Macbeth Costume Design

For my costume design project I decided to take regular Macbeth and put a Roman, Dark Ages spin on it. I chose this specific time and place because it personally interests me and I thought it would be an awesome concept to turn Macbeth from a knight to a Spartan warrior. The Dark Ages were a time of economic and cultural deterioration within in Western Europe following the decline of the Roman Empire. Therefore, these conditions would have a major effect on how these characters would dress in their given situations.
My first and second costume designs were chosen to portray the character of Macbeth in the play. My first rendering design is of Macbeth when he is still a faithful knight under the rule of King Duncan. To follow through with my Roman theme I decided to make
For the cape I selected a thicker red material so that it would be more durable and flowing when being worn on stage. In addition, I chose the color red specifically to symbolize authority, since he is the head knight to the king. For the actual armor section of the outfit I chose a thick grey, metal looking plastic to give the armor look without having the weight of regular metal on the cast member. I used the same red material as the cape to make the belt that is fastened around his waist. I did this so that it would have the same effect as the cape did. By making his belt gold, it shows that he is the highest rank in the infantry. I gave Macbeth a skirt to imitate a classic Roman warrior outfit. The skirt is made out of a thick, soft leather material to give the old age leather effect. I picked a reddish brown color to fade into the cape. The small gold plates at the top of the skirt tassels would be made of a thin, malleable plastic so that it would easily fasten to the pleated fabric. To make sure that no one saw through the flowing tassels I decided to put an underskirt underneath it. For this I used a simple white, cotton fabric to assure comfort to the cast member