#cleves 3.0

[six-costume-refs]

do you remember why nicole went on for parr during 2020 previews instead of mallory? i remember hearing it was a costume reason but i cannot find the source or any information on it

If memory serves it was because Nicole Kyoung-Mi Lambert’s alt costume was closer to the principal Parr costume. The “no alt costumes” rule still applied back then, but the alt’s principal costumes weren’t finished in time for previews and they had a couple significant injuries and illnesses that required cover. That meant that they had to put alts on in whatever costumes were closest to the Broadway principal costumes:

- Nicole Kyoung-Mi Lambert in Adrianna Hicks’ Chicago Aragon

- Courtney Mack in Andrea Macasaet’s Chicago Boleyn top (which she’d worn previously when she debuted as B) and Broadway skirt

- Mallory Maedke in Abby Mueller’s Chicago Seymour

- Nicole Kyoung-Mi Lambert in Brittney Mack’s Chicago Cleves

- Courtney Mack in her own top from Chicago and Samantha Pauly’s Broadway skirt (Courtney and Samantha had previously shared a skirt during the Chicago/regional tour run)

- Nicole Kyoung-Mi Lambert in her teal Parr variation from the Chicago/regional tour, plus a few changes to make it closer to principal Parr

Anna Uzele’s costume was damaged and unable to be used. The wigs, crowns, and jewelry were generally the Broadway designs. Courtney and Mallory’s boots were Bway but Nicole was still in her tour boots.

[six-costume-refs]

Six Boot Materials and Crystal Colors

First of all, I won’t be covering all of the many boot designs for each queen in this post. You can find a great post doing so here.This will just be an overview of the materials used for any cosplayers out there who are interested in that aspect.

There have been changes in the ways that the boots have been made and their designs, and the team that designs them and adds the crystals varies from production to production. I’m going to be specifically covering the boots currently worn by the current West End and 2nd/3rd UK Tour casts (2019-present).

The boots are custom-made by LaDuca. These are expensive and made specifically for the stage. I would generally recommend looking for a cheaper alternative since La Duca doesn’t carry anything resembling the custom boots currently and to get it just for the brand name is fairly expensive with very little pay-off in terms of accuracy. 

Part of the customization process is using straps/heels made with suede rather than leather - this helps the crystals stay on and may be something to look out for when searching for your own boots.

@/crstalledbyjane on Instagram is the one who adds all of the crystals for the UK productions. She buys them from bluestreakcrystals.com / bluestreakcrystals.co.uk. However, Swarovski crystals are sold in a variety of locations and you don’t need to buy from them specifically (I’ve personally always used Dreamtime Creations). 

The availability of Swarovski for mass consumption is being really rapidly pulled back, so they will be fairly hard to get starting around Sep/Oct 2021. I would recommend buying crystals ASAP if you’re planning to make a Six cosplay, and I’ll also make a post about Preciosa look-alikes once that gets a bit closer.

If you’re open to spending money on custom crystalling, @/crystalledbyjane has made them for cosplayers in the past.

I also do want to caution cosplayers that it’s unlikely you have the exact same fabric as the show uses. While I am listing the colors per queen, I would recommend that you focus more on finding a crystal color that matches your costume with the right undertones than one that is stage-accurate. 

The crystals are all flat-backed Swarovski ss20 (equivalent to 5mm). They are non-hotfix and attached using a very strong glue (unsure what Six uses, but I would recommend E6000 or similar). 

Crystal colors used:

Here’s a link to the supplier’s site with photos of the crystal colors used.

Aragon: Dorado, Aurum, Light Colorado Topaz (Jarneia Richard Noel’s flat boots, West End;* Lauren Drew 2nd UK tour;* Lauren Drew, 3rd UK Tour)

Boleyn: Peridot, Fern Green, Light Chrome (Maddison Bulleyment, UK Tour*) 

Seymour:  Light Chrome, Graphite, and Crystal (Lauren Byrne, 2nd UK Tour;* Carly Dyer, 2nd UK Tour*)

Cleves: Siam and Light Chrome (Lexi McIntosh, West End, flat*)

Howard: Crystal AB, Hyacinth Shimmer, Fuschia (Sophie Isaacs, West End;* Vicki Manser, West End; Courtney Monsma, 2020 Aus Tour; Vicki Manser, 3rd UK Tour) Crystal AB, Fuschia, not sure on the medium pink but could have potentially been hyacinth shimmer as well? (Jodie Steele, 2nd UK Tour; Georgia Carr, Breakaway 1.0) Hyacinth Shimmer, Fuschia, not sure on the light color (Rebecca Wickes, Bliss 2.0) (unsure on 1st NA Tour and Bliss 1.0)

Parr:  Majestic Blue and Black Diamond Shimmer (Danielle Steers, West End;* Athena Collins, 2nd UK Tour)

Teal alt: Light Chrome, Black Diamond Shimmer, Blue Zircon Shimmer (Jennifer Caldwell, 2nd/3rd UK Tour*; Cherelle Jay, West End)

Pink alt:  I’ve only gotten one decent photo of these but I’m very tentatively going with Crystal AB, Light Chrome, and either Light Rose or Rose AB. 

