To the Tonys!
to my favorite of all the red carpets, the Tonys!!
Making this bespoke brooch was but a dream, bringing design elements from the glamorous show to broadway’s biggest night!
As an avid theatre kid, I hosted a party for the Tony Awards every year, with ballots, prizes, and, of course, a red carpet. So, it was very special to me to create a custom piece for a guest to wear to the 2025 award show. I created the custom brooch for Producer, Mark Brystowski, attending with the musical ‘Death Becomes Her’ nominated for 10 awards!
deathbecomesher.com
My first and favorite step is to research the show. “Death Becomes Her” is a musical adaptation of the 1992 Comedy with Meryl Streep, now reimagined as a musical! You may also recognize the viral Jennifer Simard bit, “that. was. rude!”
I love the moody, mystical glamour of the production design and took that inspiration straight to my sketches. There is a pin as a prop in the show, and a !very important! vile. But it was important to me that this not be a prop, but a bespoke brooch to pay homage to the the production, the art of theatre, and the Tonys!
I presented the sketches, we decided on the Moon&Curtain (far left) inspired by the shows set design, but also the overall energy of the awards show.
And it was time to get to work!
I needed only two things my studio wasn’t stocked with:
a perfect purple for the curtain
a lightweight brooch to repurpose.
I thrifted this adorable broach and just had to cut their dangling hearts out! (will save them for something!) I then used a moldable plastic to be mounted on top. The material is called worbla and we use it for many a large puppets at the Chicago Puppet Studio because it is malleable, holds paint well, and is very lightweight.
I used a method I learned at a very young age…anyone else have the Melissa and Doug Lace and Trace? I nailed holes into the plastic where I was going to sew the pieces into. Sewing into the hard material brought me right back to sewing up those farm animals with a shoelace! I remember finishing with pride and then feeling like great.. now what do I do this this, undo it!?
But, thank you Melissa and Doug! It was important I learned the discipline of doing and undoing at such a young age! The key to a project at this scale is multiples. Just making multiples of slight differences in size or techniques at each step to then choose which is best to move forward with. Above, you can see the multiple moon sizes. And I think in the end, I tried 10 different curtain methods and made 4 curtains with the embroidery method. I made three at one time, learning at each step with each iteration. But just as I was about to attach the best of the three- Oh, give me one more chance! The fourth time was the charm.
I reached for the moon..
and tested those stars!
But! before it was ready to package it all up and send it to NYC..
I went into my own closet to play dress up, set up my tripod, and make sure to get some stellar shots!
Can you tell? I am still that theatre kid at heart..
What I did nOt expect was for this brooch to have a show of it own! To the tune of Hamilton, this “little thing” amassed over 2 million views on tiktok! I work hard on all my content, so this makes the moment feel even more special. Not to be too canon, but perhaps written in the stars!
Thank you for reading!
