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Les Liaisons Dangereuses  
Building Liaisons Wigs

When researching past productions of Liaisons on the net I noticed that lots of the photos had an inappropriate comic-opera feel because the wigs used were standard spun glass "colonial" type wigs that look more like what liveried footmen wore than actual gentleman's wigs of the period.  The women's hair all rather looked like wigs too, instead of looking like real hair (what women actually wore in the 1780's).  I decided that instead of buying new wigs ("colonial" or otherwise) I'd try to have us make ones for the gentlemen and Azolan out of old wigs, alter and dress some of our other old wigs to look like natural hair for actresses with short hair, and buy bits of hair and rig them into extensions for the women with suitably fluffy hair.  I borrowed two colonial wigs from another theatre (FLOT) for use on the footmen, where they look appropriate.

Stephanie pulls apart a early 1960's human hair wiglet so we will have strips of human hair for the men's wigs.  We have a couple of dozen of these "bubble" wiglets in assorted colors that are never used but which have been saved for the hair on them, for just such an eventuality.

Hair & Wigs for the Stage : Step by Step Dangerous Liaisons : Fashion and Furniture in the Eighteenth Century (Metropolitan Museum of Art Publications) Eighteenth Century French Fashion Plates in Full Color

Men's Seventeenth & Eighteenth Century Costume : Cut and Fashion

Valmont The History of Hair : Fashion and Fantasy Down the Ages Fashions in Hair: The 1st 5,000 Years

The Art of Dress : Fashion in England and France 1750 to 1820

Dress in France in the Eighteenth Century Period Costume for Stage & Screen : Patterns for Women's Dress 1500-1800

Amazon.com Duke Costume Wig with Bow - COLOR CHOICES Apparel

Fitting & Proper

The Culture of Clothing : Dress and Fashion in the 'Ancien Regime' (Past and Present Publications)

Fashion in Detail : From the 17th and 18th Centuries The Cut of Women's Clothes, 1600-1930 SalonOvations' Braids and Updos Made Easy

Silk Designs of the Eighteenth Century : From the Victoria and Albert Museum, London

The History of Underclothes

Colonial Wig

Marie Antoinette Wig

Patterns of Fashion 1: Englishwoman's Dresses and Their Construction: c.1660-1860

The Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France Dangerous Liaisons (Widescreen Edition) Madame De Pompadour : Sex, Culture and Power

Fashions in Hair: The 1st 5,000 Years

Bridal Hair: Hairdressing Training Board/Macmillan

Amazon.com Dangerous Liaisons Fashion and Furniture in the Eighteenth Century (Metropolitan Mu

Les Liaisons Dangereuses 1960 (1959)

Baroque & Rococo: Art & Culture

  Garden Pavilions and the 18th Century French Court
  Dramatic Works of the Marquis de Sade

Big Hair : A Journey into the Transformation of Self

  The bits of hair are sorted by color, and thread selected that matches to sew on the rows.   I (Tara) have sewn slightly stretchy nylon/lycra net into a wig cap for Azolan, binding the edges with bias tape.  I later found that I needed to trim a space for ear holes and rebind in those spots.  Strips of the hair from the wiglet above are sewn to the cap to make a wig.

Azolan wig made on the cap above.  Slight alterations need to be made to this wig because the back is not low enough, and the area at the temples needs a slight extension and stiffening. 

How it looks after alterations.

Wig cap made for Danceny, incorporating things learned while making the Azolan wig.

Blonde hair is sewn into rows with a part for Danceny. 

The wig before curling and cutting.

  the internal construction of the wig, with Ridgline boning on all the points and an elastic drawstring casing running around the inside.

The curled wig gets a first fitting:

I decide the front needs to show the curved 18th Century "male" hairline better and slightly alter the style to make it less girly-looking.

The changes 

 final fitting.  It is decided to reduce the side curls to 2, and angle them more sharply.

  a wig bag is made with a hair bow clip to attach it.

Once the style has been seen to work at first dress, the wig is sprayed firmly, and covered with hairnets that are sewn to the inside edges to keep the wig perfectly smooth.

How it looks.

Beginning the wig cap for Valmont.  The stretch net is draped loosely on the head form, and stitched down in darts before fitting.

Fitting the cap.  The hairline edges are marked with chalk.

The cap is trimmed to size.  (we later find that the wig "shrinks" slightly while being worked on, so it is better to cut it slightly oversize, rather than having to extend the back as we did later).

Sewing on seam tape, hat wire (in the front edge) , & Ridgeline stays at the temples.

Completed wig on a form.

After figuring out how often Valmont needs to take his wig on and off on stage, (about five times each, plus he gets smacked about in the face 4-5 times in one scene with Merteuil till it comes off in the fight) I add a stretchy-comb to the front edge inside so that it won't slip back (except during that scene), and an elastic band inside to quickly and easily grip when it is stuck on: A hair clip is sewn to the wig bag so it is easy to take off for re-dressing. The top is covered with sewn on hair nets like Danceny's to keep it from needing total re-grooming every day. 

How it looks

To learn more about building this kind of wig go to Making your Own 18th Century Men's Wigs Project

You can learn more about real 18th Century men's wigs at my 18th Century Hair Page

Curling Rosamonde's wig.

How it looks.

Mme. de Volanges

  The Marquise de Merteuil has a long "tail" added to her curled wig to give it a more 1780's look.

how it looks

Cecile has full, fluffy, but very slippery, hair.  We make this object to hold up her hair extensions (which can't clip in), and to put stable side pads on her temples that she can use to wrap her real hair around so it won't flop. The ribbon at front is meant to show.

The actress' real hair  

 how it looks with the pads and extensions 

 The Presidente Tourvel has very thick curly hair, that you can easily put clip in extensions into (they even survived Valmont pulling her by the hair). 

her real hair

We make her a simple hair roll with a forehead band, which is meant to show, and two "potatoes" of nylon stocking stuffed with net to give her something nearly invisible to roll her hair around easily, plus extensions (below) that have been blended out of 3 colors of cheap fake hair and curled to match the color and texture of her own:

  Extension clips are sewn to the ends.  The actress carefully pins the clips to the head form each night so that the pieces don't get tangled.

how it looks on stage.

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