Anna Maria Drutzel

COSTUME AND MILLINERY

A brief history of costume making:

Once a professional Street Performer, my costume work is informed by a deep love and appreciation for the art of dress and theatre, and a passion for fairytales and pantomime. Trained in Theatre Technology (costume making) and then apprenticed to Mandy Murphy Millinery where I worked as a Millinery Assistant for many seasons, I established my own wearable art label Penelope Heaven, and first official business in 2000, aged 23.

Under the Penelope Heaven label, I created my own designs and exhibition pieces, and also sub-contracted for other designers such as Catherine Manuell and Cynthia Briggs, and as a Costume Maker for The Costume Shop. Over the years I have made bridal headdresses, bouquets, corsages and hairpins for a small client group of brides and bridesmaids who have come to me through work, school, family, friends, and friends of friends. I have also worked with bridal designers to fashion companion pieces for their seasonal collections and once created a headdress and bouquet to accompany a finalist entry to the Australian Gown of the Year in 2003.

Among my most favourite childhood memories are those of sewing with my Mother, dear Nanna Clare and Aunties, and of playing constant “dress ups”. As a child, my mother created a Dress Up Box which was filled with old velvet hippy gowns and sixties nylon nighties, princess dresses, fairy skirts and wings all made by my Nanna and my wardrobe combined hand-downs from older friends and cousins, with beautiful clothes made by my Mother and other women in my family, Laura Ashley dressesand US designer labels inherited from an American friend and a collection of traditional German dirndls, complete with aprons, embroidered socks and cardigans and a red ridinghood cape. Thus, I grew up surrounded by women who stitched and sewed and quilted and used their imaginations to turn everyday into a magical and theatrical experience. A needle and thread have never been far from my hands, and over the years they have often found their way into my visual arts practice.

In 2005 I launched a children’s label named Raised by the Wolves, making “toys and wears for little folk and children of the heart”, and I ran this business until 2013, last making for the 2015 Coburg Christmas market.

My RBTW work was very much inspired by the elements of fables and fairytales and also heavily influenced by the folklore of my Germanic heritage. A fable about two little children who go wandering in the woods alone, and find themselves lost.

It was the wolves who found them.

But not the frightening, grandma-devouring wolves of the tales of old.

They were kind wolves. Resourceful. Self-sufficient. Insightful. Trying to live in harmony with the world around them… and this is what they taught to the children when they took them home to their lair and raised them as their own.  Eventually the children return the human world, and for the rest of this story… you’ll have to wait until after publication, I’m afraid!

I used to hand the blurb out as a pamphlet to customers at the market.

I realised that, in this story, we were the wolves.

The makers, the artists, the creative parents who chose to raise their children outside of the norm.

In 2013 I began to write, illustrate and publish a children’s book and take the basis of what I have been developing with Raised by the Wolves- a range of toys and children’s wear- and rework it to accompany my book but it remains unfinished as yet.

Alice and the White Rabbit costumes styled for a child’s 6th Alice in Wonderland birthday party.

I think it had been my dream, always, to work on old-fashioned pantomimes.

When my son was younger, I worked on his primary school plays, leading a group of mothers - both experienced and non-experienced sewers - to make costumes and cardboard props for the entire school over four consecutive years.

Pretty much everything was made from recycled and donated materials and odds and ends.

Pyjamas, Night Cap and Matching slippers (not pictured) made for Christmas School Play.

You gotta love it when your PJs match your pressies….

The first year we turned Ari’s Grade One class into the kids’ choice of sad Pierrots and silly Clowns.

I was inspired to do this when I saw children dropped off at the first school play without costumes to wear, it pulled at my heartstrings. I had such fond memories of my own school plays and making costumes with my Mum and Nanna.

Over those years we made Christmas Elves and Fairies, Rock’n’Rollers, Pyjamas, Warriors, a Purple Princess, acrobats and circus freaks, all kinds of wonderful and whimsical characters. It took me back to my days as a Costume Maker.

From 2002 until 2005 I had worked for a Melbourne Costume Store as their Costume Maker.

I don’t have many photos of these projects alas, but they are among some of my favourite creations.

Although I continued to dabble with stitchery it was not until the 2020 Covid Pandemic that I determined to return to my workshop and re-employ my skills as a costume maker, as a necessary means to generate income.

In 2022 I will be launching a new label (yet unofficially named She Witch) and blogging my process here.

TÊTE-À-TÊTE Theatre with Maya Sollier presenting 'The Tea Party' performance, St. Kilda Town Hall 2004

Selected work 1997 - current:

Millinery Workshop: Learn to make a Simple Fascinator (private workshop, 2018)