Costume Design Essay

Creative collaboration among the window-dress designer, the theatre director and the set and lighting designers en certain(a)s that the costumes are smoothly integrated into the output as a whole.Stage costumes can provide audiences with information about a characters occupation, social status, gender, age, sense of style and tendencies towards conformity or individualism. As well, costumes canreinforce the mood and style of the productiondistinguish between major and minor characterssuggest relationships between characterschange an actors looksuggest changes in character development and agebe objects of beauty in their own right.Costume designs also need to include any accessories much(prenominal) as canes, hats, gloves, shoes, jewelry or masks. These costume props add a great deal of visual interest to the overall costume design. They are very much the items that truly distinguish one character from another.The designers workCostume designers begin their work by reading the s cript to be produced. If the production is set in a specific historical era, the fashions of this period will need to be researched. To stimulate the flow of ideas at the first meeting with the director and the design team (set, costume, lighting and sound designers), the costume designer may want to present a few rough costume sketches. This is also an discriminate time to check with the director on the exact number of characters needing costumes, as any non-speaking characters the director plans to include may not have been listed in the script.It is the costume designers responsibility to draw up the costume plot. The costume plot is a list or chart that shows which characters appear in severally scene, what they are wearing and their overall movement throughout the play. This helps track the specific costume needs of every character. It can also identify any potential costume challenges, such as very quick changes between scenes.When the director and production team have appr oved the costume designers exploratory sketches, she or he can draw up the final costume designs. The final designs are done in full color. They show the style, silhouette, textures, accessories and unique features of all(prenominal) costume.Once the show opens, the designers work is essentially complete. Now its normally the job of a wardrobe assistant to make sure that every aspect of the production runs just as the designer intended, time after time, until the production closes.