Messy Fun & Artist Dates
Costume Designer, Photographer & Artist Tori Hitchens joins me for the next Living with Louise experiment - we talk about play, freedom in childhood and no-agenda joymaking a.k.a an "Artist Date".
Following on from my previous conversation with philosophical psychotherapist Jason Brooker and with writer, Fraser Grace, this is the next installment of my Living with Louise experiment where I invite a guest for an unscripted and unplanned dialogue on a blank Google Doc and set a 35 minute timer - for what (this conversation also made me realise) is an “Artist Date” of sorts.
I first reached out to Tori on Friday, 28 March 2025 after hearing wonderful things about her work. Thankfully, this led to an instantaneous connection and three meaningful collabs to date (and counting): The first a photoshoot with the incredible photographer Wanda Martin; the second on our feature film Darker Days in which I play the role of Nancy; And most recently, last Thursday, we created some high-contrast black and white magic under the dramatic Blackheath skies.
To differentiate between speakers, Louise’s dialogue is in italics, whilst her guest, Tori Hitchens is like so.
Saturday, 30 Aug 18:00
Tori, you’re here! Welcome to the space! The blank page!
Thank you for inviting me to the blank page! I am curious about this process!
When was the last time you interacted with someone in this way? Q&A-wise? Or interview?
Never!
GREAT. Lucky me. Okay I’m going to set a 35 minute timer, other than that - there are no rules or restrictions - it’s an open and unscripted convo, no agenda from my side. That’s partly the experimental part.
Thanks - it reminds me of MSN messenger
Those were the days. Those “nudges” were quite violent though, do you remember them?
Yes and also the idea of branding yourself with status, names, fonts and emojis was really quite something. Thrilling times!
All I’m going to say is: “Lo0uiiseEe”…
XD
35 minute timer set.
Actually, following on from what you just said - bringing us into our early years - did you always know that you wanted to be a costume designer / costumier (delete as appropriate!)?
I was not always interested in clothing. I started off drawing and making objects with my grandad that we found on the beach. I think clothes came into the equation in my teenage years.
I’m drawn into these memories with your grandad! Was he leading the adventures on the beach or was he following your desire?
I think he was possibly showing me interesting and fun ways to kill time and use my brain. I guess I was led by him in the early years!
Can you remember something that you made together?
The first thing that comes to mind is a hobby horse made from driftwood and pampas grass.
Was there anything that you learned then that can still be applied to the work you create now?
I guess the main takeaway from those experiences is creatively thinking about what a found object can be. I think that shows through in the ways I prefer altering existing garments, as opposed to making from scratch.
That really comes across. When I first met you, I felt in awe of the appreciation you had for fabrics, clothing and texture - fabrics as paint. Does all of this stem d’you think from those early experiences, or were there other interest-defining moments for you?
Thank you. I grew up around lowkey creative people - musicians and artists. When I look at my formative years I think that people leaned in [to me] with craft activities. I remember my mum and her friend making marbled paper art in the back garden - which was then framed and hung around the house, my nana sewing, going to band practices with family friends. It all adds up in little ways.
That brought warmth to my heart. That is a very wholesome picture you’ve just painted. Remind me, where did you grow up?
For sure there were some pretty wholesome times! I grew up in Wales.
What was the landscape and your neighbourhood like?
My neighbourhood was a small housing estate - semi rural. My mates/cousins and I would play in the surrounding woodland. It was a really stimulating environment for imagination and games playing. Quite lucky to have freedom to play in nature! Sidenote - I wish this conversation was a bit more two sided - can it be?! I am curious about your environment growing up.
Of course! There are no rules remember! My environment growing up… I grew up in a small suburban town called Crayford in South East London - on the border of Kent; a little rough around the edges. What really was a highlight of my childhood though is that my parents had a rather rustic house in rural France with a couple of acres of land. This is where I felt most free and connected to my wildchild nature; think dried grass in hair and muddy-everything. My brother and I would role play with plastic Sainbury’s bags looped on our shoulders holding large twigs for arrows or we’d ride around on my dad’s red tractor. Also interacting with the French neighbours was a pivotal experience for me to connect with people from a different culture & language.
During our school summer holidays, I was about 6-7 years old and our teachers gave us homework to complete; create a diary, or scrapbook that you can share with the class upon your return and tell each other about the summer holiday you had. This was the first scrapbook I remember making and it even had dried tobacco leaves from the neighbour’s tobacco farm inside.
I really connect with the part of your childhood spent in France. The best thing about formative years spent in nature was getting messy and being blissfully unaware of personal presentation! Embracing all weathers and finding places to shelter in the rain, etc.
One of my best memories was having a mud fight with the neighbours and just feeling so free! When I arrived back home, my mum was so happy - we laughed the whole time the bath was running as she pulled clumps of mud from my hair.
Your mum sounds wonderful. Not every mum would have that reaction.
I know - my nana would have been fuming.
I wanted to pick up on something you just said, “being blissfully unaware of personal presentation”. This is interesting because is your craft not directly related to being aware of presentation?
My craft now involves understanding what characters would be aware of in their personal presentation. Or what an audience can deduce from a character based on their presentation.
Interesting. What are the other considerations you take into account from a character perspective in your process? What’s your process of understanding characters?
This is actually quite a big question. There are basic considerations relating to socio-economics, place, interests/hobbies/career etc. The framework in which someone exists in society and the cross sections of these factors. Then you have to get into their character arc - and apply their mental state to their presentation.
