Worn by Blair Bomar and Catherine Engus for their roles as Neptune Mermaids in the Fall 2005 production of The Marriage of Miss Hollywood and King Neptune by Robert Schenkkan.
Comments from Draper, Theresa Mancuso:
The process was definitely a challenge and took a little longer than most, but I love to create costumes that require some creative engineering. Overall I would guess it took about 4 weeks to create each [Mermaid] costume
The costume consisted of many different types of fashion fabric and numerous layers. The belt was constructed out of a blue metallic brocade; the overskirt a sheer poly-blend fabric already formed with thin rows of corrugated pleating; the underskirt a stretch gold lame in addition to various synthetic fabrics used to create the dense rows of circular ruffles.
The upper part of the costume was rented from a costume shop, but we wove bias strips into the existing fabric and attached long flowing scarves to the straps to create a sense of movement, whereby achieving the watery effect the designer was looking for.
The real ingenuity came in the construction of the skirt…I had to devise a technique to gathered up the outer skirt even tighter to achieve the fluting at the bottom. The trick came in that I couldn't stitch horizontal rows of elastic directly to the back of the fabric because of the fabric's vertical surface treatment. Instead I stretched the fabric over a frame and hand stitched a zigzag pattern over the elastic allowing it to float independently. The elastic was later drawn up in a fitting to fit the actress. The underskirt had a circular skirt attached to the calf section of the skirt that served as a foundation for the rows and rows of circular ruffles needed to create the lower silhouette. Some of the ruffles were hemmed with fishing line. It took many hours of stitching and by numerous individuals to complete this part of the process.
The next challenge came in organizing the skirt layers. To keep the layers from shifting around we built the skirt on top of a pair of spandex shorts and later in a precise fitting I attached it to the belt, which hung from the hips. The holes were later cut out and finished. We embellished the belt with seashells by drilling holes into them and attaching them by hand. The crowns were made in the craft shop.
