Elsa Larsen
Costume Technology
I am an artist dedicated to helping others. I grew up with an immediate love for the visual and performing arts, training in theatre, dance, crafts, and music from a young age. I found a love of fashion design in middle school and planned to make it my career, but not wanting to lose my involvement in theatre and dance, I merged my love of all three and changed paths to costuming. I recently graduated from Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, Minnesota with my Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Honors with a focus in Costume Design and Technology and a minor in Arts Administration. Since graduation, I have been working as a First Hand at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival in Montgomery, Alabama. In the coming months, I am planning to move to the Twin Cities area to join the robust performing arts community.
About Elsa
Artist's Statement
I create costumes to tell stories through clothing. I love the process of analyzing characters and displaying their personalities through color, texture, ornamentation, and silhouette. Fashion was not invented out of necessity; it was born from a need to express the self. By looking at fashions past and present, I can read the stories they tell and connect them to the characters I wish to portray.
I am not only driven to design, I love producing costumes as well. I see the challenges that come along with costume construction as a puzzle that I have to solve, a fun game to play. I find it amazing that with a rectangle of fabric, scissors, and a needle and thread, the possibilities for costume creation are endless.
The costumes I create will tell you a story.