Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective
Gabriella Slade
British costume designer From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Remove ads
Gabriella Slade is a British costume designer, best known for her work in musicals such as Six, The Cher Show and Starlight Express. For her work in the musical Six, she has received the Tony Award for Best Costume Design in a Musical and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design of a Musical in 2022, as well as a nomination for the Olivier Award for Best Costume Design in 2019. She also won the Olivier Award for Best Costume Design for Starlight Express in 2025.
Remove ads
Early life
Slade was born in Basingstoke, England[1] and trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, graduating with a First class degree in Theatre Design.[2]
Career
Summarize
Perspective
Slade was the costume designer for the UK production of In the Heights in 2014.[3][4] The show opened at the Southwark Playhouse to then transfer to the Kings Cross Theatre. In 2015 she was costume designer for the Edinburgh premiere production of Love Birds.[5]
Six
In 2017 Slade collaborated with Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss on the show Six, when it was first launched at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She has been part of the show since, receiving several nominations and awards for her work, both in the UK and US.
The costumes for the musical are meant to be a mix between pop and Tudor, with each queen being inspired by a pop artist: Catherine of Aragon by Beyoncé, Anne Boleyn by Miley Cyrus, Jane Seymour by a mix of Adele and Sia, Anne of Cleves by a mix of Nicki Minaj and Rihanna, Catherine Howard by Ariana Grande and Catherine Parr by Alicia Keys. Each queen is also represented by a specific color, with, for example, Anne Boleyn being green, as a reference to the "green sleeves" she is often associated with.[6]
Slade also designed the costumes for the UK, US and Australian Tours of the show.
She designed the costumes for the Spice World Arena tour in 2019.[7]
Her costume for Catherine of Aragon is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum’s collection of Theatre and Performance, and could be seen as part of the Re:Imagining Musicals display until November 2023.[8]
Later work
In 2021 Slade become the costume designer for the musical Bedknobs and Broomsticks which had a full UK tour run.[9] In the same year she was nominated for a WhatsOnStage Award and Broadway World Award for Best Costume Design for her work on the show.
Slade was part of the creative team for the 2023 UK transfer of The Cher Show, with Arlene Phillips as director and Oti Mabuse as choreographer. In creating the costumes for the show Slade said to have been inspired by Bob Mackie's iconic looks for Cher, as well as some modern pop icons, like Lady Gaga and J-Lo[10] The show presents Cher in three different eras and the role is divided between three actresses: in the UK version Millie O’Connell played Babe, Danielle Steers played Lady and Debbie Kurup played Star.[11]
Slade won the WhatsOnStage Award for Best Costume Design in 2023, for her work on the show.[12]
In 2025 Slade created the costumes for Andrew Lloyd Webber's Starlight Express, running at the Troubadour Theatre in Wembley, leading her to winning the 2025 Olivier Award for Best Costume Design.[13][14]
Remove ads
Honors and awards
UK Awards
US Awards
References
External links
Wikiwand - on
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Remove ads