Costume design is the creation of clothing for the overall appearance of a character or performer. Costume may refer to the style of dress particular to a nation, a social class, or a period. In many cases, it may contribute to the fullness of the artistic, visual world which is unique to a particular theatrical or cinematic production. The most basic designs are produced to denote status, provide protection or modesty, or provide visual interest to a character.[1]Costumes may be for a theater, cinema, musical performance, cosplay, parties, or other events. Costume design should not be confused with costume coordination which merely involves altering existing clothing, although both create stage clothes.
Four types of costumes are used in theatrical design: historical, fantastical, dance, and modern.[2]
History
Ancient Greek village festivals and processions in honor of Dionysus (See also: Dionysia) are believed to be the origin of theatre, and therefore theatre costume. Sculpture and vase paintings provide the clearest evidence of these costumes. [1] Ritualized masks were used giving each character a specific look. They varied depending on whether they were used for comedic or dramatic purposes. Some masks were constructed with a cheerful as well as a serious side on the same face in an attempt to indicate a change in emotion without a change of mask.[3] The same is true for the Romans, who continued the mask tradition; doubling a mask made doubling roles easier.
During the Late Middle Ages in Europe, dramatic enactments of Bible stories were prevalent, therefore actual Christian vestments, stylized from traditional Byzantine court dress, were worn as costumes to keep the performances as realistic as possible. [1]Stereotypical characterization was key when clothing performers for this style of theatre. In most instances actors had to supply their own costumes when playing a character found in daily life. [4]
Later, in Elizabethan theatre performance during the 16th century and 17th century in England, costume became the most important visual element. Garments were very expensive because only the finest fabrics were used. The majority of characters were clothed in contemporary Elizabethan fashion. The costumes could be divided into five categories: "Ancient", which was out of style clothing used to represent another period; "Antique", older additions to contemporary clothing to distinguish classical characters; Dreamlike, "fanciful" garments for supernatural or allegorical characters; "Traditional" clothing which represented only a few specific people, such as Robin Hood, or "National or Racial" costumes that were intended to set apart a specific group of people but did not tend to be historically accurate.[5]
"Ordinarily, fashionable garments were used in both comedy and tragedy until 1727, when Adrienne Lecouvreur adopted the much more elaborate and formal court dress for tragedy. Her practice soon became standard for all tragic heroines" [6] Major actors began to compete with one another about who would have the most lavish stage dress. This practice continued until around the 1750s when costumes became relevant to the character again. Art began to copy life and realistic characteristics were favored especially during the 19th century. For example, Georg the second, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen took personal interest in the theatre and began managing troupes. He advocated for authenticity and accuracy of the script and time period, therefore he refused to let actors tamper with their own costumes. He also made sure the materials were authentic and specific, using real chain mail, armor, swords, etc. No cheap substitutes would be allowed. [7]
In August 1823, in an issue of The Album, James Planché published an article saying that more attention should be paid to the time period of Shakespeare's plays, especially when it comes to costumes. In the same year, a casual conversation led to one of Planché's more lasting effects on British theatre. He observed to Charles Kemble, the manager of Covent Garden, that "while a thousand pounds were frequently lavished upon a Christmas pantomime or an Easter spectacle, the plays of Shakespeare were put upon the stage with makeshift scenery, and, at the best, a new dress or two for the principal characters."[8][9] Kemble "saw the possible advantage of correct appliances catching the taste of the town" and agreed to give Planché control of the costuming for the upcoming production of King John, if he would carry out the research, design the costumes and superintend the production.[10] Planché had little experience in this area and sought the help of antiquaries such as Francis Douce and Sir Samuel Meyrick. The research involved sparked Planché's latent antiquarian interests; these came to occupy an increasing amount of his time later in life. [11]
