In collaboration with the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Animalesque creates bespoke collections of headdresses, inspired by the Royal Ballet productions of Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and the Nutcracker.
Each headdress is handmade using fabrics and embellishments re-purposed from the Royal Opera House costume archive.
Incorporating surplus trims, vintage lace and glittering beads and sequins from iconic tutus, as well as floral silks, striped linens, and brushed wools from historical costumes, these exclusive one-of-a-kind headdresses are available only from the Royal Opera House Shop in Covent Garden and on their website shop
I’ll never forget the thrill of visiting the Royal Opera House Costume Department for the first time to choose fabrics for this collaboration. Entering this palatial building through stage door, heading behind the scenes to see rail after rail of costumes from ballets past and present, boxes of fabric and haberdashery labeled ‘Sleeping Beauty Braids' ‘Odile tutu lace ‘Prologue fairies decoration' and more. I was awe-struck!
But when my eyes caught the mannequin in the middle of the room wearing the white swan tutu from Swan Lake, I could hardly contain myself! Beautiful handmade ice-white fabric feathers clinging to the body, and spraying down into the layers of lace, silks and tulle. It was almost alive!
Now you are able to have a piece of this magic too, as the new Animalesque for Royal Opera House collection features Swan Headdresses, and Sleeping Beauty Owls and Mouse Kings made with surplus materials and embellishments from the costumes themselves.
To have my headpieces in the Royal Opera House shop, made from the exquisite fabrics of iconic productions and in collaboration with the world-leading ROH costume department, really is the stuff of childhood dreams.
