‘Bloom’ is this century’s telling of the classic story of James Joyce ‘Ulysses. There were over 100 costumes changes for our lead character Leopold Bloom alone! In addition to the large cast of characters Bloom meets along his legendary one-day journey through Dublin in 1904, this project, (along with reading Ulysses) was a massive undertaking for my first first feature film project as designer.
Bloom earned me my first IFTA award nomination for ‘Best Costume Design’, But it was high praise from Joycean scholar, Senator David Norris that was the greatest honour for my work.
‘Good costume design helps viewers identify where and when your story is set. I research the facts meticulously before I let my creative imagination play. Telling the classic story of Ulysses, left no margin for error, this classic novel is known world wide, I knew the iconic characters, and their costumes would be scrutinised under a microscope.
My favourite costumes to designer are those that bring together both the historical and the fantastical, I enjoy both the research and the freedom to image and design that which cannot be researched.