Despite the actors' reservations, King John was a success and led to a number of similarly-costumed Shakespeare productions by Kemble and Planché (Henry IV, Part I, As You Like It, Othello, Cymbeline, Julius Caesar).[11] The designs and renderings of King John, Henry IV, As You Like It, Othello, Hamlet and Merchant of Venice were published, though there is no evidence that Hamlet and Merchant of Venice were ever produced with Planché's historically accurate costume designs. Planché also wrote a number of plays or adaptations which were staged with historically accurate costumes (Cortez, The Woman Never Vext, The Merchant's Wedding, Charles XII, The Partisans, The Brigand Chief, and Hofer).[12] After 1830, although he still used period costume, he no longer claimed historical accuracy for his work in plays. His work in King John had brought about a "revolution in nineteenth-century stage practice"[12] which lasted for almost a century. [13]
Historical costumes of Le Cateau Cambrésis, France
Costumes in Chinese theatre are very important, especially in Beijing Opera. They are usually heavily patterned with intense, bright colors. The standard items consist of at least 300 pieces and indicate the actors character type, age and social status through ornament, design, color and accessories. "Color is always used symbolically: red for loyalty and high position, yellow for royalty, and dark crimson for barbarians or military advisors."[15] Symbolic significance is also found in the designs used for emblems. For example, the tiger stands for power and masculine strength. A majority of the clothing, regardless of rank, is made out of rich and luxurious materials. Makeup is also used symbolically and completes the overall look.
In Japanese Noh drama masks are always used and the prominent aspect of the costume. They are made of wood and usually last for generations. There are five basic types: male, female, aged, deities and monsters, all with many variations. [16] The masks are changed often throughout the play. In Kabuki, another form of Japanese theatre, actors do not wear masks but rely heavily on makeup for the characterizations. Features are exaggerated or removed and for some of the athletic roles musculature is outlined in a specific pattern. Traditional costumes are used for each role, based upon historical garments that are altered for dramatic effect. "Some costumes weigh as much as fifty pounds, and stage attendants assist the actors in keeping them properly arranged while on stage"[17]
In the 21st century digital technologies have ushered in a new era of costume design. Traditionally, theater costumers were manually crafted by hand, through sewing and patterns drafted on paper. Now, theater costumes are able to be designed using 3D printers, modeling software and other digital tools to create costumes more efficiently. [18] Utilizing 3D costume-modeling programs and 3D printers allows designers to come up with the most efficient ways to save the amount of materials used on a project. [19] Designers can optimize material usage with design softwares, and reduce costs through cheaper materials printed from 3D printing. Moreover, these technologies save on time where models can be adjusted in real time to the corresponding feedback through virtual fittings and sewings. [20]
Design process
The costume design process involves many steps and though they differ from genre to genre a basic method is commonly used.
The first step is an analysis of the script, musical composition, choreography, etc. Costume parameters for the show are established and a rough costume plot is created. A costume plot outlines which character is in which scene, when the actors change, and what costumes are mentioned in the script.
2. Design collaboration: An important phase in the process is when all of the designers meet with the director. There must be a clear understanding of the overall show concept. The designers must all get on the same page with the director in terms of themes for the show and what messages they want the audience to get from the show.
3. Costume research: Once the director and designers are on the same page, the next step is for the Costume designer to gather research. Costume designers usually begin with research where they find resources to establish the world where the play takes place. This helps the designers establish the rules of the world and then in turn understand the characters better. The designer will then go into broad research about each character to try to establish their personalities though their costume.
A woman creating in a costume workshop in Prague theater.
4. Preliminary sketching and color layout: Once enough information is obtained, Costume designers begin by creating preliminary sketches. Beginning with very quick rough sketches the designer can get a basic idea for how the show will look put together and if the rules of the world are being maintained. The Costume designer will then go into more detailed sketches and will figure out the specific costumes and colors for the character. Sketches help see the show as a whole without them having to spend too much time on them.
5. Final sketches: Once the Costume Designer and the Director agree on the costumes and the ideas are fully flushed out, the designer will create final sketches. These are called renderings and are usually painted with watercolors or acrylic paints. These final sketches show what the designer wants the character to look like and the colors of the costume.
