Wink explores the idea of who we really are underneath all the layers we place upon ourselves. What do we look like when we strip back down to our true selves? What happens when we are uninhibited in who we are and how we present ourselves? How do we distinguish between the people we carry ourselves as versus the people who we can simply just be?

I personally think that more than anything, a person’s skin and hair are the closest visual markers of identity we have on our bodies that tie us to our roots, heritage, and history more than anything. I believe that makeup and hair are powerful traits that we can manipulate to make us truly feel more like ourselves. How different do we look when we don’t care about what other people think about us? When you simply want to express who you are as your authentic self? 

Complementing the pre-existing costume designs by Gin Ko, I explored how each character’s hair and makeup reflects how they themselves progress through the show. The more authentic someone is, the more abstracted and clear their makeup and hair is to reflect that about themselves. Therefore, in my designs, Wink is the only one who actually starts with noticeable makeup, Sofie has just normal stage makeup but as Roland she has abstracted makeup, and Gregor’s skinning scene also reveals a hidden makeup element underneath. Dr. Frans, however, has none as we never actually see him “skin” himself during the show. 

I also wanted to play into the idea of finding your own identity really focuses on Sofie/Roland a lot in the show, and as we cast Angelena in the role, I wanted to explore this storytelling through a wig change as well. Angelena has short box braids, and we can wrap it to put it under a type 1B housewife-style wig, which comes off in scene 5 to reveal her braids when she has more revelations about who she is.