My Fair Lady is a story that surrounds the character of Eliza Doolittle adjusting to a new environment she is not familiar with. The story paints her as a blossoming flower as she tries to change herself (with the help of Higgins) to be more like the upper class. The environment of this world has allowed the upper class to be obnoxious and self-righteous enough to where they can pick apart people they think are “lower” than them. Therefore I want the “upper class” to have a more restrictive and structured feeling represented through costuming. I also wanted floral elements to be consistent throughout costumes, however, the level of these florals varies between the ensemble and the main characters. Flowers are most prevalent with Eliza because of the blossoming flower narrative, but it is the use of real flowers (and coloring) that sets her apart from others during the Ascot scene of the story. Showing that she is not as artificial.

These designs showcase costumes for the Ascot Opening Race scene in My Fair Lady. The focus of this project was for the costumes to be historically accurate to the Edwardian period seeing that this story takes place in 1913.