Style, Form, and Function

Playwrights right plays in order to express an idea or point of view. This underlying internal action arch can be a powerful storytelling tool for the designers to accentuate through their work. The costume designer uses choices of style, color, scale, and texture in order to support these themes, concepts, and moods of the show.

Style

Style is the result of the combination of all the other choices made by the costume designer. Primarily, we classify style into two categories: realism or stylization.

Realistic costumes are ones whose style is as close to the actual clothing as the show, budget, or theatrical needs will allow. The slit in the skirt might need to be longer or the pants might need to be looser in order to allow the dancers to perform a high kick. The budget may not allow for real gold leafing on the court ballgown. But otherwise, shows that aim for realism have costumes that use shapes, silhouettes, colors, trims, etc. that closely match the historical conventions.

Stylized costumes are ones where the designer exaggerates design elements in obvious departures from real clothing. Stylized clothing tends to feel less "real" and more emotional or representational. They will likely share elements with real clothing, but likely also pull from a variety of inspirations and even time periods.

Color

Like with all the other types of visual design, color can make an immediate and strong impact. The costume designer must decide what colors are appropriate to each character, their internal/external action within the play, and also the color combinations that are created by having different characters on stage sharing the same scene. Do the main characters stand out or blend in? Do the color choices enhance the desired mood for the scene or show as a whole?

Audience members will also have personal reactions to colors. Purple (at least in western cultures) tends to symbolize royalty. Red is often associated with passion. But the costume designer must also be aware of alternative interpretations of color. For example, red is a symbol of purity in India which is why most Indian weddings feature the bride in a red dress. Studying these and being aware of these kinds of differences is vital to making sure that your work is interpreted in the correct way by the audience.

Scale

As we have discussed before (back in Module 3), scale is an object's relative size when compared to the norm or a neighboring object. Exaggerating the scale of a costume detail can introduce a sense of drama or even humor into a costume. More stylized productions tend to use changes in scale more, while a realistic production will use more natural sizes.

Texture

All materials and fabrics have texture. It can be smooth or rough, small or large, subtle or strong. They can suggest socio-economic status, like when a poor character has a costume made out of rough burlap while the queen has a fine smooth, shiny silk gown. They can express mood, dictate style, show contrasts, show similarities, and either unite or disrupt the entire stage picture.

A costume designer needs to coordinate textures carefully in a given costume, between all the costumes on-stage, and with the set design as well so that characters have the proper relation to each other and the world of the play.

 A note about function

Costume designers need to pay attention to how a director is blocking the show and how the choreographer is choreographing it. What movements do the actors need to perform? Do they roll around? Do high kicks? Need to perform a quick change? They need to know if an actor needs to have a wireless microphone and where the mic pack needs to be located. Everything from the cut of the garment to the weight of the fabric that is chosen will need to be considered with the needs of everyone else in mind. This is all while trying to make design statements through the clothes.

Sometimes these functions will completely dictate the form the costume needs to take. Other times, it will just require a subtle adjustment. No matter what though, this is another instance where collaboration is key and where flexibility and ingenuity can also be the key to designing a successful costume.