Buckles Blog: Ringling Wardrobe #6

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Chimps, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Chimps

Anonymous said...: Question for Sue but first thanks for this wonderful group of Don Foote sketches. His chimp faces are great, by the way! I was wondering what it was like for the chimps and their costumes. Any acclimation problems with new materials Don Foote might have introduced, the various ties on the caps, too much extra or loose material, etc.? What years are these sketches for?
Dick Flint
Baltimore; 20 August, 2008 22:54
Anonymous said...: In answer to Dick’s question about the chimp costumes.

Pleased to say we never had a problem with any of them regarding new styles as when I was making the costumes I fitted them on several times so they could see what was happening.

Most of the costumes were made in two pieces, trousers and then the top fastened with Velcro at the back, (plus the hat)

Sally our oldest chimp always had a female costume made in one piece as she didn’t like trousers, Don Foote used to design especially for her and put her name on the watercolor sketches,
As a joke Don wrote on the Rocket costume “Guess who” if you look closely at the photo you can just see part of it.

The South American costumes (1977/78) were by far the most work as every frill on the sleeves had a row of sequins, and surprising held up very well.

The Rockets were from seasons 1979/80; 21 August, 2008 16:08

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