The above outfit is worn by the title character in the just-opened play, God Save Gertrude [1], a punk rock-meets-theater riff that was penned by a local ‘wright and is, in fact, loosely inspired by Hamlet's mother (cuz Ophelia is played out, donchyaknow). I suspect the character, a singer, has something in common with Patti Smith, too, although that's just an educated guess based off the press release. I haven't yet seen the play, but plan to next weekend.

In any case, Laura Fulk [2], a local fashion designer with, what I would call, an avant-and/or-punk rock aesthetic, designed the getup. Now, because we have this so-called thriving theater scene, the Twin Cities are full of great professional costume designers. (For example: Sonya Berlovitz [3], whom I used to know at Theatre de la Jeune Lune [4], is just scary brilliant.) But I, for one, appreciate that, in this instance, the playwright, Deborah Stein [5], reached out to a fashion designer. I like to see artists venturing from their silos. And this play--a fashion meets theater meets punk rock mash-up--seems to spread across many forms.