A wedding in the Family

Since my last post I have been rather busy and have failed to keep my blog updated. In addition to all my other Crow’s Eye Productions work, my daughter Kate had asked me to make her wedding dress!

It was a year in the making. Kate designed the dress. We purchased the fabric, a beautiful draping silk fabric, on a trip to London last winter, and in January I started with the first toile. Once we were happy with the cut, I then made a version in some cheap fabric, to see if the design was working, and then again to test different details and sleeve options. I also tried three different finish techniques on the seams and hems, before I applied them to the finished dress, to make sure it was all to the highest standard. Six fittings later and the dress was done, one week before the wedding!

Photo Nic Loven


Photo Nic Loven
Photo Nic Loven
Kate and Tom Baker-Loven. Photo Nic Loven

Kate also made the ties for the wedding party including her husband Tom’s. So I took a tiny detail from the Liberty silk she used and sewed it into the petticoat of her wedding dress, along with some vintage lace for the something old and something blue.

Photo Nic Loven
Share

Getting Dressed – Dickensian Christmas (1853)

A Victorian maidservant dresses ready for a day of work, then ventures out into a cold evening…

Director/Cinematographer: Nic Loven

Producer/Costumier: Pauline Loven

Shoes – Kevin Garlick, 

Stockings – Sally Pointer 

Dickens’ suit – Andrew Musson, Bespoke Tailor, Lincoln

Voice-over: Martha Milne

Music: Chris Gordon

Sound recordist: Alex Pollard

Make-up/hair: Liv Free

Hair stylist: Anita Cudbertson

Costume Assistant: Annis McGee

Runner – Stuart Riley

Runner – Kieran Speed

Maid – Kate Fenwick

Well dressed man – Elliot Sargent

Baker – Andrew MacDonald

Charles Dickens – David Clayton

Audience – Liv Free Naomi Lambert-Smith Charlotte Napper Carmel Kazadi Charlotte Page Karen Hunter Emma Haigh Pamela Marnie Emily Bickerdike Charlotte Brindley Emma Kirkup Stephanie Riley Sarah Cliffe Lucie Evans Aiden Van Rensburg Karen Y Crow Kathy Coulson William Richardson Andrew MacDonald Kieran Speed Keith Loven John Males Will Quirk Curtis Clapham

Filmed on Location in Lincoln, UK https://www.visitlincoln.com

Many thanks to: The Village Church Farm, Skegness

Andrew MacDonald, The Pot Shop, Lincoln

Stephen Gillard Stokes Coffee, Lincoln

Imperial Teas Lincoln 

Snowboy Systems 

Share

Getting Dressed in WW1 – British Soldier

How a British WW1 soldier in the Artists Rifles dressed.

Director/Cinematographer: Nic Loven 

Producer/Costumier: Pauline Loven

Soldier: Reece Ackerman

Music from ‘Tell Them of Us’ composed and recorded by Chris Gordon

Voice-over: Liv Free

Make-up: Liv Free

The knitters: Katy-Jayne Lintott, Joanne Winwood, Sandra Gibbons, Freyalyn Close and Jackie Soans.

British Officer – Ross Stephenson

Artists Rifles Soldier – Ben Atkinson

Soldier – Adam Fox

Highlander – John Devlin

Highlander – Tom Greenshields

German soldiers – Luke Harrington, Blake Borland, Gavin Baker, Liam Kernagan, Michael Massmore, David McCabe, Kevin Gray, Josh Curran

Thanks to: Scott and Joanne Read for the loan of the Bell Tent

Share

Getting Dressed in WW1 – Young Woman

A young woman gets dressed in 1910s clothing.

