Frank Costumes FROM THE PLAY
FROM THE BELASCO, NOT FROM THE FILM
Once Again, THESE COSTUMES ARE NOT FROM THE FILM.
Last Updated: 7/4/2012
How We Got Them:
I purchased the costumes at auction from Dori Hartley at the 25th Anniversary on Oct. 13, 2000. Dori was given several of Tim's costume items from the failed Broadway production at the Belasco many years back.
(I believe you can read the story in Bill Henkin's "Rocky Horror Picture Show Book.") I purchased the fabric items and another fan, Jeff Mace, purchased Tim's shoe. Three years later, I acquired the shoe from Jeff.
In the provenance letter Dori wrote for us, she writes:
"I received the dinner shirt as a personal gift from the costume designer herself (Sue Blane) after performing at a convention held at Roseland in New York City.....The year before I received a bag containing all the other costumes mentioned from Sal Piro who was a friend of someone who had worked on the Belasco production and had saved the costumes all those years."
So yes, these costumes are NOT FROM THE MOVIE. They are from a 1975 version of the play where Tim played Frank and Sue Blane did the costume design. They are posted here because people have asked to see them and I feel people may find some useful construction tips here. Sue Blane probably used similar techniques for the film items.
These photos are quite large and may take a while to load. I will be posting more...but for now, here is a start.
The Belasco Red Corset
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Corset interior, laid out flat. Note the boning lines and how the panels are assembled.
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Corset exterior. Yes, there are four straps; they're just hard to lay out flat.
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One of the straps. One side black shiny knit (?) fabric, one side red satin, serged together and sewed straight down the middle onto a thin piece of black elastic to get the gathering. (The elastic doesn't show up well in the photo; sorry.) The elastic loops at the end to hold the fitting.
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One of the straps, from the back. The elastic shows up much better here. It is sewed directly onto the back of the corset; that's red bias tape sewn along the bottom interior edge of the corset.
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Detail showing lace on the corset bottom. Note that Sue glued the sequins on (note also the colors she used) and that many of them have come off. The black lace is sewed onto the corset body; the red ruffle is sewed on over it so the top of the black lace peeks out on top.
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Bugle bead detail, Frank's right. 3 long red strands; one short one; 1 long and 1 short black strand. Yes, they look sort of ruby red in the picture, but I'm sitting here looking at the original and they are black. Again, the ruffle is just stitched right on top of the corset.
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Bugle bead detail, Frank's left.
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Center bottom detail. Note the use of bias tape along the edges of the satin. Most of the eyelets have pulled out; this corset has one or two red eyelets left. I strongly recommend the use of eyelets.
The Belasco Yellow Gauntlet
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Yellow sequin gauntlet, laid out flat. There is only a little of the black feather trim still attached.
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Closeup of the feather trim. It appears to have been the type of trim sold on cording.
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The fingerloop. Made of twisted thread. Note the stitching that shows the sequin patterning on the "right" side of the gauntlet.
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Buttons. The loop you see is a button loop, with gold metallic thread over a core. It might have been elastic once; it isn't now.
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Closeup of the button loop.
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The sequins. Cup sequins in a meandering pattern.
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Inside elastic detail. I thought this was incredibly cool - there's elastic, fastened in a couple of locations to the inside of the gauntlet, to keep it from sliding down. The people I know in theater sort of sniffed at me and said "of course," so I guess this is fairly common. Note the word "Tim" written on the elastic - yes, this was our boy's.
The Belasco Red and Fishnet Gauntlets
The Belasco Shoe
The Belasco shoe has not aged well; theater is hard on shoes. A friend, Kevin, pointed out that the Roxy shoes have similar criss-cross straps to the ones on the Belasco shoes. It's possible they're the same pair. It's obvious from the first glance that Tim wore different shoes in the film.
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The Belasco shoe, side view.
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The Belasco shoe The other side view.
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The Belasco shoe Back view.
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Top insole "ND" in stylzed letters can be made out, and some diamonds (over to the right). Note the jury-rigged elastic for quick changes.
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The Belasco shoe Top view.
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Mid insole Another view of the diamonds printed on the insole.
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Top view Another top view without my fingers in it.
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Toe box, top view Note the stitching along the vamp edge. I'm not sure if this started life as a peep-toe shoe since the edges are rough; it's possible this is just part of the extreme wear visible everywhere on the shoe.
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Bottom view The front sole has probably been replaced, either due to wear or to give the wearer more traction while dancing, etc. on stage.
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Side view A three quarters showing the whole shoe.
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Heel Heel is 5" at highest point.
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Heel Most high heel connoisseurs measure the height of a heel from its shortest point, so technically, these are 4" heels. With the ~1" platform, they should feel like wearing only 3".
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Shoe size The shoes are about 8.5" long.
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More elastic Another closeup of the jury rigged elastic. It takes a strong needle to sew through shoe leather, but it can be done.
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Closeup of the glitter on the shoe. Layers and layers of glitter. Note the shape; modern glitter is often square.
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The elastic. Top view of the elastic straps, which look like they've been through a lot.
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Closeup view, side.
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Closeup of the elastic and the toe strap. Time has not been kind to this shoe.