Costume Design

Costume design is the envisioning of clothing and the overall appearance of a character or performer. Costume may refer to the style of dress particular to a nation, a 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.Costumes may be for a theater, cinema, or musical performance but may not be limited to such. 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.

Village festivals and processions in honor of Dionysus (See also: Dionysia) amongst the ancient Greeks, are believed to be the origin of theatre, and therefore theatre costume. The sculpture and vase paintings provide the clearest evidence of this costume. Because of their ritualized style of theatre many masks were used giving each character a specific look and they varied depending if 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. The same is true for the Romans, who continued the mask tradition, which made the doubling of 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. 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.

Later, in Elizabethan performance during the 1500-1600s 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 Elizabethan fashion, otherwise 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.

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Wikipedia