Director/Cinematographer: Nic Loven

Producer/Costumier: Pauline Loven 

Hair and Make-up: Emily Johnson

Voice-over: Martha Milne

Young woman: Hannah Gaskell

Young woman’s friends: Charlotte Halse, Sophie Halse

Family: Victoria Rigby, Susan Thorpe, Ian Atkinson, Adam Fox, Tiffany Haynes

Soldier: Reece Ackerman

Other cast: Gordon MacFarlane, Judith MacFarlane, Tim Walker, Bryony Roberts, Carolyn and Emily Paige, Victoria Louise Newman, Sophie and Leo Newman, Graham Newton, Peter Halse, Sophie Halse, Faye Hinckley, Lucy Blanchard, Charlie Roberts, Faith Roberts, Lizzie Ashley, Emma Louise Clarke, Kate Loven.

To reproduce the 1910s knitting that appears in the film pick up a copy of Centenary Stitches knitting book here: http://www.northernlacepress.co.uk/CS…

There’s also a Centenary Stitches Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/centenarysti…

Thanks to support from https://www.loveniplaw.co.uk/

Share

Getting Dressed in 1665 Delft

A young woman is dressed in the style of a wealthy woman in 1665 Delft.

Director/Cinematographer: Nic Loven

Producer/Costumier: Pauline Loven 

Voice-over: Martha Milne

The Woman – Hannah Douglas

The Maid – Sarah Whitehouse

The Artist – Anthony Webster

Music: Chris Gordon

Make-up/hair – Liv Free 

Dresser – Kelly Clark

Costume Assistant – Jasmine Clark

Runner – Charlotte Halse

Filmed on Location at Gainsborough Old Hall 

Shoes – Kevin Garlick

Earrings – Parures de Lumieres

Stockings – Sally Pointer

Delft tile and brazier – Andrew MacDonald, The Pot Shop Lincoln. 

Share

Mary Shelley

How Mary Shelley dressed, and the story of how she created Frankenstein.

Director/Cinematographer: Nic Loven

Producer/Costumier:  Pauline Loven

Mary Godwin/Shelley – Chelsie Jade Faulks

Maid – Lucy Wakefield

Percy Bysshe Shelley – Stephen Gillard

Lord Byron – Michael Whelbourne

Voice-over: Martha Milne

Music: Chris Gordon

Make-up/hair: Liv Free

Hair stylist: Anita Cudbertson Costume

Assistant: Jasmine Clark

Thanks to: Eran and Linda Bauer, for their kind hospitality

Share

Women’s Land Army WW2

Our short film on the uniform and life of the Women’s Land Army during  the second World War.

Costumes by Pauline Loven, Directed and filmed by Nic Loven and starring Holly Turner, Jasmine Clark and Laura Jane Johnson with Bryony Roberts, Victoria Louise Newman and Aimee Tyas. Filmed in Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire.

Share

Getting Dressed in WWI – VAD Nurse

The latest film in our ‘Getting Dressed’ series on the history of costume, ‘Getting Dressed in WWI – VAD Nurse’, has just topped one million views in a week:

Director/Cinematographer: Nic Loven

Producer/Costumier: Pauline Loven

Costume Assistant: Jasmine May

Music: Chris Gordon

Voice-over: Martha Milne

VAD Nurse: Tiffany Haynes

Nurses: Kate Loven Amy Beven Emma Louise Clarke

Patients: Alexander Doddy Matthew N Petley Adam Sturman Dave Cash

Visitors: Gail Hinkins Katie Odgaard

Location: Former VAD Hospital, Stanhope Hall, Horncastle 

Knitters: Loraine Burnett Rita Taylor Freyalan Close Wendee Wall Linda Fuller Angela Bannister Debra Ann Ashkar

With thanks to Sue Light, Scarlet Finders: http://www.scarletfinders.co.uk/

Share

Getting Dressed in the 18th Century – Gentleman

We have just finished filming ‘Getting Dressed in the 18th Century – Gentleman’, for Lady Lever Art Gallery, National Museums of Liverpool. The film will be part of a new exhibition on costume and is a companion to the ‘Getting Dressed in the 18th Century’ film on a wealthy woman’s attire we made earlier.

