Costume Designer Azucena Dominguez highlights her design process for The Valkyrie.

The concept of the Valkyries came from the first conversation I had with Crystal. Our inspiration was Game of Thrones and the idea of blurring the line between time periods. I took some inspiration from Nordic mythology and how they represent their warriors. Unlike the majority of the Valkyrie representations with the helmets, I wanted to use their hair in fun and elaborate braids to emphasize their femininity and power.

Moreover, each performer will only be wearing one costume, so it is essential to make each look specific to each character. There is a clear distinction between the characters that mainly live on Earth, the gods, and the Valkyries that kind of move between the Earth and Valhalla. I approached this by giving the Earthly characters more muted colors and natural textiles. The gods have slightly more structured looks with pops of color and patterns. On the other hand, the Valkyries live in more natural textiles with feathers on their shoulders in order to emphasize their transient nature between both worlds. 

Once the costumes are established, the fun part starts when we begin to source and find the necessary pieces to bring the costumes to fruition. It has definitely been a fun process of finding the perfect fabrics and feathers in the Fashion District of Downtown LA. There has been some experimenting to find out how to attach feathers to leather bodices and how much distressing is enough distressing and so on. There has been a lot of pinning, cutting, sewing, re-pinning, and distressing to bring the costumes together. Overall, this design concept has been a fun challenge that has allowed me to explore my creativity while being able to play with a variety of silhouettes and textures.

Don’t miss The Valkyrie, the second installment of The Ring of the Nibelung. Grab the best seats through the Lobero Box Office for Sunday, April 23 at 2:30 PM.