The art of costume design lies at the intersection of design, dance, film, and television. The junction of these industries puts an immense responsibility upon design to visually augment intricate dance movements, bring film and television characters to life, and support complex storylines and plots. 

For someone such as myself who is passionate about all of these fields, the Costume Design Panel at the Design Exchange held a fair bit of allure. Speakers on the panel included the wardrobe supervisor of the National Ballet of Canada Marjory Fielding, film and television costume designer Monique Prudhomme (Academy Award nominee for Juno), and Dawna Pym, Toronto-based fashion educator at the ROM and Seneca College. 

Marjory Fielding began the evening with a focus on dance. “Our bodies simply need to move when we feel joyful. People have been dancing forever. Dance is common across cultures of the world and has transcended the eras of time. It is an expression of emotions through our bodies and is a means to celebrate victories and express sorries.”

If dancers play a role in the story of a culture, then costumes signify the existence of those dancers in a world outside the boundaries of everyday life. Along with other visual aids such as set design, costumes help narrate the story the dancer is telling with their facial expressions, physical gestures, and choreography.

One of western dance’s most iconic costumes is the ballet tutu. “The tutu started as a dress,” explained Marjory. “And there is history behind the tights.” Louis XIV of France used dance as a political and social tool in his courts. Dance pleasurably dictated how his people moved and interacted. Quite a talented dancer himself, Louis XIV included tights as part of his own dance costumes.

Eventually, dance moved out of the palace and became an art form. Marie Taglioni, a famous ballerina of the Romantic era, was known for her ethereal fairy-like dance style. Her dance technique was supported by her floating dress-like costume, shortened in order to display her dance shoes.

Shortened skirts slowly began to influence the fashion of that era, and Marjory stepped through history, noting that by 1870, the tutu had been shortened further, bringing its design even closer to the short ballet costume of today.

Monique Prudhomme shone light on costume design within the film and television industries. “It is our job to ensure that costumes contribute to an actor’s ability to bring a story to life. We play with fabrics, textures, and richness to paint a character’s reality within a film.”

“The process,” she explained, “involves first reading the script to understand the arcs of the story, its characters, and extras. We take a story apart and determine how we can help tell it. Discussions take place with the director, and together we find angles for costumes.”

Monique described through example how a costume designer uses clothing to support the emotions of a character. In an upcoming film starring Owen Wilson, Steve Martin, and Jack Black, Monique is using colours and patterns to help bring out each character’s personality on screen. 

The technical and relational details involved are also manifold. “We do whatever it takes to create history through costume,” stated an animated Monique. “There is a lot that goes into building an entire life of aging and transformation.” Technical preparation can sometimes include blood packs, fireproof fabric, and wet suits, depending on the story, and all are limited by a tight budget.

Relationship management also forms a significant part of a costume designer’s role on set. Monique described the importance of building trust and confidence with the actors. “The costume should disappear on the body of the actor; they should feel at one with the costume. And they should feel both comfortable and confident wearing it. That’s the only way a viewer will believe the performance.” 

In addition to playing an important role in the enactment of stories on stage and on screen, costume design forms an important topic in the study of fashion and cultural history. Educator Dawna Pym described how fashion provides a tangible link to the past.

“Learning from real fashion of the past is critical to understanding culture. Pictures don’t give you an accurate idea. You need to see and feel the construction of clothing and students need to explore its tactile elements.”

The ROM provides students a fashion laboratory where they can learn hands on. Inquisitive hands feel out details like texture, surface definitions, drapery, tailoring, scale, and weight. Pleating, decoration, embroidery, beading, and feather work is analyzed and measured. “A tactile experience helps learn abstract thoughts in a concrete way.”

A sense of age can be perceived when a clothing item is studied in person. Was the garment altered or adapted? Was it handmade or machine stitched? What is its historical and social context? “The evolution of a garment tells us an entire story. It allows us to make a connection between the present and the past.”

Even a just a brief glimpse at the history of fashion and the current art of costume design brings to light numerous design patterns that transcend cultural, periodic, and geographical boundaries. If there exists a responsibility to visually bind together storytelling with the storyteller, then the existence, recognition, and study of patterns are indicative of a responsibility carried out well by both costume designers and design itself.

[Costume photograph courtesy of the National Ballet of Canada and Design Exchange]