2023-25 West End Alt Costumes
Hey y'all! I've already talked about the new alt costumes a few times in different places, but felt like it would be easiest to make one big post about this. If you haven't already, I'd suggest reading this post from the day the cast was announced breaking down potential color assignments for each.
First off, a few costumes we can reasonably assume:
- A silver swing costume has been in progress. This should be Meg Dixon-Brasil's.
- Naomi Alade has glitter eyeshadows in green, red, and orange as well as her palettes in those shades, so we can assume she has orange.
- We've also seen teal pants hanging up in the alts' dressing room. They seem to be the same design as Monique Ashe-Palmer and Ellie Jane Grant have. By elimination, these should be Gabriella Stylianou's; they're also up on the rack by her Aragon and Seymour costumes.
The two big questions (aka, what is going on with pink alt)
- First of all, we saw the top for a pink alt hanging in the dressing room. This was similar to Natalie Pilkington's, but not identical. When seeing that @lightleckrereins and I initially determined it could be either an altered version of Natalie's, or a costume for for Hannah Lowther. That still seems to hold true.
- Hannah Lowther also posted her makeup. It includes two pink glitters (a hot pink and light, everyone else has just gotten one for each so shouldn't be two Howard), two pink lipsticks, and two pink palettes. One of those lipsticks is the go-to assigned Howard lipstick while the other is their go-to assigned pink alt lipstick. One of the pink palettes lines up more with pink alt than Howard. She also didn't have any lipsticks that I'd expect for teal/black, or any nudes/silver makeup that would work for black; the Parr palette could possibly be used for teal but doesn't quite work and seems less likely.
- Natalie....also seems to have pink alt?? She posted a photo of herself in what is definitely pink alt makeup from this week. It's definitely new/current; it shows her and Meg in their new dressing room.
I feel like it's likely that they're both in pink alt, but of course this is Six so we'll have to wait on promo photos to know for sure.
Changed or new variations
I've also gotten some asks about the possibility of changed variations. We already know teal will have pants, so we can rule that out. It seems like Naomi will be wearing orange for A/S/H/P, which is roughly what it's been used for with pants, so it seems very unlikely to see anything there. Meg Dixon-Brasil should have the same silver alt as Shakira Simpson, with an open skirt, full Cleves, and Parr (I've talked about why I think Esme's Boleyn skirt was a one-off here).
That brings us to, again, the pink alt question. Some Hannah Lowther seems to have pink alt, she'd be wearing it for A/B/S/C, which the open skirt isn't a perfect fit for but is still easier/more obvious than a new variation.
As swing, Natalie Pilkington throws a little more into question if she is in fact in pink. However, she should still be able to wear her Seymour and Parr principal costumes, so I'd expect her to continue to wear those and then pink for A/B/C/H. That's exactly how pink alt has been used in the past, so I don't think it's likely that that would change or necessitate a new variation.
My only question (again, assuming they're both pink alt) would be if Hannah or Natalie get a change purely so they're not in exact duplicates, just like Natalie got for her black alt during the 21-22 UK Tour when her and Cassy Lee had duplicates. However, the chances of the West End getting to a double pink alt show where they really can't move things around and have to send them both on in pink alt is a lot less likely, particularly considering that they (presumably) both have two principal costumes as well. So...still considering this highly unlikely (but hey a girl can dream)
Other questions/notes
- What the hell is going on with potential double pink
- Assuming double pink, is black alt is being phased out entirely. This could just be a scenario where it's more logistically convenient for Natalie to seemingly keep S/P/pink, but in another scenario maybe they'd have black alt again. Or it might just be being phased out entirely - it's more simple than most of the other designs and doesn't quite fit into the design continuum. I have no good answer for this, so we'll just have to see (although my black-alt-cosplaying self would love to see it return eventually)
- If Natalie Pilkington will still wear her Seymour/Parr (with black or pink). I think this feels like an obvious yes, but we'll see.
- I realize I didn't post the full makeup breakdown for all of them. I'll do that in the next few weeks.
paulaspinallcostumes; naomialade1; thaotheresenguyen
sixthemusical; hannahlowther; natpilk1
