U6 student Hannah, who made the eye-catching costumes for this term's A level music piece Songs from Six, was inspired by seeing the West End production of SIX, starring alumna drummer Alice Angliss.

Hannah, aged 18, writes: “I was initially asked to do the costumes for the A level performances back in December and I had a great time designing and creating the costumes over the past few months.

When I was asked to take on this project, I took the opportunity to go and watch the musical in the West End, and after seeing in person how fun and extravagant the costumes were, it made me more excited to work on the project. The process enabled me to work with different textile materials that I wouldn’t typically use and haven’t used before, as well as building on my skills. 

I used Pinterest as my main source of inspiration as it had many photos of the different past variations of the costumes from when it was first performed at Fringe to the costumes now worn on the West End. After creating inspiration boards for each wife, I began drawing sketches for the costumes and identified the fabrics and detailing I wanted to use.

There were aspects mentioned in the songs which I thought were vital to keep as a part of the costume, but I also felt that some of the costumes weren’t the most attractive and therefore made modifications to put my own touch on each.

Along with Mrs Tate, I visited a small local fabric shop which had a fantastic range of trimmings and fabrics that were ideal for the costumes. Once I'd got the fabrics I was very excited to start making each costume. I spent time over the Christmas, half-term and Easter holidays in addition to after school to work on this project and it was very motivating to see each outfit come together over time. 

Although at times it felt a bit of an overwhelming task trying to balance A levels and this project, I found that sewing was a good distraction and a way to relax after doing revision. This really was a fantastic opportunity to build not only my sewing skills but also the skills of managing a large project such as this. Despite planning on studying something to do with economics and finance at university, fashion and sewing is something I greatly enjoy and hope to continue in the future.”

The clever costumes will now be carefully kept and stored in the LEH Drama costume cupboard for future productions at the school.