Example of draping muslin fabric onto a dress form
Once the show is designed, it is necessary to plan where the items will be sourced. There are four options. Garments can be:
Pulled, which refers to searching through a costume shop's stock
Rented
Shopped/purchased
Constructed, or also known as made to order.
There are two ways a garment can begin to be constructed; either pattern drafted or draped, and many times both methods will be used together. Pattern drafting begins by using a set of basic pattern blocks developed from the actor's measurements. They are drawn out on paper first, then transferred to fabric, and sewn together to test fit. [22]
Draping involves manipulating a piece of fabric on a dress form or mannequin that has measurements closely related to the actor's. It is a process that takes a flat piece of cloth and shapes it to conform the fabric to a three-dimensional body by cutting and pinning.
Once constructed, however, the costume has not finished "working." A most important aspect of costumes is the ways they affect actors' performances and function within their settings. The very best costume designers build their original ideas after assessing the visual and spatial conditions of the costumes. [23]
Once constructed, however, the costume has not finished "working." A most important aspect of costumes is the ways they affect actors' performances and function within their settings. The very best costume designers build their original ideas after assessing the visual and spatial conditions of the costumes. [1]
Costume is the distinctive style of dress or cosmetic of an individual or group that reflects class, gender, profession, ethnicity, nationality, activity or epoch. In short costume is a cultural visual of the people.
Shakespearean tragedy is the designation given to most tragedies written by playwright William Shakespeare. Many of his history plays share the qualifiers of a Shakespearean tragedy, but because they are based on real figures throughout the history of England, they were classified as "histories" in the First Folio. The Roman tragedies—Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra and Coriolanus—are also based on historical figures, but because their sources were foreign and ancient, they are almost always classified as tragedies rather than histories. Shakespeare's romances were written late in his career and published originally as either tragedy or comedy. They share some elements of tragedy, insofar as they feature a high-status central character, but they end happily like Shakespearean comedies. Almost three centuries after Shakespeare's death, the scholar F. S. Boas also coined a fifth category, the "problem play," for plays that do not fit neatly into a single classification because of their subject matter, setting, or ending. Scholars continue to disagree on how to categorize some Shakespearean plays.
The late romances, often simply called the romances, are a grouping of William Shakespeare's last plays, comprising Pericles, Prince of Tyre; Cymbeline; The Winter's Tale; and The Tempest. The Two Noble Kinsmen, of which Shakespeare was co-author, is sometimes also included in the grouping. The term "romances" was first used for these late works in Edward Dowden's Shakspere (1877). Later writers have generally been content to adopt Dowden's term.
A theatrical culture flourished in ancient Greece from 700 BC. At its centre was the city-state of Athens, which became a significant cultural, political, and religious place during this period, and the theatre was institutionalised there as part of a festival called the Dionysia, which honoured the god Dionysus. Tragedy, comedy, and the satyr play were the three dramatic genres emerged there. Athens exported the festival to its numerous colonies. Modern Western theatre comes, in large measure, from the theatre of ancient Greece, from which it borrows technical terminology, classification into genres, and many of its themes, stock characters, and plot elements.
James Robinson Planché was a British dramatist, antiquary and officer of arms. Over a period of approximately 60 years he wrote, adapted, or collaborated on 176 plays in a wide range of genres including extravaganza, farce, comedy, burletta, melodrama and opera. Planché was responsible for introducing historically accurate costume into nineteenth century British theatre, and subsequently became an acknowledged expert on historical costume, publishing a number of works on the topic.
A theater, or playhouse, is a structure where theatrical works, performing arts, and musical concerts are presented. The theater building serves to define the performance and audience spaces. The facility usually is organized to provide support areas for performers, the technical crew and the audience members, as well as the stage where the performance takes place.
