The Coronation of Poppea (L'incoronazione di Poppea), 2025, is an adaptation of Claudio Monteverdi's last opera of the same name. This performance tells the tale, based in Ancient Rome, of how the goddess Amore argues that love triumphs all, through the trials and tribulations that Poppea and emperor Nerone face. The costume pictured above was Jamie's main build for this production. The character is the goddess Pallade, the Roman equivalent of Athena, as she tells Seneca of his prophesied end.

Image by: Drew Echberg
Costume Designer: Reuben Baron
Costume Maker: Jamie Garcia

The Coronation of Poppea, 2025, featured the presence of four goddesses. This costume is from the character of Pallade, the Roman equivalent of Athena. In the opera she appears to tell Seneca, emperor Nerone's tutor and advisor, that his impending doom is upon him. This character only appears briefly but there was an emphasis on making sure she was just as celestial in looks to the other goddesses. Unlike the rest of the goddesses, who were dressed in light beiges and adored with pearls, Pallade differs in that she greatly contrasts their designs in both colour and silhouette. Whereas La Fortuna, La Virtu and Amore are based on the water, Pallade's design was based on the earth to show she predates and comes from something more ancient. The piece is a long poncho made from a black crystal organza. The chest and shoulders were hand-sewn with beads and the arms were embellished with a metallic gold laced fringe. The headpiece was made mostly from millinery wire covered in hot glue to give texture and painted black with gunmetal silver dry-brushed on top. Further details were cut from lace and beaded fabric to framed the head.

Image by: Amanda Hitten
Costume Designer: Reuben Baron
Costume Maker: Jamie Garcia

The Coronation of Poppea, 2025, depicting two soldiers that within the narrative are under emperor Nerone's command. They wear blue Roman style tunics with a crimson red cape draped over their shoulders. Jamie constructed these pieces which were of a similar silhouette to emperor Nerone as a reflection of his influence. Although they are not as ornate as Nerone's as a reflection of their lower status in comparison.

Image by: Drew Echberg
Costume Designer: Reuben Baron

Tales of the Hunted 2023, is a Deakin graduate short film. This is an original story, set in a fantasy world, about a young woman who has stolen an ancient and magical artifact from seemingly malevolent shadow creatures. The artifact has the power to heal and she has stolen it with the hopes of healing a sick loved one. As she runs through the forest in hopes of escaping these creatures she then learns the truth about the creatures and the artifact.

Director/Writer - Téa Mancini
Director of Photography - Karl Johann Te
Production Designer - Acacia Pierce
Costume Designer - Jamie Garcia
Sound Designer - James Thomson
Composer - Max Barter
Editor - Paige Spurrell

Jamie was the costume designer and head of wardrobe for Tales of the Hunted, 2023. They were tasked with designing for a creature that was described as a 'shadow creature' who were guardians of the forest. Inspiration came from depictions of fungi, decay and raggedness. A key inspiration was the 'Dark Master' from Bridge to Terabithia, 2007, as it chases after Josh Hutcherson's character through the forest in the same ragged drapery. These character were designed to have these detailed overlayers but the underlayers were plain blacks to receed the rest of the performers silhouettes in shadow and convey a sense of incorporeal form.

The second piece of the Devised Works 2025, named 'Help Mummy Falcon'. This piece is about the rapid development of technology, particularly A.I, and how it affects the environment and human identity. It plays with how people identify themselves and what happens when this notion is challenged, when people decide to swap entire selves and what happens if someone was not human and the repercussions of judging what makes someone human. The piece relates to these themes in the motif of technology versus water. What can technology not achieve and where do humans take root within nature. These pieces are individual to each performer. They are in colours of light blues, greens and creams to symbolise the connection to water. They are left raw at the hems and left to fray to show the chaos and unrefined nature of development but how it can still be beautiful.

Image by: Gregory Lorenzutti

'Help Mummy Falcon', 2025, was tasked to create a performance devised around the provocation of development, the second movement of a sonata. The piece explores the chaos of how rapid development can become more than the comprehension of those that created it and in that it starts to control them. It depicts how the access to these technologies can make a person take their own bodies for granted to fit into an idea being sold to them. However, in this these people lose their sense of self and become victim to fear of not conforming. To reflect this the performers also had costumes that were a complete contrast to the costumes they begin with. They were dark underlayers that are embellished with red applique in shapes akin to motherboards. They have a skeleton harness which shows they have stripped themselves of their uniqueness. As these pieces are revealed they are all the same to symbolise conformity and loss of self.

Image by: Gregory Lorenzutti