Costume

What is a costume? 

Costumes include all clothing, underclothing, hairdressing, makeup, and accessories, such as hats, scarves, fans, canes, umbrellas, and jewelry worn or carried by each character in a production.

The design and appearance of costumes are the province of the costume designer.

To be effective the design team needs to:

• Reflect the personality and nature of each character
• Reflect the setting
• Show unity between all costumes

Types of costume designs:

• Character costumes
• Decorative costumes

What a person wears, how it is worn, says a great deal about that person and the society in which he or she lives. The clothes can also be visible clues to the wearer’s emotional state.

In addition to providing psychological clues, clothing can provide a variety of objective information about a person:

• Historical period~The shape and silhouette of garments can provide clear indications of their historical period.
• Age~In any period, the color, style, and fit of the clothes provide information about the age of the wearer.
• Gender~Throughout history, with a few exceptions, clothes have almost always clearly indicated the gender of the wearer.
• Socioeconomic status~Social status has always been indicated with clothes from ill kept clothes to silk, stains, etc.
• Occupation~ Similar to the clues that provide information about the characters socioeconomic status, clothing can also indicate occupations.
• Climate and season~ If we see someone bundled up in a heavy fur coat, we can indicate its cold. Dark hues, heavy fabrics, and multiple layers represent cold. Light colors, lightweight fabrics, and fewer clothes of warmer weather.

General considerations

The costume designer reads the script to gather various bits of information about the play and the characters.

Costumes make a statement that visually unifies the historical period, the style of the script,and the production concept. Any historical period has its variations on style. The colors and fabrics selected must be appropriate to the production design.

Practical considerations:

• Needs of an actor
• Production venue
• Budget
• Construction demands of the design 
• Renting costume
• Buying costumes
• Modifying stock costumes

The costume chart is used to visually plot what each character would be wearing in each scene in the play. The costume list specifies every element including accessories of each costume worn by every actor.

They start with preliminary sketches, costume layout, final costume sketch or renderings