Seam Allowances: Legitimised Margins, Identity Politics and Costume

The aim of this presentation is to explore the meanings produced at the very margins of costuming, pushing beyond the; service to narrative or character / clothing as distraction binary (Bruzzi, 1997, Nadoolman Landis, 2018), to suggest the language of contemporary costuming makes visible tensions at play within subjective formations of gender. Via close readings of HBO’s ‘Euphoria’ and ‘The Idol’ the presentation discusses the intersection of subjective ‘truths’, and the identity politics of costume practice. Exploring through ‘intonation’ within the language of costume and body politics, the unease around industry expectations, the subject position of the practitioner and positioning the subject.
The work will focus on the implicit meanings sewn into the objects and the wider implications of those meanings for representation discourses around gender suggesting that representing women and their bodies in the manner of the texts analysed compounds implicit and hegemonic patriarchy. The language of costume/dress works here to produce not only a gendered form of alienation, despite the gains of the #metoo movement, a dangerous soporific feminism which is read as empowered acceptance and consent continues to affect the condition and experiences of women.