COSTUME MAKING NIGHT
—Bacchanal —
Ahead of Bacchanal, Fox&Badge invites you to our costume-making night where we’ll be exploring Dionysian adornment: creating pieces that blur the boundaries between costume, jewellery, rope work and the living body.
Guided by Anna Kii of Figure of A, we’ll combine the deliberate geometry of Japanese Shibari with the unruly abundance of the natural world. Rope will twist into vines. Metal hardware will become jewellery. Ivy, leaves and flowers will climb across bodies.
Very Dionysian.
We’ll be gathering on the top floor of the beautiful and historic Star of Hackney Downs pub which has a delicious selection of food and drink.
WHAT WE’LL BE MAKING
Choose your own creation and take it as far as you like:
Ivy-twined crowns and headpieces
Rope necklaces, collars and body jewellery
Decorative Shibari-inspired harnesses
Organic rope and wire structures sculpted directly onto the body
Wearable pieces incorporating leaves, flowers, ivy and found natural materials
Everything we create will be unisex and individual to its wearer, with techniques you can continue experimenting with for your Bacchanal costume.
No rope experience or craft experience is needed.
WE PROVIDE
High-quality rope
Metal rings, clips and signature Figure of A hardware
Wire and construction materials
Ivy, foliage, flowers and natural elements
Tools
Guidance on tying, construction and composition
Inspiration from Dionysian imagery and Ancient Greek adornment
Support for complete beginners as well as experienced makers
WHAT TO BRING
If you have them, bring natural materials, charms, jewellery, ribbons, rope, old costume pieces or false flowers you’d like to transform.
You may also want to bring some of the clothing you plan to wear to Bacchanal so that your piece can be designed directly around it. Most importantly: bring your imagination and a willingness to experiment.
YOUR GUIDE: FIGURE OF A
Figure of A is an accessories brand inspired by Japanese rope bondage — Shibari — created by rope artist and fashion designer Anna Kii.
After practising rope bondage for several years, Anna’s idea of wearable Shibari was born - tying together her passion for Shibari and design. Figure of A translates traditional rope patterns used for binding the body to clothes and accessories, where rope has both a functional and decorative purpose.
Edgy, architectural, feminine and body-aware, Figure of A pieces function equally well as part of your everyday styling as they do as part of a fetish-heavy ensemble. It is Anna’s hope that her product’s wearability and amenity with contemporary fashion will help lift Shibari from the underground, recontextualising the art form in the public imagination to the aesthetic, sensual and consensual practise it truly is.
All pieces are handmade from top quality leather and custom made ropes.
ABOUT BACCHANAL
This workshop is part of the journey towards BACCHANAL: Feast of Dionysus.
For one night, we descend into the world of the Ancient Greek god of ecstasy, wine, theatre, transformation and divine madness.
Expect an immersive collision of dance, performance, ritual, sensuality, costume and human connection as we explore the tension at the heart of Dionysus: between discipline and abandon, civilisation and wilderness, the individual and the ecstatic crowd.