Reimagined: from Spain to the Texas borderlands

For this project, I reimagined Carmen in the American Wild West, setting the story in a Texas border town in the late 1800s. This environment felt like a natural fit for the opera’s themes of freedom, control and obsession, as it is a world shaped by instability, survival and blurred boundaries. I translated the original Romani community into a Mexican immigrant population connected to cross-border trade and smuggling, grounding the story in a more specific cultural and geographic context. Each costume was designed to reflect both character and environment, using sun-faded textures, layered silhouettes and a cohesive earth-toned palette, with select characters like Carmen and Escamillo standing out through stronger color and detail. Throughout the project, I focused on creating a world that feels lived-in and grounded, while still supporting the heightened emotional stakes of the story.