talentrecap.com: It’s no secret that The Masked Singer in the U.S. is known for having some of the best costumes out of all the shows in the international franchise. Their former costume designer Marina Toybina helped them dig their heels into the competition and earn their rightful title in the franchise.
5 comments:
The Masked Singer! I love that show! Fun fact about the show- it was originally a concept (and popular show) in Korea! I loved that even as it moved to a western audience, the costumes kept its charm. In fact, the costumes in the US show are far more extravagant than the ones in Korea. I am a little jealous of the costume designers of this show admittedly. It must be so fun to create over-the-top, no restrictions, type of silly costumes for each guest artist. I found it awesome that costume designers were getting some of the spotlight. I feel that costumes can also become the set, creating an environment on the stage that is most personal to the character itself. So much can be told about the inner world of a character through their clothes, and I find it very similar to what I feel set design is meant to do in a theatre. I think the fast fashion industry sells so many clothes that the audience often forgets the individual artistry of each shirt, coat, and shoe and that each one was chosen out of design and careful consideration.
This Marina Toybina seems like my kind of gal. Her work before her time on the masked singer sounds equally as fun and as crazy as the masked singer costumes based on the artists they list as previous credits. I really respect her for having a niche and pursuing it throughout her career without compromising it at all. I bet many of her ideas will go down in the history books as iconic pop culture moments. In my months at CMU I’ve come to appreciate more subtle design concepts, but seeing work like hers I am reminded of the scale and grandeur of the sort of costumes I adore and want to work into my process. I’m going to follow Toybina’s career closely. I find her fascinating. I do wonder what will happen to The Masked Singer without her, but I hope they find someone equally ambitious and equally insane and unhinged.
It’s no secret that Marina Toybina will be deeply missed on the Masked Singer. The season 7 costumes of Masked Singer are disappointing compared to the last 6 seasons of Marina Toybina’s polished, creative, and larger than life costumes. Toybina’s design aesthetic is so over the top and completely perfect for reality television. It takes the personality of the contestants and amplifies them ten fold. She is the leading authority on sparkles, bling, and all things big. This article title is very misleading in that it doesn’t actually say what Marina Toybina is doing now. I’m excited to see what Toybina does next, as the Masked Singer seems like the dream job for a costume designer. Her new offer must be very exciting. She mentions in the article being interested in film and features, and I hope she’s been able to branch out to that! Her overblown aesthetic would serve the field of film design very well.
Looking at this designer’s work, there is a strong pattern of wonderfully outlandish and creative works. The celebrities she has worked with are known for their over the top looks and visual concepts, and the masked singer has that same philosophy. For entertainment and especially for those who are performers, the visual impact is so vital to the success of the piece. In The Masked Singer this is particularly true. The audience perspective is supposed to be entirely shaped by the auditory impact of the performer, so the goal of the costume designer in this case is to make the performer unrecognizable, and a tad bizarre to add to the spectacle of the show. It makes the entertainer themself seem extraordinary and definitely adds to the entertainment quality. Toybina’s choice to use bright colors, patterns, and allusions to characters (such as monsters, animals, bugs etc.) personify the sound and truly elevate interest.
To me, The Masked Singer is one of those vaguely popular shows that are mainly known for a really ridiculous element (the costumes) and occasionally goes viral for an extremely out of pocket moment. In the few instances where I have seen a shot of or a clip of the show, I am always impressed by the dramatics of the costumes the singers wear. This is probably largely due to the need for them to be able to tell a story or give clues to their identity without showing their actual person; costumes are an excellent way to do so. It is a shame that Marina Toybina seems to be no longer a part of the show’s principal costume design, as it is clear through her creative processes and the crazy outfits featured in the show’s previous seasons that her designs were a critical driving force of the whole production.
Post a Comment