Not currently on display at the V&A

Hugh Stevenson design

Costume Design
1950 (painted)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Costume design by Hugh Stevenson for Emilia in Othello, showing full length female figure wearing Elizabethan square necked dress in carmine vermilion, the neck edged in black set with ochre, with puffed upper sleeves in white banded in mauve set with a central blue stripe, pink blue lower sleeves with grey bands at the wrists. The skirt ispulled back onto the hips to reveal the pink blue petticoat banded with grey at the hem. The shoes are red purple and on the head is a blue decoration. The design is inscribed with the name of the play and the role and is signed and dated.
The ochre paint is used to indicate gold braid or metal.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleHugh Stevenson design (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Pencil and gouache on paper
Brief description
Costume design by Hugh Stevenson for Emilia in Othello in a programme of scenes from Shakespeare, British Council tour, early 1950s
Physical description
Costume design by Hugh Stevenson for Emilia in Othello, showing full length female figure wearing Elizabethan square necked dress in carmine vermilion, the neck edged in black set with ochre, with puffed upper sleeves in white banded in mauve set with a central blue stripe, pink blue lower sleeves with grey bands at the wrists. The skirt ispulled back onto the hips to reveal the pink blue petticoat banded with grey at the hem. The shoes are red purple and on the head is a blue decoration. The design is inscribed with the name of the play and the role and is signed and dated.
The ochre paint is used to indicate gold braid or metal.
Dimensions
  • Height: 558mm
  • Width: 380mm
Style
Production typeUnique
Marks and inscriptions
  • 'Othello. / Aemilia' (Textual information; Upper right hand corner; Handwriting; Pencil)
  • 'Hugh Stevenson / 50.' (Signature; date; Lower right hand corner; Handwriting; Pencil)
  • 'FLA. / 0291.' (Textual information; Lower left hand corner; Handwriting; Ballpoint pen)
Credit line
Cyril W. Beaumont Bequest
Object history
This is one of 25 designs by Hugh Stevenson for a programme of excerpts from Shakespeare devised for a British Council tour in the early 1950s. It was performed by a small company led by Walter Fitzgerald and called for costumes that would clearly indicate the different characters while allowing for quick changes. This Stevenson achieved by creating a basic costume in the Elizabethan style for each actor to which were added robes, tunics, overdresses or accessories.
The designs are part of the collection that came to the Museum from the dance historian and publisher Cyril Beaumont and may originally have formed part of the London Archives of the Dance.

Historical significance: A group of designs showing how a designer solves the problem of creating costumes for a programme of extracts from various Shakespeare plays (which means allowing for quick changes), by creating several basic costumes which can be adapted, or to which accessories can be added, to indicate specific characters
Subject depicted
Literary referenceOthello
Collection
Accession number
S.170:1-2000

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Record createdSeptember 14, 2000
Record URL
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