A dressmaker, also known as a seamstress, is a person who makes clothing for women, such as dresses, blouses, and evening gowns. Dressmakers were historically known as mantua-makers, and are also known as a modiste or fabrician.
Nineteenth-century theatre describes a wide range of movements in the theatrical culture of Europe and the United States in the 19th century. In the West, they include Romanticism, melodrama, the well-made plays of Scribe and Sardou, the farces of Feydeau, the problem plays of Naturalism and Realism, Wagner's operatic Gesamtkunstwerk, Gilbert and Sullivan's plays and operas, Wilde's drawing-room comedies, Symbolism, and proto-Expressionism in the late works of August Strindberg and Henrik Ibsen.
Medieval theatre encompasses theatrical in the period between the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century and the beginning of the Renaissance in approximately the 15th century. The category of "medieval theatre" is vast, covering dramatic performance in Europe over a thousand-year period. A broad spectrum of genres needs to be considered, including mystery plays, morality plays, farces and masques. The themes were almost always religious. The most famous examples are the English cycle dramas, the York Mystery Plays, the Chester Mystery Plays, the Wakefield Mystery Plays, and the N-Town Plays, as well as the morality play known as Everyman. One of the first surviving secular plays in English is The Interlude of the Student and the Girl.
A wrap dress is generic term for a dress with a front closure formed by wrapping one side across the other, and is fastened at the side or tied at the back. This forms a V-shaped neckline. A faux wrap dress resembles this design, except that it comes already fastened together with no opening in front, but instead is slipped on over the head. A wrap top is a top cut and constructed in the same way as a wrap dress, but without a skirt. The design of wrap-style closure in European garments was the results of the heavy influences of Orientalism which was popular in the 19th century.
A costume designer is a person who designs costumes for a film, stage production or television show. The role of the costume designer is to create the characters' outfits or costumes and balance the scenes with texture and colour, etc. The costume designer works alongside the director, scenic, lighting designer, sound designer, and other creative personnel. The costume designer may also collaborate with a hair stylist, wig master, or makeup artist. In European theatre, the role is different, as the theatre designer usually designs both costume and scenic elements.
A mansion stage is a stage for theatrical performances. They originated in churches where they were small wooden platforms with supports and a roof. Mansions were stage structures used in medieval theatre to represent specific locations, such as Heaven or Hell. The actors would move between these mansions as the play demanded. The acting area of the stage was called the platea, and mansions were placed around the platea. As the actors moved between the mansions, the platea would take on the scenic identity of each mansion. In England, pageant wagons were used for the cycle dramas to hold the mansion, the plateau, and a dressing area. These were used to move the scene from one audience to the next, unlike in the church where the mansions were stationary and both the performer and the congregation would move from mansion to mansion.
Some authors have argued that use of costume in Athenian tragedy was standardized for the genre. This is said to have consisted of a full-length or short tunic, a cloak and soft leather boots, and may have been derived from the robes of Dionysian priests or invented by Aeschylus. Brockett, however, disputes this, arguing that the evidence we have is based on archaeological remains, some few references in the texts, and the writings of later authors. As far as the vase paintings are concerned, most of these are dated later than the 5th century BCE and their relationship with theatrical practice is unclear. One of the earliest examples is a red-figure vase painting c. 500-490 BCE that shows a tragic chorus invoking a ghost, on a crater (bowl) in the Antikenmuseum in Basle.
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television. Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been contrasted with the epic and the lyrical modes ever since Aristotle's Poetics —the earliest work of dramatic theory.
Costume coordination is a method of dressing actors, employees or a person or group for theatrical productions and any venue requiring a fully realized character. It consists of pulling or renting existing stock clothing and costumes, altering them as needed to be used as stage clothes in a theatrical production, oversee their use, cleaning and eventual return to storage or rental company. Just as with costume design, the costume coordinator creates the overall appearance of the characters, but with the use of on hand items, including accessories. Sometimes coordinators may have a small budget to augment the existing stock or alter it for production needs.
