costume designing

So I've decided. I'm making these killer costumes. I broke it down to the modern costume parts of today's carnival costumes in Trinidad, that consist mainly of the headpiece, neckpiece, leg and arm bands, waist bands and bra. The designs at present rarely push the limit with the possilibities theses components can create. I've been finding inspiration in existing jewelery pieces and also while playing around with the components of the jewelery I was working on previously. Basically its a system of attaching something to the body then attaching something to that something. The process continues from there.In its simplest form, its a jump ring, that is a circular metal ring that has an opening. By opening its you can loop another ring to it and continue the chain. This basic construction is the basis for majority of jewellery pieces. I hope to work as well with grommets and metal snaps closures. I realized in alot of design the single unit alone looks uneventful, but in multiples its creates a language of its own. By finding a variety of ways to attach things to the basic formwork of the previously mentioned components I can prehaps form something that can create a rhythm ,a movement, a sound or simply something to be enjoyed by the effectiveness of multiples.I'm making something in order to think about it and not the other way around.

I've attached two inspiring videos, first is the Trinidadian Mas Designer Peter Minshall who is known for creating fabulous costumes that he refers to as 'dancing mobiles', second is American artist Nick Cave who stumbled upon the idea of the sound suit while building a scupltureout of twigs, as the body moved in it ,the rustling of the twigs against each other created sounds. From there he made 50 more sound suits. It's this sort of stumbling upon something new that I hope to encounter.