Tuesday 2 January 2018

See you later 2017, thanks for an amazing year!

So 2017 turned out to be a pretty incredible year full of ups and downs, so i thought i'd do a quick rundown of the highlights... it turned out to be one hell of a list - I was actually shocked!

Worked on 4 films with my awesome costume department team at Weta Workshop, from Pattern Cutter to Costume Supervisor, it's been a seriously busy year.


Saw my work from 3 2016 film jobs on the big screen - Saban's Power Rangers, Ghost in the Shell and Thor Ragnarok.

Was interviewed by Adam Savage for his YouTube show TESTED to talk about how our Weta Workshop team created the Thermoptic suit worn by Scarlett Johansson in Ghost in the Shell.
- Scroll down for the video!

Was interviewed for a bunch of other international media for the work in Ghost in the Shell and Thor.

Designed & made special performance capture suits for Weta Digital's work on Alita: Battle Angel

Collected a few Funko Pop Vinyl figures of characters whose costumes I made (pretty damn cool to be honest!)


Had wrist surgery for Carpal Tunnel syndrome (and now have a pretty cool scar).

Went through a period of pretty serious burnout (due in large part to the list above haha!).

Drastically cut down on my showgirl client work for 6 months to give my wrists/hands and brain time to recover (cut down, but didn't stop entirely).  It made a huge difference!

Made a few special costume underwear pieces for Dita Von Teese and two of her Art of the Teese tour cast members,including US dancer QuitaBee and Australian burlesque starlet Zelia Rose.



Zelia Rose & Violet Chachki (I did not make Violet's costume though 😉)


Was named #4 on the 2016 Burlesque Top 50 Non-Performing person's list (making me #2 Costumier after one of my own favourite costumiers Christina Manuge 💗).

Made a couple of gorgeous full costumes for burlesque performers Duchess DeBerry (New Zealand), Alyssa Kitt (Australia) & Zelia Rose (Australia) as well as many smaller pieces for other clients all around the world.


Made a full replica 1960's Playboy Bunny outfit for Playboy playmate Amy Lee Summers.

Enjoyed my first whole year in my wonderful inner city studio, my happy place!


Was featured in Fashion Quarterly Magazine, New Zealand's answer to Vogue (a childhood dream realised!)


Celebrated 9 years of awesomeness with my amazing husband (4 year's married) ♥



Our beloved cat Murray passed away, and we adopted another cat named Charlie - and had our minds blown when we found out that Charlie was actually Murray's son!
RIP Murray

Welcome to the family Charlie, son of Murray!
Was honoured to make the base G string and Cupless Bra for Dita Von Teese's newest act, embellished by Jenny Packham's team in London and debuted in LA on New Year's Eve.



And of course, used countless Swarovski rhinestones!

Check out these links to see some of the year's work 😃

Tested with Adam Savage


Ghost in the Shell







Thor Ragnarok



Duchess DeBerry