For my 9/10 Drama Class, we were given the task of creating a costume design for one of the characters featured in our Musical Theatre production of Encanto.

For my costume design, I decided to focus on Isabela, because that is who I played in the production.

She is the oldest of Abuela’s grandchildren in Encanto, therefore she has more expectations pushed on her.

Her magical gift is she can make flowers and plants grow under her control.

Everyone sees her as graceful. Mirabel sees her as selfish and snobby. Abuela sees her as the “golden child.”

She is betrothed to get married to Mariano, which she doesn’t want to do, but is doing anyway to please her family. With the help of Mirabel, she eventually breaks free from her perfection and expresses who she truly wants to be.

I chose to focus my colour on purple and pink, because they represent perfection, femininity, and beauty.

For my character, I decided to have a white shirt with lace sleeves, to not only represent simplicity, but lace is often used to make women feel more elegant and feminine. This also adds more shape to her appearance. For my skirt, it was a long, flowy purple dress, with pink flowers on it. This is was to be more accurate to the movie, so our audience would understand who plays which role, but also to represent Isabela’s powers with flowers and nature. As for shoes, whilst I did originally plan to wear purple slide on shoes to be accurate to the movie we all went barefoot. We also had to take off any watches, bands, or jewellery off our wrists and ankles, as they are distracting, and would break our characters. In my hair, I wore a flower decoration to yet again show my character’s power.

Pink and Purple Colour Scheme – represent her floral abilities, her perfection and beauty, and to be accurate to the movie

Before I found the right costume, I did find it hard to find a costume that would fit her character. I originally wore a short purple dress with a plait around the collar, with flowers on it, but the colours didn’t match her character. I then found the right shirt, but then needed to find the right skirt. I originally used a pink skirt, which looked right for the character, but was very similar to another cast member’s skirt, which would have confused the audience, because we play two separate characters. In the end I found the perfect skirt that matched my character that I was able to use to spin in and move like Isabela.