ABOUT
Dye and Breakdown
Dye and breakdown is often called 'costume breakdown' or 'breakdown', but better described as 'costume enhancement' or 'textile art'. This is the art of creating a costume to look different from how it has been made or purchased. This technique is usually applied to make a costume piece look used or worn. It is also used to enhance the garment specific to the costume design or character needs, using dyes and other techniques to add texture and depth.
In the early days in costume for television, there was a lot of 'tech white work'. This involved shirts or other garments being dipped in a diluted 'Reindeer Beige and Elephant Grey' dye, enabling the cameras to film them as white.
For a general 'dirty' look, the old 'Valette Hairspray' was used. Originally devised for the disguising of grey hair, the colours black, grey, mid-brown, dark-brown, blonde and the fantastic 'auburn' were used on textiles to create many aging and dirtying effects. Easily created but also simple to wash out, which was of great use for a hire costume.
Nowadays, television has started to embrace a more cinematic look and whites are still 'teched', and now dirty down sprays have replaced the old Valette hairsprays.
My Career So Far
After leaving school at the age of seventeen, I secured myself a job working at a costumiers in Bristol and stayed here for the next three years.
After gaining experience in the industry, I started working freelance as an assistant costume designer in the costume department of BBC Bristol. I became acquainted with Alex Carey on 'Fierce Creatures' (costumes designed by Hazel Pethig) in 1995, as he was the dye and breakdown artist. Then once again on 'Brassed Off' (costumes designed by Amy Roberts) in the same year. While working on 'Brassed Off', we spent many non-filming days working alongside each other and this was when I knew this was the area my expertise would lie in the future.
After a few years of working within the dye and breakdown sector of the costume Industry, Alex and I came together to work on 'Sherlock Holmes, A Game of Shadows' (costumes designed by Jenny Beavan), where we worked on the disguise outfit for Robert Downey Junior in the film's closing sequence. We then also collaborated again on 'Mad Max, Fury Road' (costumes designed by Jenny Beavan) in 2012, in Namibia.
I currently have a dye shop and print room set up at 'The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School'. I like to share and teach my knowledge to students studying costume for tv theatre film.
In recent years I have worked with varying teams and newcomers to the industry to try and give them the benefit of my experience. This also helps me to keep up with new techniques as the industry is always evolving. Myself and my team have worked on 'Amanite' for Fossil Films (costumes designed by Michael O'Connor), 'Avenue 5' for HBO (Costume Designer Suzie Harman) 'Death on the Nile' for 20th Century Fox (Costume Designer Paco Delgado) and 'Mysterious Monsters' for Netflix (Costume Designer Lucinda Wright).