The film is currently in post production and the music is being composed by Chris Gordon. 

Here is taster screen grab:

Philip Stevens (gentleman) and John Males (manservant).

and some behind the scenes pictures by Adam Fielding:

Nic Loven Directing with Pauline Loven (costume) in the background.

John Males buckling his masters shoes.

Philip Stevens as the gentleman. Costume by Pauline Loven

The location was South Ormsby Hall in the Lincolnshire Wolds, and it was blowing quite a blizzard the day we filmed. However, we were fortunate to reach the hall on time and for all the crew to reach home again before the roads became blocked.

Directed by Nic Loven, cast: Philip Stevens (Gentleman) and John Males (manservant), costume: Pauline Loven, production assistant: Adam Fielding, dresser: Kelly Clark.

Share

Getting Dressed in the 14th Century

We have just completed filming a sequence on ‘Getting Dressed in the 14th Century’ – the century when it is considered that ‘fashion’ began.  We have released it on our  Crow’s Eye Productions YouTube Channel and you can view it here:

Here are a few of the photos I took on location. The director and cinematographer was Nic Loven, her production assistant was Lilli Stoddart, the actors were Kirsty Hannah and Lucy Sherre Cooper,  hairdressing was by Anita Cudbertson, costume by me and the location was The Saxon House. 

Lucy Sherre Cooper

Nic Loven on camera assisted by Lilli Stoddart

Kirsty Hannah and Lucy Sherre Cooper

Kirsty Hannah and Lucy Sherre Coope

Share

Eighteenth Century Pockets

L to R: Robyn Gordon, Matilda Gordon and Louie Gordon

We have just made a short film about 18th Century pockets, and how it is possible to loose them!

‘Lucy Locket lost her pocket, Kitty Fisher found it,  Not a penny was there in it, Only a ribbon round it’.

Starring the Gordon family: Matilda Gordon, Louie Gordon and Robyn Gordon, with their mum, Lucy Gordon. Voice over by Matilda Gordon.

Music by Chris Gordon

Director, Nic Loven

Costume, Pauline Loven

Matilda Gordon

Share

Getting Dressed in the 18th Century -Working Woman

Going viral – again!

Crow’s Eye Productions has just completed a follow-up to our film ‘Getting Dressed in the 18th Century’ that we made for Lady Lever Art Gallery.  The immense popularity of the first film raised  the question amongst the audience who viewed it and enjoyed the complexity of a wealthy woman’s dress:  ‘who dressed the maid’?  So we made the second film to explain in detail how dress was simplified by working women, and made more practical and affordable,  while still maintaining the fashionable silhouette. Continue reading “Getting Dressed in the 18th Century -Working Woman”

Share

‘Getting Dressed in the 18th Century – The Busk’.

The video we made for Lady Lever Art Gallery on ‘Getting Dressed in the 18th Century’ raised a couple of interesting questions. One that frequently occurred was ‘what is the wooden thing that goes in the front?’. The answer is a ‘busk and we have made a short film to explain what a ‘busk’ is:

The replica busks were made by Arthur Roberts and carved by Coral Evans of the Sudbrooke Carving Club…

Continue reading “‘Getting Dressed in the 18th Century – The Busk’.”

Share

‘Getting Dressed in the 18th Century’ – Viral Video

In 2015 we (Crow’s Eye Productions) were contacted by Pauline Rushton, costume curator of The Lady Lever Art Gallery, to make a short film of the sequence of dressing in the 18th century. The film was to be part of the media interpretation of the 18th century gallery which featured many portraits of wealthy society ladies. The idea was to get beneath the formality of the portraits and to explain how the period silhouette was achieved. I made the blue silk gown specially for the film – it was based on one in a painting of 1765, Mrs Paine and her Daughters, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, which is on display in the Gallery. You can read more about the story of the film in Pauline Rushton’s Blog. 
Continue reading “‘Getting Dressed in the 18th Century’ – Viral Video”

Share