Costume and textile work for the stage
In live performance, clothing has no distance.
It moves with the body, receives the light, holds the atmosphere, and becomes part of what the audience reads before a word is spoken.
My costume work begins there: close to the performer, the material, and the moment where image, movement and story meet.
Costume design for an auditory theatre performance on location.
In
the audience is seated outside and follows the performers through an urban environment, apartments and shared spaces, while the story of a boy’s disappearance unfolds through headphones.
The costumes had to live close to reality. They needed to read as everyday people, not as theatrical signs, while still carrying traces of who these characters are and what their lives might be beyond the location we see. The work was in the small decisions: clothes that belong to the street, to a home, to a body, and to the quiet tension of the story.
Concept & direction: Eva De Baets & Silke De Bruyne
Production: Laika
Coproduction: hetpaleis, BLOK-BLOC
Costume design: NИshi Lambreva
Photography: Wannes Cré
LEFT!
In the work of Bart Van Nuffelen and hetpaleis
and are the second and third parts
of Bart Van Nuffelen’s trilogy with hetpaleis and Martha!tentatief, centred on young people growing up in the city.
In both productions, costume needed to stay close to everyday life while supporting the stage world around language, identity, belonging and being seen.
Fatilou M.
Dounia B.
Fatilou M.
Costume design for a theatre performance where film, live presence and young voices meet.
In Fatilou M., the story follows Rena and her missing friend Fatilou. The performance moves between theatre and film, with city life, language and lived experience close to the surface.
The costumes needed to feel recognisable and grounded, as if the characters could continue their lives outside the stage. At the same time, they had to quietly support the theatrical frame: identity, friendship, absence and the feeling of being seen.
Direction: Bart Van Nuffelen and Fien Leysen
Production: hetpaleis & Martha!tentatief
Costume design: NИshi Lambreva
Photography: Karolina Maruszak
Dounia B.
Costume work for a theatre performance where live acting and animation meet.
Dounia B. is the second part of Bart Van Nuffelen’s trilogy about young people growing up in the city. The performance brings together one actress, an animated world and the voice of a young girl navigating language, family, school and belonging.
The costume needed to stay close to everyday clothing, while still giving the performer a clear place inside the staged world. The work was in the balance: recognisable, simple and grounded, but precise enough to support character, movement and the meeting between body and animation.
Text & direction: Bart Van Nuffelen
Production: hetpaleis & Martha!tentatief
Performance: Evgenia Brendes
Animation: Remy M. Ndow
Costumes: NИshi Lambreva
Photography: Karolina Maruszak
Burning city
Costume and textile work for a live happening between catwalk, concert and protest.
Burning City is not a traditional play. Created by SOCHA and directed by Junior Mthombeni, it unfolds as a live happening where fashion, music and protest move through each other. The audience stands around a catwalk, close to the performers, while the piece shifts between theatre, rap concert, ritual and collective statement.
The costumes needed to hold both individuality and group energy. Each performer carried their own story, rhythm and visual presence, while the looks had to support movement, transformation and the changing emotional temperature of the piece.
Here, clothing was not only character. It was attitude, protection, identity and image in motion.
Direction: Junior Mthombeni
Created by: SOCHA
Costume and styling: NИshi Lambreva
Photography: Stef Stessel
ALLES is niet perfect
Costume work for a poetic performance about mistakes, imagination and being human.
ALLES is niet perfect is an unconventional performance by Mokhallad Rasem for hetpaleis, built around a striking group of performers: a circus artist, an actress, a dreamer, a child and a dancer. Together they move through questions of imperfection, imagination and everything that happens in between.
I supported the costume process at hetpaleis, helping shape a visual world where each figure could breathe. Some costumes were created from scratch; others were adapted, repaired or reinvented. The work asked for clothing that felt lived-in, imperfect and deeply human, in tune with Mokhallad’s poetic language.
Direction: Mokhallad Rasem
Production: hetpaleis
Costume work: NИshi Lambreva
Photography: Kurt Van der Elst
Not every performance needs a full costume world. Sometimes the work lives in one look.
For dancers and Latin performers, clothing needs to do more than look good. It has to move, breathe, catch light, support the body and carry attitude without getting in the way of the dance. These stage looks are developed close to the performer, the music and the movement.
