Why do we dress the way we do?

1. Why do we dress the way we do?

2. Haute Couture Refers to high fashion, one of a kind designs.

3. Royalty determined style • Dictated and determined fashion • Sumptuary laws governed what peasants and merchants could wear.

4. Where do ideas for dress come from? • Everywhere • Parties • High fashion • Chance • Anticipation and manipulation • Conformity vs. Nonconformity

5. How does fashion (which is the generic word for the business of clothing) anticipate as well as manipulate the trends?

6. READY TO WEAR = $$= HAS TO SELL

7. Theories regarding the Reasons for dressing a particular way • Shifting of erogenous zones

8. Shifting of erogenous zones • Attract the male attention • Female-Revealing • Male-Change the shape of the silhouette

9. To assert wealth • Opulence to make you look richer than others • Self indulgent dressing to show wealth

10. To identify Gender • Sometimes reversed for effect. • Message: • Attract • Gain respect • Tell personality • To repel

11. How does the fun of playing with clothes affect fashion? • Fun to play with one’s appearance

12. What does the language of clothing say about us? • Evokes response • Demands attention • Comfort • Convenience • Utility

13. Conspicuous Consumption • Shows Wealth

14. Why is rarity important? • It sets you apart.

15. John Malloy’s Dressed for Success • Dress for power • Dress for socio-economic message

16. How does clothing identify us with certain groups? • Color = purple • Wealth rather than birth • Image makers

17. Costumes

18. Costuming • Costuming is one of the integral parts of the play production that suffers the most. • The costume is not merely a means of characterizing a role as attractively as possible. • Color and silhouette is a vital part of the total stage design.

19. Color • Harmony with other colors • Appropriate to historical period • Can destroy the atmosphere

20. Effective Costuming • Expresses the personality of the character

21. Effective Costuming • Should reveal social status, tastes, idiosyncrasies

22. Effective Costuming • Should aid audience’s understanding of the actor’s relationship to the play itself

23. Color Coding • Matching characters by color or pattern. Example: Romeo and Juliet

24. Steps to Costume Design • Study the play • Budget • Obtain actors’ measurements • Collect fabric samples (under lights) • Costume Parade • Deal with problems

25. Steps to Costume Design • Always consider problems • Work with rehearsal clothes and shoes • Keep actions of the actor in mind Example: dancing or fighting

26. Appropriateness – Costume Silhouette • Each historic period has its own distinctive line and form in dress

27. Appropriateness – Costume Silhouette • Material and cut must be appropriate to the social background and period of the play.

28. Color, Line, and Material • Comedies, farces, children’s plays, and fantasies are normally made of light material and are bright or pastel in color and frothy in design

29. Color, Line, and Material • Restoration Comedy – satins, laces, and brocades

30. High Comedy • Taste and social grace, fashionable

31. Symbolic and Allegorical • Require thought and meaning

32. Realistic Plays • Suitable for the character

33. Costumes and Color • Color interprets inner meaning which evokes an audience response

34. Obtaining the Costumes • Work Sheets • Costume Charts

35. Costumes Charts • Design • Measurements

36. Rented • Expensive • Fit • Substitution • Available for a short time • Quality • Cleaning • Returning

37. Borrowing • Mismatch • Fit

38. Making Costumes • Building = making costumes • Velcro = stronger than zippers and buttons, but must not be seen • Cost • Time

39. Care of Costumes • Wardrobe Manager or Costume Master/Mistress • Cleaning and Repair • Dressing Areas • Quick Changes

40. The Actor and the Costume • Actor must wear costume properly • Actor must be disciplined and responsible