Orange alt: I’ve never worked with the orange tones so I’m having a harder time telling on these. I’m also thinking that Harriet and Hana might have different tones. The white is light chrome. I think Hana’s bright orange is electric orange and then the lighter tangerine but I’m not positive. Harriet’s and/or Hana’s other options seem to be some combo of fire opal and/or tangerine and/or possibly a red/pink for Harriet’s darkest color?

Black alt: Light Chrome, Graphite, and Crystal* (Cassandra Lee, 2nd/3rd UK Tour) Light Chrome, Graphite, and Jet Black (Collette Guitart, West End; Natalie Pilkington, 3rd UK Tour; this one is much more tentative. I will also note that Natalie and Collette have different patterns but the same colors)

Broadway alts: Light chrome and crystal? (Courtney Mack) Graphite and light chrome? (Mallory Maedke) Graphite and light chrome? (Nicole Kyoung-Mi Lambert)

*Confirmed by crystalledbyjane; anything without this marking is my knowledge based on previous work with Swarovski for my own costume work.

[six-costume-refs]

Is it just me or is Shaka’s post-covid Cleves jacket oversized? Is it possible that they originally planned on doing the closed jacket design when taking measurements for her but then switched to the open jacket design in the construction stage?

The fit is just oversized to the point that it could be closed if there were small stretch panels on the sides.

I don’t think it was meant to be a closed jacket, no. It’s hard to tell how wide the gap is in the front at times because it’s open and so heavily impacted by the positioning of her torso and arms, but here’s screenshots from this video of her bowing.

(posted by queenshaka on Tiktok, originally filmed by paigeleigh59916)

You can see it’s still open quite a lot in the front with her arms raised - that’s a movement part of the natural range of motion that she would need to be able to do even in a closed jacket, and it’s nowhere near being able to close there. Second photo shows her bowing with her shoulders actually a little bit more hunched forward. It actually fits her pretty closely there, and while it’s closer in shape to being closed it’s still not quite there and still would not accommodate the needed range of motion. It’s definitely not the proportions that would be needed for a closed jacket, and since Gabriella Slade had originally said that no other actors would be getting the Broadway Cleves reveal (although that was obviously later changed) I really doubt that this jacket ever had that intention.

That being said, you are picking up on some very legitimate pieces of how it’s fit compared to her last jacket that makes it feel more oversized! Here’s a photo set for comparison:

(Tried to get photos where positioning is as close as possible but they’re not a perfect match)

Cleves jackets are generally a pretty straight shape and that’s mostly true for both of these. However, her old jacket was much shorter and cut off at her waist with a slanted bottom hem. Because the top of your back is generally pretty straight and because of the shape and placement of the hem, it really looks like it hugs her upper back even though there would have been minimal shaping.

Meanwhile, her new jacket is much longer - it passes her waist and goes all the way down to her hips, but it’s still a straight fit. As a result the jacket is just going to look a little bulkier, because it doesn’t follow the natural curves of her body in the way that her first did. Between the length and lack of shaping (both circumvented by her first being cut off at the waist) it just gives the appearance of being much larger on her.

(While I’m on the topic of the fit of Cleves jackets, this is also why some of the closed Cleves jackets look big while others don’t - some of the early ones were still longer and straighter and less shaped, while the newer ones are mostly more shaped and cut off at the waist with a higher shorts waistband to accommodate)

[six-costume-refs]

Alright y’all, some exciting new emergency cover and costume chaos!

Liv Alexander, one of the standby swings, is going on tonight as Cleves for the West End. She’s wearing one of the 3.0 Cleves costumes, which was worn by all of the Cleves actresses in every production for a little while:

Lexi McIntosh, West End, 22 Jun 2019, @/anniek_with_a_camera; Brittney Mack, North American Tour, Oct 2019, @/jennyandersonphoto; Shekinah McFarlane, 2nd UK Tour, 23 Feb 2020, @/tudorvonsnaps; Sophie Golden, Bliss 1.0, 18 Dec 2019, @/sophgoldenx_; Jessica Niles, Breakaway 1.0, @/jessicaniles_; Jessica Niles, Breakaway 1.0, Feb 2020, @/jessicaniles_

By process of elimination via looking at studding and general design variations, I’m fairly confident that it’s Shekinah’s jacket. As of right now there haven’t been any clear photos of the shorts or the crop top, so I’m waiting on those (probably from the megasix). I can confirm that it’s not Sophie Golden or Lexi McIntosh’s shorts at the very least.

