Soufriere Etherington
Costume Design and Making BA Hons
Bucks New University
Graduates: 2026
Specialisms: Costume Design - Stage Screen Dance / Illustration
My location: High Wycombe, United Kingdom
Soufriere Etherington
First Name: Soufriere
Last Name: Etherington
University / College: Bucks New University
Course / Program: Costume Design and Making BA Hons
Graduates: 2026
Specialisms: Costume Design - Stage Screen Dance / Illustration
My Location: High Wycombe, United Kingdom
About
I am a third year costume design and making student at Buckinghamshire New University. My specialities are costume illustration and concept art, pattern drafting and cutting and contextual research. I draw inspiration from historical fine art and international pop culture alike to produce appealing and innovative designs and garments.
For this project, we explored Erin Morgenstern's novel The Night Circus, set during the Belle Eqoque on the east coast of the United States. The eponymous circus only appears at night, with performers dressed in black and white performing mind-bending and spellbinding magic. For this project, I was inspired by alternative fashions of both the time period and the modern day, adding influences of gothic, steampunk and lolita fashion into my designs for the cast. My 1890s jacket was made with Isobel Martin, the jilted and despairing fortune teller, in mind. The sleeves of the original pattern were slashed and spread to give a more mid-decade silhouette, and trimmed with a hand-stitched satin bias binding pattern to reference the circus aesthetic. Finishing above the waist, the jacket alludes to the Artistic Dress movement, which favoured looser silhouettes and empire waists and was popular among alternative and artistic people of the time.