Mad Hatter Cosplay

This design is a personal take on The Mad Hatter from Lewis Carroll's, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland". I’ve always derived inspiration from the book and I occasionally discover something new with each reading. The selection of the printed script on canvas for the long jacket is influenced by a costume worn by Geoffrey Rush who portrayed the infamous Marquis de Sade in the movie "Quills". In the movie, denied pen and paper, he writes a story on his silk suit in blood with a hidden quill. It was part of my daydream to just combine elements from both stories.

The lining of the jacket is made from striped pillow ticking. Cuffs and collars are French blue cotton velvet. The buttons are in the shapes of roses which hearken back to the playing cards painting the roses red in the Queen of Heart's garden. The jacket is worn over a historically accurate 18th century "stays" (corset) made out of purple satin. The top hat has a lot of detail including a Dormouse with a striped waistcoat for fun.

Photographer Amanda Tipton had the idea to do the curtains like a makeshift "stage" in the middle of nowhere. It gave the character a space to be with some theatricality and separated the shoot from just a plain woodland setting.

"... it's no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then." (Photographer: AmandaTipton.com)