Muir set in an alternative version of our universe, where necromancy (death magic) is omnipresent. The novel follows the necromancer and cavalier of the Ninth House, Harrowhark Nonagesimus and Gideon Nav, as they compete against others to attain immortality in service to the Emperor Undying.
I chose this text for its rich visual language. The society’s division into nine major ‘Houses’ as well as into Necromancers and Cavaliers meant I could play with the variety of different clothing styles that would develop in separate cultures. The costume I chose to make, Harrowhark Nonagesimus, is a necromancer specialising in bone magic, and high priestess of a necromantic religion. As such, her costume reflects the weight of tradition placed upon her, as well her quiet but imposing power.
Makeup and hair by Lavender Jane Gartlan. Modelled by Aisling Wallace.


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Thesis: Puppetry and Purpose: Exploring how nature shapes form through animal puppets

Since I was young, I’ve been fascinated by the transformative nature of puppetry, and how despite the knowledge of a puppet’s inanimate nature we are often compelled to believe in their autonomy. In order to explore the essential components of a successful puppet performance I decided to look at the interplay of form and nature in the creation of a puppet. I chose to analyse how the ‘personality’ of a puppet influences how they are designed, from scale, to aesthetic choices, to puppetry method. To help focus my inquiries I chose to focus on three very different iconic animal puppets; Kermit the Frog from The Muppets, Joey from War Horse, and the Cheshire Cat from the Alice In Wonderland ballet.
Through looking at the different styles of puppetry used, the different scales of the puppets, and the realism of the design I broke down the key elements that have made these particular puppets stand the test of time and remain brilliant and lifelike in people’s imagination.


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Costume Design
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