The history of theatre charts the development of theatre over the past 2,500 years. While performative elements are present in every society, it is customary to acknowledge a distinction between theatre as an art form and entertainment, and theatrical or performative elements in other activities. The history of theatre is primarily concerned with the origin and subsequent development of the theatre as an autonomous activity. Since classical Athens in the 5th century BC, vibrant traditions of theatre have flourished in cultures across the world.
Paper clothing is garments and accessories made from paper or paper substitutes.
Alice Vansittart Comyns Carr, was a British costume designer whose work is associated with the Aesthetic dress movement.
A costume shop is a space where costumes for theatrical or film productions are designed, built, and stored for the company or production. Costume designers, builders, seamstresses, and stitchers work in costume shops. The shops themselves can vary in size, from one large room to a house with multiple floors. Costumes from past productions, fabric, jewelry and accessories are often stored in the shop.
Xiuhefu is a two-piece garment set of attire which was designed to look like a style of traditional Chinese wedding dress and follows the traditional Chinese yichang clothing system. The Xiuhefu is a modern recreation version of the Qing dynasty wedding aoqun, a form of Hanfu, which was worn by the Han Chinese women, composed of a qun as lower garment and an ao as an upper garment. It was developed in modern China and became popular in 2001 when it was popularized by when Zhou Xun, the actress who played the role of Xiu He, in the Chinese television drama Juzi Hongle(橘子紅了; 'Orange turned red'), thus gaining its contemporary name from name of the television drama character. It is often confused with another traditional Chinese wedding dress known as qungua due to their similarities in appearance.
References
1 2 3 Eubank, Tortora, Keith, Phyllis G. (2005). Survey of Historic Costume. New York: Fairchild Publications. p.1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
↑ Grimball and Wells, Elizabeth B. and Rhea (1925). Costuming a Play: Inter-Theatre Arts Handbook. The Century Co. p.6. ASINB0000D5ITV.
↑ Brockett, Hildy, Oscar G., Franklin J. (2007). History of the Theatre. USA: Pearson Education Inc. p.53. ISBN978-0-205-47360-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
↑ Brockett, Hildy, Oscar G., Franklin J. (2007). History of the Theatre. USA: Pearson Education Inc. p.96. ISBN978-0-205-47360-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
↑ Brockett, Hildy, Oscar G., Franklin J. (2007). History of the Theatre. USA: Pearson Education Inc. p.125. ISBN978-0-205-47360-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
↑ Brockett, Hildy, Oscar G., Franklin J. (2007). History of the Theatre. USA: Pearson Education Inc. p.254. ISBN978-0-205-47360-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
↑ Brockett, Hildy, Oscar G., Franklin J. (2007). History of the Theatre. USA: Pearson Education Inc. p.358. ISBN978-0-205-47360-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
↑ Reinhardt, The Costume Designs of James Robinson Planché, argues that a letter published in The Album, August 1823, pp298–304, signed only 'P', which called for more attention to be paid to the costuming of Shakespeare's plays, and proposed a wardrobe system whereby all locations and periods could be accommodated, was in fact written by Planché.
↑ Obituary, The New York Times. The playbill for King John states that if the play meets with "approbation and patronage" more of Shakespeare's plays will be performed "Dressed in the same splendid, novel, and interesting style".
1 2 Reinhardt, The Costume Designs of James Robinson Planché, p526–7
↑ Brockett, Hildy, Oscar G., Franklin J. (2007). History of the Theatre. USA: Pearson Education Inc. p.201. ISBN978-0-205-47360-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
↑ Brockett, Hildy, Oscar G., Franklin J. (2007). History of the Theatre. USA: Pearson Education Inc. p.206. ISBN978-0-205-47360-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
↑ Brockett, Hildy, Oscar G., Franklin J. (2007). History of the Theatre. USA: Pearson Education Inc. p.211. ISBN978-0-205-47360-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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