Designing for the performing body in fashion and performance

Abstract

This paper focuses on costume and the clothed, communicating body as scenography and exposes the role of costume design as a generator of performance through design. By placing costume/clothing at the centre of this debate I will take into account how the emotional and physical factors as well as the site of the body itself contributes to the making, intention and reading of work in the context of hybrid performance practice within a contemporary context.

The discussion will explore, through theory and practice, the relationship between the body and clothing as a form of communication in contemporary fashion and performance practice. Examples of contemporary artists and designers whose work occupies territory between fashion and performance will be employed to demonstrate my findings.

My own practice as a designer functions in this hybrid area between fashion, visual art and performance design. The paper also contextualises and discusses the early stages of development of a new body of work that extends this investigation. This work places the body at the centre of the design process by investigating physical and emotional triggers within design as an integral part of the production process. It is informed by qualitative research into how the memory of clothing affects gesture and response from both wearers and viewers? From this catalyst I am designing and producing a series of garments that draw on physical experience, memory and emotional triggers. This will be tested, developed, and communicated through the performing body in collaboration with a dancer and a filmmaker.

The worlds of fashion and performance tend to be analysed and understood in the context of their own disciplines, as separate and distinctly different in terms of their design process and intention. As performance and fashion both increasingly move into new and site-specific contexts and as focus is extended around conceptual and experimental approaches, the divisions between clothing designed as conceptual fashion and that which is designed as costume for performance have become less clear. What is notable in both disciplines is the use of the body as a catalyst and site through which meaning is created and communicated.

My interest is in investigating the symbiotic relationship between the two in conveying narratives and concepts from and on the body.

This international conference coincided with the Prague Quadrennial 2011, and is prepared by the Arts and Theatre Institute Prague and the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague, in association with the Scenography Working Group of the International Federation for Theatre Research. Brought together under the umbrella of global scenographic practice for theatrical, visual, events and exhibition design, this conference invites theatre professionals and scholars to dialogue on historical and contemporary trends concerned with the creation of meaning through visual, spatial, and aural design of performance and presentational spaces.