Know about Costume Designing
Costume Design is the fabrication of apparel for the overall appearance of a character or performer. This usually involves researching, designing and building the actual items from conception. Costumes may be for a theater or cinema performance but may not be limited to such. Costume design should not be confused with Costume coordination which merely involves altering existing clothing.
Four Types of Costumes are Used
* Theatrical Design
* Historical
* Fantastic
* Dance and Modern.
Designs are first sketched out, and approved then either draped on a form or a pattern drafted. Along with the fabricated portion, the costume may require accessories such as footwear, hats and head dresses for the actors to wear, but it may also include designing masks, makeup, wigs, underwear or other unusual specialty items, such as the full body animal suits for the characters in the musical Cats (designed by John Napier, winner of the 1983 Tony Award for Best Costume Design). Costumes budgets will generally be have as high a cost as other departments or theatrical needs such as set design.
Costume designers create the look of each character by designing clothes and accessories the actors will wear in performance. Depending on their style and complexity, costumes may be made, bought, revamped out of existing stock or rented. Their designs need to faithfully reflect the personalities of the characters in the script.
The shapes, colors and textures that a costume designer chooses make an immediate and powerful visual statement to the audience. Creative collaboration among the costume designer, the director and the set and lighting designers ensures that the costumes are smoothly integrated into the production as a whole.
Stage costumes can provide audiences with information about a character's occupation, social status, gender, age, sense of style and tendencies towards conformity or individualism. As well, costumes can:
* Reinforce the mood and style of the production
* Distinguish between major and minor characters
* Suggest relationships between characters
* Change an actor's appearance
* Suggest changes in character development and age
* Be objects of beauty in their own right
Costume designs also need to include any accessories such 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 often the items that truly distinguish one character from another.