There are certain things one suspects could only take place in Brighton and a course on “pattern cutting and construction for drag artistes” very much fits into that category.

Led by renowned designer and costumier Kevin Freeman, director of Renaissance Couture, the three-day course at new venue Emporium on London Road promises to teach participants how to create foundation garments to give a male form womanly curves. He will then move on to beading, embellishment and featherwork.

Trained in theatre design, Freeman’s work used to revolve around theatre and couture bridalwear. He started out running a made-to-measure bridalwear company in north London before moving on to become assistant designer to the award-winning Catherine Rayner.

He relocated to Brighton where he quickly found himself a new client base of drag queens and pantomime dames attracted by the theatrical, avant-garde aesthetic that has seen Freeman create centaur costumes, dancing bowls of fruit and even orchestrate a waltz with invisible women involving men in tailcoats wearing harnesses fitted with headless torsos.

“It’s great fun. I make everything from ‘standard’ drag costumes – all feathers, sequins and diamante – to wearable washing machines and flying mermaids.”

Creating a costume for a drag artiste is no mean feat.

“You build the persona from the inside out,” says Freeman, who works with renowned performers including Miss Jason and Maisie Trollette among others. “As well as being over-the-top, it needs to be instantly recognisable as them.”

He will begin with the foundation garments that are padded and seamed to create the right shape before moving on to the exterior. “Anything goes with drag outfits – I’ve used car spray, bottle tops, Marigold gloves, pan scourers but it’s important to get the base right if you want it to look good.”

One of his favourite creations for Miss Jason was when she appeared in Peter Pan last Christmas. “I’d made her a mermaid costume, which was fine. Then it transpired that she was going to be flying across the stage on a wire. Then they told me she was going to become a maypole and everyone was going to dance around her! This job involves thinking on your feet but that’s one of the reasons I enjoy it.”

When we speak, he has just returned from a windy farm just outside Haywards Heath where he is designing and building a set for a forthcoming production of Rigoletto. On a different day, he might be working on a couture wedding dress, projects that usually take six months and involve up to 300 hours’ work designing, fitting and hand-beading.

“I have to be careful I don’t get the bridalwear and drag muddled up,” he jokes. “I’ve had mothers-of-the-bride arriving for a fitting just as a drag queen is leaving and the mothers’ faces are an absolute picture!”

The course comes just in time for those hoping to wow at Pride in August – an event where Freeman’s work usually features heavily – and is aimed at those with some experience of dressmaking. But he will also be hosting workshops on more conventional patterncutting for beginners as well as his popular fashion illustration course, which he has run all over the UK.

Work certainly never gets monotonous. “Drag queens want to see how far they can push a look, which makes my work extremely interesting and completely unpredictable. I never know what I’m going to be asked to make next.

“Occasionally I have days where I desperately wish someone would come in and ask me to make a little black dress…but I’d only cover it in sequins!”

* Pattern Cutting And Construction For Drag Artistes takes place at Emporium, London Road, Brighton, from June 4 to 6. Visit www.emporiumbrighton.com for more information.

* Find out more about Kevin Freeman and his work at www.renaissancecouture.co.uk