Studies in Costume & Performance - Volume 9, Issue 1, 2024

This editorial introduces the latest issue of Studies in Costume and Performance (SCP), with most contributions stemming from research presented at international events such as Critical Costume 2022 and the Prague Quadrennial 2023, authored mainly by early-career researchers and practitioners sharing insights into their artistic practice. Each contribution delves into the intricate interplay between costume, body and performance, elucidating how costume shapes narratives, identities and cultural representations on stage and screen. From exploring the portrayal of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) communities to delving into the iconic contributions of designer Julia Trevelyan Oman, the articles offer multifaceted perspectives on costume’s role. Furthermore, the issue features innovative character-building techniques in acting, a poetic visual essay reflecting on pandemic-era artistic expression, and insights from the Prague Quadrennial 2023, emphasizing costume’s growing visibility in shaping social and political discourse. Additionally, a conversation between emerging and established costume designers enriches the intergenerational dialogue within the field. Overall, the collection exemplifies hybrid research methods and interdisciplinary approaches, and introduces the voices of early-career researchers to the global readership of costume studies.

In this article Cisneros and Lingham explore the work costume does when representing Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) people and communities on stage and screen. Their inquiry offers insight into a touring stage production called Crystal’s Vardo, which uses dance, drama, humour and music to share the rich culture and diverse histories of GRT communities. Using this work as a case study, the aim of this article is to recognize and understand how costume interconnects audiences and actors in a play that explores GRT history, the effects of systemic racism, prejudices and the social and political issues that GRT people face. As authors from two distinct backgrounds, Cisneros and Lingham come together to unpick the costume realization process through quite distinctive lenses, focusing on the hoodie as a site to explore issues concerning self-representation and think about new ways of designing-making-using costume.

This article presents the research behind the creation of the audio-visual work Farewell: Itineraries of the Wind, produced during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. Based on the fusion of life and art, this work develops in a hybrid territory between visual art, performance and cinema, and all the boundaries between these artistic languages become fluid. What stands out and is interesting to discuss in this process is the poetics of the materialities, ingrained in the costumes, sets, masks, puppets and their agency in the construction of sensorial and symbolic scenic writing. In Farewell: Itineraries of the Wind, these elements are handmade and carry meanings that are communicated both through their formal constitution (the visible) and their poetic aspects, the order of the invisible. They are used not only as decorative elements but also as means of subjectivation, transforming the atmosphere and establishing an affective relationship with the viewer, stimulating abstract fields of appreciation.

This article introduces costumatics: a character-building technique/acting-as-research methodology that consciously deploys costume and make-up as research tools. Heavily inspired by recent researcher-practitioner Sally Dean’s ‘aware-wearing’ and Donatella Barbieri’s experiments with costume-led performance-making, costumatics frames costume as a material tool with which the actor might alter their means of perception. The perceptual alterations made possible by costume and performance make-up are understood through theories of enactivism combined with modern conceptions of imagination and pretend play. The resulting fundamental shift in the performer’s identity facilitates a lived experience of the character’s identity. This article offers a theoretical and practical exploration of costumatics and suggests the mirror, alongside costume and make-up, as a critical tool for the costumatic actor. It argues that the integration of performance costume into existing actor training or techniques yields complex and intricate discoveries valuable no matter the performance form or media.

This ‘In Conversation’ essay arises from the opportunities for connection and ongoing collaboration during the international Prague Quadrennial 2023 (PQ23) Festival of Performance Design and Space, nurtured after the event on either side of the Atlantic. The text is based on the interviews held by the author with Czech costume designer Simona Rybáková focused on two performances attended by the author during the Prague Quadrennial 2023 programme: Eastern Bloc (an independent production presented at the performance space Divadlo X10) and A Bouquet (presented on the main stage of the National Theatre in Prague), both with costumes co-/designed by Rybáková. In the interview Rybáková shares some unique insights into her creative collaborative practice which is informed by both local contexts and international perspectives. This dialogic text represents the fruitfulness of interactions between emerging and established designers. The connection forged through the interview process is as relevant to intergenerational exchange as the interview itself and confirms the value offered to early career designers within the frame of international encounters.

Review of: Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space 2023, Artistic Director Markéta Fantová, Czech Republic, Prague, 8–18 June 2023

Review of: Costume Design for Performance, Bettina John (2021)

Ramsbury: The Crowood Press Ltd, 192 pp.,

ISBN 978-1-78500-927-3, p/bk, £20