Encore: Designing for the drag queens in ’Priscilla, Queen of the Desert’

Costume designer Tim Chappel on the chance discovery at a train station that led him into a life of designing for films and the stage.

Tim can’t remember all the places he lived, growing up on Army bases around the country, and overseas. 

His one constant as a kid was nature. 

He’d look for stick insects to pin into his collection and draw endless terrestrial orchids. 

Tim was ready to focus his life on botany when he found a copy of French Vogue at Flinders Street Station in Melbourne.

He was entranced by the glamour of the clothes and felt an instant connection to the tailoring.

Tim was creating shorts for bartenders and costumes for drag queens at Sydney's Albury Hotel when he got a new job offer.

That's when he signed up to design the costumes for an Australian film called Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, work which would later win him an Oscar.

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There is a sequel in the works for Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Read more about it here