Costuming
the Crown Mounts
Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, Winterthur, DE, USA
Beyond treating the replica St. Edward's crown and Order of the Garter from the Netflix series The Crown for Winterthur's "Costuming the Crown," exhibition (March 30, 2019 - January 7, 2020) I had the opportunity to create exhibition mounts for 2 crowns, 12 hats, 4 pairs of shoes, 3 pairs of gloves, and 2 bags from the show.
Be sure to hover on some of the images to reveal the after treatment photos!
Princess Elizabeth's Shoes
These vintage shoes were purchased for the television show and were worn by Claire Foy in season 1, episode 8 (Image courtesy of Netflix).
Under the guidance of expert mountmaker William Donnelly, I created Vivac mounts to support the warped slingbacks. The supports slot under sole to minimize pressure on the thin leather straps.
I also cut acid-free paper "sole covers" to hide the worn leather soles.
Image Courtesy of Netflix
Image Courtesy of Netflix
Elizabeth's Coronation Glove
The challenge with glove mounts are to create a structure that supports the fingers of the glove, without looking flat or like it is being worn by a disembodied hand.
In the end, an ethafoam plank hand and wrist with three volara fingers, covered in stockinette was the winner. Three fingers was the magic number, for some reason--any more or less and the glove looked very strange.
Hat Mounts
I repurposed hat mounts from an exhibition of costumes from Downton Abbey at Winterthur and custom cut new mounts out of ethafoam. The mounts needed to support the rim with gentle outward pressure to mimic the wearer's head.
I covered the ethafoam forms in polyester batting to add soft pressure. The polyester was covered in stockinette to create a finished surface with minimal grab.