For example, with Nancy her character has a significant emotional and reality shift. I designed her to at first in the “real” world have on her professional ‘armour’ - for that we decided she would be in a bad-ass suit, before softening her silhouette to highlight her inner world being exposed by the puzzles of the past being brought to the front of her life again. Does that make sense?
Yes, that makes perfect sense. I found the costume process so enriching for my process as an actor. The questions you were asking were intertwining with my own character development.
I also remember the moment when - after various experiments and adaptations - I tried on her boots. The support of those boots and how they directly connected with my internalisation of Nancy was felt immediately. And the decision we made for Nancy to only wear one pair of boots throughout the whole film. That felt like a bold and honest character choice.
By the way, the timer has gone off. Would you like to continue?
I am happy to continue! I remember how many conversations we had about who Nancy was, and it was important to get right. Her emotional back catalogue that led her to be the person we meet initially in the film was a really fun one to work out. I very much enjoyed the collaborative process and the time we took to make her real!
This may be a longer and perhaps a separate conversation at some point but I’m genuinely intrigued to hear about your experience with working on Darker Days (our working title feature film).
I’d be happy to talk about it any time! What a blessing to be invited to design a London-born and based project that has so much scope in the narrative!
Would you feel comfortable expanding on that?
Certainly! As someone who has considered London home since 2016, I don’t know if I could think of anything more cool than a project exploring narratives surrounding family, heritage, supernatural occurrences and weird cults - made by Londoners, in London.
Ha! Smiling wide here.
As my first feature film - I cannot believe I got to explore “real” life, creepy cult figures and play about with masks. I have to share with you some images of the making of the masks too. SO MUCH FUN.
That got me feeling very excited - and also proud of what we accomplished.
Mate it is mad. I haven’t even seen a cut yet, but the ambition was high. Are you happy with what you have seen in the edit?
It’s very hard to watch myself on screen, I have to be honest. I really try my hardest to remove myself from the work (so challenging) and when I’ve been successful at that, I have really enjoyed seeing it come together. Watching the “rough cut” was a memory in itself - and it’s really not very rough at all. Bruno and Neto have done an incredible job - and we’re still to add the visual effects, grade, music and sound design yet - which all are contributing in their own ways to the story.
DD_Rough Cut 01
The week we exported the first (rough) cut of our feature-length project and watched it in Neto Jone's editing suite in Barcelona!
It is understandable - I cringe when I see myself on camera. Because you had a dual responsibility on this job as a Producer as well, I guess it is important to hone the skill of pragmatic evaluation across the film as a product.
Interestingly, on this, I know that if the story is well told, then it’ll be supporting our performances. We’ve done the best we can to create the story material and now it’s about ensuring a) the story is being told in the most entertaining and enjoyable way possible and b) that you care for the characters and there is empathy for the audience to connect with. Those are the questions I have been asking myself in this process at present.
What are you most looking forward to seeing when you watch the film?
I am looking forward to seeing all of the realms intersect; between Nancy’s professional world, her private world, and the cult space, and all the uncanny characters within it. Because stylistically everything was exaggerated, I am looking forward to seeing how all of the departments intermingle on the screen too.
This is an unsophisticated segue but I want to talk about last Thursday!
Ooooh ye
So, I came over to yours and learned that you not only are a fabulous and talented costumier but you are a photographer too.
Hahah - I am a little shy of this recent development, but over the past 9/10 months I have been building mini-worlds for characters and for myself to explore. I wanted to engage with other aspects of creative direction. Usually each shoot has a hero piece of clothing, or a piece of research behind it.
By dressing and photographing people in a low-key way where we have fun; hopefully there’s not too much pressure on who is in front of the camera.
Before our photoshoot, I’d been listening to doom metal, and wanted to explore more darkwave photography. I decided to obscure the costume by dressing you rather elegantly as opposed to being in leather or denim (materials I’d typically associate with the metal scene), and decided to put you in a vintage New Look gold lurex dress!
The sky was a paid actor that night.
We were lucky with the sky! But I also felt we were open to whatever the elements. If it had started snowing or storming, I feel we would have run with it. I thought our relaxed attitude to the whole shoot made me feel like it was all about the process and the photos are this incredible bonus.
Yes, I think that the elements become another player in the game - no matter what they bring. It’s another feature.
I think I like the process of play - showing up as ourselves and creating in the moment.
As much as the work looks serious or creepy, it is all theatre really.
I like to call it “no agenda joymaking”
It’s exactly that.
Are you familiar with Julia Cameron and her concept “Artist Dates”
NO
DID YOU JUST SHOUT THAT IN YOUR HEAD?
Yeah - like WTF i want that!
In her book The Artist’s Way Julia Cameron talks about the benefit of dedicating time once a week to going somewhere or doing something that will inspire you. Our experiment on Thursday for me, could be classified as an Artist Date.
Ah, I think it’s a vital thing to do.
You get joy from the process (we laughed a lot - I always laugh a lot when I’m photographing people), and the results are often surprising.
I enjoyed how you took to the grunge aspect and ran with it.
It’s been a pleasure. Long may the collaboration & friendship continue. This is maybe a perfect way to conclude (for now), to be continued…?
Yeah bbe!
<3
Fascinating read! I love the parts about growing up with nature. Many happy childhood years spent in Ireland over the summer holidays. 6 weeks....have breakfast and out the door playing in the woods and exploring Trim Castle where we stayed. In the days before health and safety 😆 I climbed to the top of that Castle once and the view was breathtaking. Love this article Louise!!