Studies in Costume & Performance - Current Issue

This article proposes a joint reading of the scenography and costume designs of Cubist artist Pablo Picasso and Bauhaus member Oskar Schlemmer, arguing that they share a common project of re-articulating the body and its movements that echoes contemporary concerns about how notions of normalcy govern the relationships between bodies and space. We propose that Picasso’s ballet Parade (1917) and Schlemmer’s Das Triadische Ballett (1922) can be productively read through the prism of critical disability studies (CDS), specifically in relation to Rosemarie Garland-Thompson’s feminist disability studies and her key concept of misfitting, enriched through the perspective of ecological affordances, as understood by James Gibson. This approach proposes to see disability from an ecological perspective that foregrounds the relationship between the body and space, as well as the affordances that are created and re-negotiated in the process of moving. By connecting Picasso and Schlemmer with CDS, this article puts forward a novel hermeneutic line from the artists’ work to the practice of contemporary artists Marco Donnarumma and Sandie Yi who share a relational conception of body, space and costume when designing in the field of crip couture, dance and AI prosthesis. This article proposes a CDS lens through which to re-evaluate the stage work of Schlemmer and Picasso, and their connection to contemporary artists’ interests, in order to open new paths of experimentation for contemporary artists and designers, as well as suggestive conceptual tools for both CDS and costume design scholars.

Drawing on a material culture approach, this research report explores how a making methodology based on a theatrical costume construction practice can be applied to historical costume re-creation, particularly where the researcher must rely on the interpretation of other available primary sources such as costume drawings, sketches, tailors’ notes and archival records. The report builds on previous research investigating the value of reconstructing historical performance costume where the original costume itself has not survived. It identifies appropriate terminology to describe the practice, as well as the specific contribution the theatrical costume maker can make to this type of research. The report argues for consideration of the phenomenological value of a remaking approach to researching historical performance costume, and how this might sit alongside more established observational, archival-based research methods. It also further questions whether a re-created costume can contain the same power and agency as an extant costume stored in a museum archive, in terms of its direct physical connection with the original performance, designer, maker and wearer. Reflection on all of these points is needed for the development of practice-led research within the field of costume construction for performance.

This research report critiques the multispecies (human and other-than-human) connections created by the costumes in Sympoiesis: A Bio-Inspired Dance Performance. Focusing on individuals from three kingdoms: Physarum polycephalum (Protista), Alocasia zebrina (Plantae) and Homo sapiens (Animalia), the performance aimed to share the story of their entanglement. This report unwinds the research and outcome, demonstrating how the other-than-human species’ interdisciplinary research guided the conception of the costumes, choreography and set design. The research has been framed here in the theoretical context of ‘costume agency’, ‘response-ability’ and ‘care’, showing how the concepts infused the design and making process. I reflect on the ethical questions raised while working towards an ecological vision of costume, in terms of both making and designing. Through this article, I argue that creating a space for multispecies stories onstage will require a change in the way we study, design and make costumes.

This research report reflects on the development of the costume design and choreography of homo(sapiens), a performance piece developed and staged between 2020 and 2022. Materials and costumes played an essential role in the performance, generating the narrative by somatically ‘speaking’ to the wearer. Two categories of somatically choreographic materials were defined through the work: ‘raw material opportunities’ based on the inherent capability of materials to inspire and create movement and form, and ‘defined material opportunities’ in which costumes were designed and formed with a choreography or movement language in mind. Comprehending these two approaches is crucial, as each design method offers, and requires, different choreographic and dramaturgical methods when integrated in a stage-based work.

Comparing works from the span of the author’s career, ‘The length that brings us closer’ traces a range of connectivity – inter-, intra- and extra-personal – through a reflective analysis of the sculptural wearable in visual performance. The oversized garments in Laurel Jay Carpenter’s durational, live work reposition the performer with a linear length of fabric, combining the body with larger space and situation. In these trailing dresses, the woman is tethered, contained and weighted, but she is also partnered: with architecture, with earth, with herself and with the surrounding community, inverting expectations of her reach to reveal an embodied scale of connection. Collaborating to construct and perform the ‘impossibly long’ red dress of Red Crest (2003), the artist develops an intimacy with the public, an interpersonal encounter that is often the form connection is presumed to take. Other dresses in other performances indicate the elasticity of connective forces, from micro to macro. A deep, intrapersonal focus is evidenced in Again with Gusto (2009), with the riant performer held to a plinth by her outstretched yellow dress. In contrast, in Of Wanting (2017) and Longva+Carpenter’s Lineage (2019), the visuals of these dresses slant towards spectacle – defined by way of feminist new materialism as an excess that breaks norms and compels awe – to manifest an extrapersonal connection, touching what is beyond the known.

This practice-led research sheds light on the potential for digital sketching in the field of costume design. This project provides an opportunity to advance our understanding of the impact of ongoing digital transformation on costume design processes and other design processes related to sketching and creative teamwork. The material for the research was collected from interviews with Finnish professional costume designers about their costume sketching practices. Interviews concentrated on designers who preferred using digital sketching methods in their process. This study focuses on costume sketching, which is when a costume designer creates a costumed character using tactile sketching techniques on a tablet touch screen. The portable device acts as a digital sketchbook for the costume designer; this study assesses the effects of this digital ‘pocket atelier’ through the lens of professional competence. Professional competence in this context refers to the ability of designers to perform work-related tasks within a creative team, such as expressing and communicating ideas by generating costume sketches. When asked about the impact of digital costume design methods, most participants commented that they have found their own way of expressing ideas and visions through digital means, which has increased their sense of professionalism. They further described the use of digital tools as making them feel more valued as members of a creative team. The research results indicate that the digital transformation of the design process has changed costume designers’ perception of their own skills as better matching the needs of the work environment.

Review of: Shakespeare in Elizabethan Costume: ‘Period Dress’ in Twenty-First-Century Performance, Ella Hawkins (2022)

London: Bloomsbury (The Arden Shakespeare), 288 pp.,

ISBN 978-1-35023-442-0, h/bk, £80

ISBN 978-1-35023-445-1, p/bk, £24.99