Thomas Manchon has recreated the classic Peter Gabriel costumes from the Genesis era. These highly detailed masks, costumes and props have been painstakingly reproduced from videos and other sources. The attention to detail is astounding!

Thomas first created the flower mask in 2015 after observing that many tribute bands seemed to be recreating this particular mask wrong. Years later, his wife found parts for the fox in a bag lying in the street. This inspired Thomas to start recreating all the masks and costumes. His wife is now totally involved in the whole process!

Recreating a costume is a hard and slow process. The first part is finding enough information (colour, fabrics, how it’s made, size, shape. etc.) from photos and videos. When there’s enough information, he will draw a plan and start to look for the materials. He and his wife will then start the cutting/glueing/soldering/sewing process. There’s sometimes months of research before they start the fabrication!

Flower Mask

 

Black Jump Suit

The iconic black jump suit that Peter wore during the early concerts with the detailed sequin trims on the cuffs, is the only costume that was made with the help of a professional tailor. Thomas and his wife made the sleeves though. The shoes were found after months of research on a UK Facebook market.

Egyptian Collar

Adam from the Genesis Museum helped a lot with this one. Thomas spent hours researching the pattern, and then about two mouths to recreate this amazing beaded collar. It’s the first time and last time he will do beads again! The original is one of the only few costumes that Peter Gabriel still has to this day.

I Know What I Like Hat

The grey felt hat, with stars and a hand made gold spike on the top, was one of the easiest costumes to make.

Rael

This outfit took a lot of research, but once the items were found, they only required a small amount of modification. The jacket is a 30 year old Scott Perfecto, just like the original one! The Jeans and shirt were identified from the sewing patterns,
and the black belt with the oval buckle was the easiest thing to find. The shoes are the exact same type used by Peter Gabriel, which were produced in the late 60s/mid 70s period.

Old Man Mask

This mask was hard to find, as it was fabricated in France in the 70s. The original is not cut, so when Thomas was able to find one, cutting the chin and around the eyes was a really stressful process. The hairs were modified too, to match the Gabriel’s mask.

Fox and Red Dress

The fox mask is made of real fur found in a bag lying on a street. It was made around the time Thomas found the famous 16mm film of the Bataclan concert. The HD version of this footage was really helpful in the recreation of the fox mask. It took around 70 hours of work to recreate!

The original red dress was an an Ossie Clark dress, and is very rare and expensive. After months of research, Thomas was able to find someone who owned a real one. The owner was kind enough to provide information about the dress to help Thomas and his wife recreate it. It is also made with the same fabric.

Bat Wings

This took hours and hours and hours to create! The cape is 17 meters wide, is composed of 27 coloured stripes and is very heavy. Thomas had to negotiate with the manufactures to have all the special glittered fabric in 15 different colours (just like the original) to be made.

The batwings were recreated using a similar glittering, honey comb fabric. Someone from a very famous band helped with this one!

Magog Mask

This was recreated from the measurements of the original 1973 mask. It uses the exact same type of wood and Thomas and his wie have also reproduced the paint strokes and the sew points.

Black Mask

This is a rarely photographed mask that was used under the magog cube. The black mask is the based on the old henry mask. It was modified by making the eyes bigger, the chin was cut off and it was painted black.

Miscellaneous

Peter’s instruments and Steve Hackett’s Strawberry jacket have not been excluded from this amazing collection.

They recreated the flute stand with very basic things: saw, paint and wood and a modified music stand. The mic stand is a rare and expansive late 60s one, and the same type that Peter Gabriel used. Interestingly Phil Collins was using the original one on the last Genesis tour.

The strawberry jacket is made in satin with the original sewing pattern. They were  also helped by a lady who owns a very rare original strawberry jacket. They extracted each strawberry from her photos, cleaned them on photoshop, and then pasted them one by one on the fabric, following the exact same (mirrored) pattern as the original jacket. It’s not yet finished as they still have to add the rhinestones on each strawberry and a giant strawberry on the back.

Their goal is to reproduce all the classic costumes. (Not the ones used one or two times) and display them in their home museum room.

For more information on Genesis collectors, please visit The Genesis Museum