She’s also wearing the older Aragon style of crown rather than the updated Cleves (or even Aragon) style that the West End alts normally wear.

[six-costume-refs]

Teal Alt Refs - Nicole Kyoung-Mi Lambert

Actor: Nicole Kyoung-Mi Lambert

Production: 1st North American Tour, Broadway (previews covered in this post, performances from re-opening onward will be covered in a separate post)

Role: Alternate (NA Tour: Chicago, Cambridge, Edmonton); Principal Catherine of Aragon (Chicago, briefly); Principal Anna of Cleves (NA Tour: St. Paul)

Covers (NA Tour): 1st: Aragon/Cleves/Parr 2nd: Boleyn/Seymour/Howard Broadway: all but Howard

Costume: Teal

Played: Aragon, Cleves, Parr

Note: The Broadway understudies will be receiving duplicates of the principal costumes for their roles on Broadway. However, these were not finished in time for the previews, and all of the understudies went on unexpectedly. 

Base Costume:

Has a shirt/pants combo worn for Aragon/Parr and a crop top/cropped jacket/shorts combo for Cleves.

Hair/Makeup: Aragon debut, Chicago, 23 Jul 2019. Cleves debut, Boston, 25 Aug 2019. Parr, Broadway preview. Aragon, Broadway debut, 1 Mar 2020.

White and teal eyeshadow worn for Chicago and Parr Broadway preview. Teal and black eyeliner for Cleves (eyeshadow?). Gold sparkly eyeshadow w/ black winged eyeliner for Aragon Broadway. Different shades of lipstick - generally a darker brown w/ purple, seems to be wearing a black or dark purple as Cleves.  Hair depends on role.  Earrings are silver hoop earrings for National Tour, and Roman numeral earrings for Broadway.

Shoes: Cleves, Canada debut, Edmonton, 12/13 Nov 2019. Principal Cleves, St. Paul, unknown date.** Principal Cleves, St. Paul, unknown date.** 

Edmonton boots are her primary boots for the North American tour. Lace-up with scattered blue and silver/white bling.

Wore flat boots in St. Paul photos. No bling. Most likely had an injury that prevented her from wearing her normal boots.

Broadway boots. Lace-up w/ scattered white bling and fully-blinged heels.

Aragon (North American Tour): Aragon debut, Chicago, 23 Jul 2019. Aragon debut, Chicago, 23 Jul 2019.

Aragon/Parr top with attached sleeves. Aragon/Parr pants. Nude-toned leotard. Hair pulled back w/ spiked crown headband. Hoop earrings. Boots.

Aragon (Broadway understudy, previews): Broadway debut, Broadway preview, 1 Mar 2020. Broadway debut, preview, 1 Mar 2020.

Wears Adrianna Hicks’ Aragon costume from the 1st North American tour. Fishnet tights. Wearing a wig, but I can’t tell if it’s one of Adrianna’s or if it’s one made for her. Fishnet tights. Spiked Aragon crown. Presumably Broadway boots?

Cleves (alternate/principal): Alt, Cleves debut, Boston, 25 Aug 2019. Alt, Cleves debut, Boston, 25 Aug 2019. Alt, Canada debut, Edmonton, 12/13 Nov 2019. Alt, Canada debut, Edmonton, 12/13 Nov 2019. Principal, St. Paul, unknown date.** Principal, St. Paul, unknown date.** Principal, St. Paul, unknown date.**

Cleves jacket, crop top. Cleves detached sleeves. Shorts. Silver hoop earrings. Fishnet tights. Hair parted in middle with double braids w/ some sort of spiked hair accessory. Normally wears heeled + blinged boots, but wears flat boots (not blinged) for St. Paul (see above).

Cleves (Broadway previews, understudy): Cleves Broadway preview

Wore Brittany Mack’s Cleves costume from the 1st North American Tour. Unsure on hair. No earrings as far as I can tell. Blinged fishnets. Presumably wore Broadway boots?

Parr: Debut, Chicago, 13 Jun 2019. Broadway preview, 5 Mar 2020. Broadway preview, 5 Mar 2020. 

North American Tour: Parr/Aragon pants. Parr/Aragon top with sleeves. Silver hoop earrings. Nude-toned leotard between top and pants. Boots. Hair pushed back with thick spiked headband.

Broadway Previews: 1st NA Tour Parr/Aragon pants. 1st NA Tour Parr/Aragon top without sleeves. Silver hoop “VI” earrings. Broadway boots. Seems to be wearing Anna Uzele’s Parr wig and spiked hair piece. Nude-toned leotard w/ small fishnet between top and pants. 

*@/cstcostumeshop on Instagram **@/brettbeinerphotography on Instagram