Steampunk Bird Hybrid | Costume by Paige Gardner Smith | Image by Dim Horizon Studios
Most of my work is inspired by one simple item; a vintage element or salvaged piece that begs a costume to grow organically around it. For example, the Steampunk Bird Hybrid idea grew from an earring that looked like the tip of a bird’s talon. As the costume evolves and develops, so does the story behind it.
For example: Miss Ava Fortune was once a lovely and celebrated high-wire artist known as “The Bird of Bombay”, but hungry for even broader fame, she sought the help of a disreputable Calcutta doctor – a man whispered about as dabbling in forbidden and fledgling genetic science. She paid him to imbue her with bird-like traits that would enhance her high-flying performances. But alas, the experimental treatments only left her disfigured and deformed, and a bit demented (hence, the muzzle on her beak.) Now Miss Fortune flits among the shadows, an exotic outcast in the Bombay underworld.
The following images were captured by Dim Horizon Studios during a visit to Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark in Birmingham, Alabama. The costume “Miss Ava Fortune” was crafted by Paige Gardner Smith almost entirely from salvaged, re-purposed and re-cycled materials.
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- Steampunk Bird Hybrid | Costume by Paige Gardner Smith | Image by Dim Horizon Studios
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- Steampunk Bird Hybrid | Costume by Paige Gardner Smith | Image by Dim Horizon Studios
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- Steampunk Bird Hybrid | Costume by Paige Gardner Smith | Image by Dim Horizon Studios
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- Steampunk Bird Hybrid | Costume by Paige Gardner Smith | Image by Dim Horizon Studios
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- Steampunk Bird Hybrid | Costume by Paige Gardner Smith | Image by Dim Horizon Studios
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- Steampunk Bird Hybrid | Costume by Paige Gardner Smith | Image by Dim Horizon Studios
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- Steampunk Bird Hybrid | Costume by Paige Gardner Smith | Image by Dim Horizon Studios
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- Costume ability | Not breaking a hip
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- Steampunk Bird Hybrid | Costume by Paige Gardner Smith | Image by Dim Horizon Studios
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