Costume Design, co-styling and Film

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Why do we love Vampires? This piece explores the viewers relationship to the woman of horror and our obsession with the abject woman. We can appreciate this imperfect and often immoral character for its complexity as well as its replacement and reimagining of the typical one dimensional female characters of horror.

The female vampire is often recognized from characters such as Draculas brides, however the female vampire significantly predates these versions. I investigated the Manananggal, a precolonial Filipino myth of a creature disguised as a woman by day who is able to detach from its lower body by night and grow wings. In this form it hunts people, feeding on their blood and organs. The separation of the body is shown in this costume through material, the contrast of the latex and the textured layers, having the bits hang down to imitate entrails.