Vin was 'Born in a skip' to actor parents Edward and Lucille.
Her great grandfather was a Punch and Judy man and her grandfather
was an opera singer. He appeared in silent movies in the 20's.
Her father, a gold medallist at RADA, trod the boards in many a
Shakespearian play. He was the first director to put Dylan Thomas'
UNDER MILK WOOD on the stage (it was written as a narrative) at
the Edinburgh Festival in 1956. As an actor he worked in film and
TV including DR WHO, THE AVENGERS, MISS MARPLE, THE BILL and ALL
CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL, and more recently in the European VISA
campaign, BLACK BOOKS and SWISS TONI.
Vin's mother, as well as being an actress, wrote children's books
and poetry. Her sister Lal d'Abo is a principal costume maker for,
amongst others the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. She makes
breathtaking costumes for the likes of Sylvie Guillem and Leanne
Benjamin and also specialises in children's costume. Her brother
Tim, once a lighting designer for ballet and rock and roll, is
now president of Strand Lighting in Los Angeles.
Vin was educated at Michael Hall, a Rudolph Steiner School in Sussex
before she was expelled at the age of 14 and sent, in disgrace,
to art school. She dropped out of art school before getting her
degree, sold programmes and served behind the bar in several West
End theatres before getting a lucky break of a job at the Royal
Opera House, Covent Garden in the prop department run by Ray Scott.
Fonteyn and Nureyev were still dancing at the time.
This was followed by a move to the wardrobe department of the
Nottingham Playhouse with her costume maker sister Lal, under the
directorship of Sir Richard Eyre, where she made her first creature
- a pantomime horse called Alfred! She dyed and printed costumes,
and made masks, jewellery and headdresses.
Vin and Lal freelanced in London as costume makers working for,
amongst others, 3 X oscar winning costume designer James Acheson
on the films TIME BANDITS, THE MEANING OF LIFE and BRAZIL. She
also ran a West London studio in which costumes and creatures were
designed and made by her talented team which included Niki Lyons,
Alli Eynon, Tim Rose, Day Murch, Paul James and performers Ailsa
Berk, William Todd Jones and Kiran Shah.
She also worked as a freelance creature designer for Jim Henson’s
Creature Shop in London and Los Angeles designing for projects
such as THE DARK CRYSTAL, LABYRINTH, TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES
ll, Never Ending Story lll and DINOSAURS the TV sitcom.
Vin was commissioned by the BBC to design the character ASLAN
THE LION for their three year project THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA.
The character proved to be hugely successful and very popular with
children all over the country who wrote fan letters to him at the
BBC. Aslan became a celebrity in his own right. He appeared on
Comic relief and presented a Bafta award in 1990 when he was personally
introduced to HRH Princess Royal.
Costume designer Bob Ringwood asked Vin to make the ‘Batsuit’ for
Michael Keaton in BATMAN. She subsequently went with Bob to Los
Angeles where she was responsible for producing the Batsuit, the
Penguin and Catwoman costumes for Batman Returns for which she
ran a 40 strong team in the Burbank based ‘Batshop’.
Vin is a qualified diver and has designed costumes for underwater
film shoots including a realistic mermaid shot in the Carribean
by Mike Portelly, and a TV spot for Expo ‘98 featuring 22
people wearing national dress from around the world at the bottom
of the Red Sea. An image of the costumes was used on the boarding
cards for TAP airlines!
Her work for Expo '98 was spotted by the National Theatre of Portugal
and she was asked to design the costumes for two plays; THE GREAT
THEATRE OF THE WORLD by Calderon de la Barca, and THE LESSON by
Ionesco.
In 1989 creature effects designer Nick Dudman, asked Vin to head
the costume effects design team on the Luc Besson film THE FIFTH
ELEMENT starring Bruce Willis with costumes designed by Jean Paul
Gaultier.
Vin was chosen to design the ‘Carpet clothes’ in the
print campaign for Brintons Carpets as a sequel to the Vivienne
Westwood / David Bailey collection.
This was followed by Vin designing the space costumes for the
feature film LOST IN SPACE starring Gary Oldman, William Hurt,
Matt le Blanc and Heather Graham.
Between films Vin designs costumes and characters for television
commercials worldwide. Recent commercials include ZURICH with Peter
O’Toole playing a wizzard for director Thomas Krygier, TEEKANNE
with Sean Connery for director Charley Stadler, PENGUIN BISCUITS
for director Mark Denton, IBM for director Joe Pytka and NIKE for
director Steve Rogers for the Rugby World Cup featuring Lawrence
Dallaglio and rugby stars from all nations. Current commercials
on air include LIBRESSE for director Dougal Wilson and PHILLIPS
for director Paul Arden.
Ragdoll, the producers of TELETUBBIES, asked Vin to design the
costumes for their new series BOOHBAH directed by Chris Bernard.
Over the years, Vin has worked with artist Gerald Scarfe on his
exhibitions, operas and ballets, including his new production of
NUTCRACKER for the English National Ballet which opened in December
2002 .
Vin is the costume designer for both live action and CGI for FUNGUS
THE BOGEYMAN by Raymond Briggs, directed by Stuart Orme, for The
BBC, with Martin Clunes and Fay Ripley.
She then designed the costumes for the feature film DEAD FISH
, directed by Charley Stadler and starring Gary Oldman, Robert
Carlyle, Billy Zane, Terence Stamp, Jimi Mistri and Elena Anaya,
to be released 2005.
She was awarded "BEST COSTUME" for The British Advertising
Craft Awards for 'McVities - Penguin Biscuits' Commercial, directed
by Mark Denton for Therapy Films, October 2003.
As well as working as a costume designer, Vin is currently writing
her own ideas and designing characters for children's film, TV,
books and toys.
Her pre school concepts POGO and MOUSE HOUSE have recently been
optioned by Top TV Productions, producers of Cbeebies BIG COOK
LITTLE COOK.
WILF DA WOLF is also in development with PEOPLE LIKE US writer
and director Willy Smax.
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